SeaCities

There is growing interest in water-based urban development, but there is no systematic approach to it. A matrix was created to combine viable development strategies with urban elements, producing 35 distinct options defined as tactics. This expands the land-based perspective to include a water-based perspective, providing a comprehensive range of solutions. The systematic collection of these options can support both the sustainable development of coastal cities and the innovation driving the creation of offshore cities.

Current predictions highlight major climate-related impacts on coastal cities around the world. At the same time, wetlands provide important services and habitats for both natural and anthropogenic activities and could play an important role in mitigating these impacts in coastal areas. However, due to the increasing population and associated urban growth, endemic coastal wetlands are still being reclaimed for urban development. Approaches balancing urban and wetland functions and needs could, therefore, play a key role in the future sustainable development of both the urban and natural environments. Based on a systematic literature review, this chapter maps urban-wetland interactions by combining key principles derived from state-of-the-art theoretical descriptions of urban-ecosystem relationships in urban design with site-specific wetland functions and design strategies. State-of-the-art theoretical urban frameworks that define sustainable urban-ecological relationships are used to identify key underlying principles which are further compared to assess overlaps and differences. To connect theoretical principles to practical context-dependant functions and design strategies, coastal wetland functions are analysed and categorized in relation to the identified theoretical framework characteristics. Theoretical principles and practical design strategies are then combined using a visual system thinking concept map, to provide a map of urban-wetland systems and relationships.

This project investigates the potential of design thinking and co-design processes in developing sustainable floating architecture solutions for a collective eco-village called Hydropolis, situated on the subtropical east coast of Australia. The project aims to address the pressing need for climate-adaptive and eco-integrated urban solutions in light of the ongoing climate emergency. The design phases are structured following a design thinking approach and involve co-design with various stakeholders. The study evaluates the effectiveness of the applied design thinking competencies and highlights the importance of combining design-informed solutions with science-informed practices. The findings suggest that the role of designers can be expanded to include the development, facilitation, and generation of hybrid domains of complexity, transforming the tragedy of the dichotomy of sea and city into an opportunity. The research outcome is a Hydro Design Transformer Tool, which integrates design and science-informed practices in developing sustainable floating architecture solutions. The results provide valuable insights for advancing sustainable urban development and demonstrate the potential of combining design and scientific approaches in shaping a resilient and eco-integrated future.

The increase of artificial islands and land expansions in the water in the last years is significant. Approximately, 33,700 km² of land has been reclaimed in the last 30 years. However, with climate change threatening these newly developed structures, it is crucial to understand the impact of architectural design in the adaptation of these lands to sea-level changes. In the fields of architecture and planning, the design of the land in the water not only concerns the adaptation to environmental conditions but also adaptation to people’s needs and the ecosystem. Yet, there is limited research concerning the design concepts of growing land in the water and their impacts on both the environment and the people. This research compares twenty-three case studies of artificial island growth processes, including the methods that have been used to develop the islands and the environment that they have created. The outcome of this research is an overview of artificial island growth processes and their adaptation to sea-level rise that can be used as conceptual design methods for the architectural design of land in the water.

To create new sustainable food production systems that are more efficient, occupying less land space, and closer to the cities, will be critical for global stability. Rapid urbanization, the way we distribute food, the carbon footprint it entails, and the fragility of global food security systems demonstrate that the way we understood food production might need to be redefined to find new balances with urbanization and food demand. This chapter aims to elucidate the advantages and disadvantages of the potential use of the sea as a new territory for producing food. It will be tested by transferring The Plastic Sea (Almeria´s greenhouses) into the sea. It will be considered which would be the potential technologies that might allow this hypothesis to be feasible, considering the environmental conditions. It is presented as an exploratory approach to technological innovation systems for sustainable food production and will be part of a larger project that will focus on creating a generic descriptive framework for a sustainable marine agricultural system. The sea as an agricultural territory could have significant consequences for urban living, and architects and urban designers would need to consider how to define new potential relationships with the marine environment.

This chapter highlights the potential for water-based development solutions as a new or less explored option for the sustainable and future-proof development of Jakarta. It begins with the overview of the problematical issue of urbanization combined with sea level rise threat in the city and is followed with assessment of the recent policies in Jakarta. We argue that sea urbanism to deal with the issue has been overlooked, particularly on floating strategy which advances urban development and life above the water. Therefore, we are interested to know community’s perception and attitude towards advancing above the water and this is likely the first study on the topic for Jakarta. We conducted a questionnaire survey involving 540 individuals from six districts in North Jakarta that are predicted to be inundated by 2050. It suggests while the majority of survey participants in the study area have a preference for conventional protective strategies, almost half of them are interested in innovative and transformational ones, such as advancing strategies. It indicates that people in Jakarta will likely not oppose the idea of advancing development on water. Finally, the chapter highlights the potential implementation and implications for advancing development on Jakarta’s water from a human dimension perspective.

With rising sea levels and a growing trend for floating development initiatives around the world, the urban seascape is fast becoming a new frontier for aquatic urbanism and presenting new challenges for spatial planners. Given that urban planning is essentially land-based, and the sea is a fundamentally different environment from the land, can an emerging marine spatial planning (MSP) provide answers to the challenges of planning for this increasingly urbanized seascape? Case studies of Chinese and Swedish municipal MSP will be examined critically in this chapter to understand why and how municipal MSP has been developed and to what extent they can address some of the current and future challenges of planning for urban seascapes. Based on the literature review, we explore the origins, contexts, priorities, legal frameworks, and planning systems of municipal MSP, then examine the key issues, approaches, processes, and outcomes of marine spatial plans of selected cities in the two countries, and the influences of terrestrial planning traditions on MSP. Finally, key findings in the comparison between the Chinese and Swedish case studies will be presented to draw lessons, and identify the remaining challenges for planning urban seascapes to support a more sustainable future for aquatic urbanism.