Artificially built floating islands could be a viable option to provide habitat in the coming days. The Maritime Research Institute Netherlands is preparing this artificial floating islands.
The Netherlands is a small European country that has so far managed to tackle the growing population by expanding the livable space at sea. According to New Atlas, with the wonderful skill of engineering Dutch people have reclaimed land by building dikes. But, currently, this process may not provide any sustainable solution to support the country's growing population. With an aim to avail more updated way, the Maritime Research Institute Netherlands or MARIN is trying a new concept of the artificial floating island.
According to MARIN, this artificial floating island consists of 87 large floating triangles. Each triangle connects with the other one maintaining the flexibility. This floating island could maintain the size up to 5km.
Crowded cities become overcrowded with the rising sea levels, simultaneously activities at sea also increase. Project manager of MARIN's artificial floating islands, Olaf Waals, utters that reclaiming land from the sea by raising dikes is no more an effective solution. The best alternative could be the floating cities and ports.
The artificial floating islands could offer enough space to support various activities, like unloading and loading of ships, cultivating fish, seaweed. These islands could also help to generate and maintain sustainable energy, like solar, wind and others. In a word, these floating spaces must be ready to provide several opportunities and simultaneously must be helpful in building offshore homes.
In spite of these probably important features of the artificial floating islands, certain questions and challenges also exist regarding this project's viability. Searching is on to explore best ways to lock all the triangles present in a floating island and simultaneously to anchor it to the seabed. The strength and safety of these mega structures are essential as these could help the islands to withstand both the currents and the winds.
Apart from these some ecological issues also exist, and the MARIN team has to address them. To attend all these challenges and to test the concept of the artificial floating islands the team is using computer simulations. Testing of a model island in a 40 m x 40 m pool must help to assess the effects of currents, waves, and the wind.
