Potential of Floating Urban Development for Coastal Cities: Analysis of Flood Risk and Population Growth

Population growth and urbanization mainly take place in vulnerable coastal areas. This article presents a global overview of these areas with both rapid population growth and high flood risk, in order to identify coastal areas that could benefit most from floating urban development. The analysis focuses on port cities, since they are coastal cities that have both availability of locations and the required expertise (e.g. maritime industry and services) to enable floating developments. After identifying the most promising locations, an implementation strategy is discussed, which favours areas where floating projects are already present to start testing medium and large-scale concepts. Next, a large scale floating maritime spatial project is presented, which integrates urban and ecosystem development with food and energy production in the North Sea. This plan provides a spatial concept for floating urban expansion in front of the coast of the Netherlands.