World Preservation Foundation: Maldives

This is a link to a video on the World Preservation Foundation website about sea level rise in the Maldives and some of the effects and problems caused by it in this country.

http://www.worldpreservationfoundation.org/topic.php?cat=humanCosts&vid=55

Thesis Introduction Draft

Introduction

Research Proposal

Piers Bowman Research Proposal

Why Build on Water?

In cities like Wellington, New Zealand, they are blocked by the coast in front of the city and behind the city are steep hills which make it difficult to expand and let the city grow. For cities looking to expand this greatly restricts the opportunities to do so. Cape town in South Africa has a similar situation.

With rising sea levels the front of the city is threatened, so doesn't it make sense to slowly move the front of the city onto the water making use of the largest open space for building in the world, the ocean.

Also a bonus for building on water in the coastal city is that normally these city centres are located around the waterfront, so by building on water there the city can achieve greater density in the CBD or waterfront area without overcrowding, mint!

70% of the world is covered in water, kinda makes sense to use some of it for building on.

Rising Sea Levels

So did you guys think that sea level rise was a problem for the future? Well its not. Have you heard of the Maldives?

Heres a bit of info about that Maldives,

The Maldives is the lowest country in the world, with a maximum natural ground level of only 2.3 metres (7 ft 7 in), with the average being only 1.5 metres (4 ft 11 in) above sea level, although in areas where construction exists, this has been increased to several metres. More than 80 per cent of the country's land, composed of coral islands scattered over an area about 850 km across the equator, is less than one metre above sea level (thanks to wikipedia).

As you can imagine even the smallest increase in water level change affects this country. In 2009 the new president, Mohamed Nasheed, issued the message that he was obliged by rising sea levels to buy land in Sri Lanka and relocate his people (Keuning & Olthuis 2010).

To help countries like this continue living we need to build on water!

Keuning, D. & Olthuis, K. (2010) Float: Building on water to Combat Urban Congestion and Climate Change. Frame, Amsterdam.