Floating Houses Designed For Low-Lying Countries 173
Zothecula writes "Venice may soon be sharing its 'Floating City' moniker thanks to a research project developing 'amphibian houses' that are designed to float in the event of a flood. The FLOATEC project sees the primary market for the houses as the Netherlands, whose low-lying land makes it particularly susceptible to the effects of rising sea levels. Such housing technology could also allow small island-states in the Indian and Pacific Oceans that are at the risk of disappearing in the next 100 years to maintain their claim to statehood through the use of artificial, floating structures."
landfill (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:landfill (Score:3, Interesting)
Would? We already do. And by the way, some of us here aren't complete douches and think helping your neighbors is the right thing to do. We're all humans and my family certainly didn't evolve here naturally. I have no more right to this land than you or anyone else.
Re:Hmmm.. yeah... (Score:4, Interesting)
Such housing technology could also allow small island-states in the Indian and Pacific Oceans
What's next? "Floating rainwater basins", "floating desalination plants" or "regular shipment of bottled water"?
"Floating coconut farms" maybe?
These guys are just out there. You're going to float a house on Styrofoam in the middle of the Pacific Ocean? Maybe they've been fooled by the name (Pacific - Peaceful) but one little baby typhoon is going to put your Styrofoam and assorted crap in the middle of the Pacific garbage patch [wikipedia.org]. If you want to create floating cities, then go ahead and do so. The tech is there, it's just expensive.
This might work in a low lying area that gets flooded every couple of years (although the stilt idea previously mentioned seems easier) but it's not going to float well. Somebody needs to torpedo this concept before anyone gets wet.
Re:uh-oh (Score:5, Interesting)
sarah palin worships atan and eats babies also get over two thousand results, and Google prompts you with the question, "do you mean sarah palin worships satan and eats babies?" The search results do not mean what you think they mean.
Re:uh-oh (Score:2, Interesting)
This is the case all along the Pacific really. The Pacific coast is all mountains except for cities built in river delta's (eg Vancouver/Richmond BC, Seattle/Tacoma WA, San Francisco CA, Tokyo Japan), which if it weren't for the fact that these large cities aren't going to float a condo building, aren't the target of the article.
Rather the target is landfilled areas (which all named above cities have) with a cheaper alternative to pilings that go into bedrock. It might be possible to float a 3-story house (with the basement and first floor effectively "an entrance/car garage and nothing more") so that in the case of a catastrophic flood the upper 2 floors float up linearly at high tide, and come straight back down when the tide subsides. Or in the more likely case of a Tsunami, can be pushed off the fixed foundation and the uppermost floors become an instant houseboat-liferaft. The house and occupants might survive, though a new house would need to be built.
But in case you're not really familiar with Venice. Venice is literately built on a hundred or so islands centuries ago. The city has subsided 30cm in the last century, and has had tides of nearly 2meters. The buildings don't float, so literately the lower (stone) floors of the buildings are completely useless as shop/storage/sleeping areas since the possibility of a flood coming in and washing everything away is always there. They have flood alerts like Japan has Tsunami alerts.
So the article itself is an attempt to long-term solve a problem instead of a short term (eg put the building on stilts) where erosion and rotting would otherwise prevent reclamation. These areas are as effectively useless as Atlantic areas prone to storm surge in a hurricane. The average home in the US is built with wood and will last only about 200 years should it not succumb to fire or rot (Pacific coast cities are prone to mold and rot, and therefor have to have suitable breathability.)
Taking the article one step further, in theory one could build a permanently moored "boat" that in the event of a tsunami or storm surge will float in an area surrounded by at least 3 pillars so the house "boat" part itself will go up and down with the water rise. Crazier things have been done http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McBarge
"Only a fool builds their home upon the sand"
Re:US gov't insurance (Score:4, Interesting)
A lot of problems would go away if the US would simply get rid of its government flood insurance program.
It is the sort of thing kids used to be taught about geography in grade school.
You build along the river because the river provides cheap transportation, fresh water and power. The river often ends in a seaport - giving you a chance to become a major player in coastal and foreign trade.
Periodic flooding means that your valley remains fertile, perhaps as fertile as the Mississippi Delta.
For extra credit:
Map the flood plain of the Mississippi, the Missouri and their tributaries.
Count the number of people dependent on these rivers for their living, calculate the cost of moving every one of them to higher ground --- including the cost to American trade, agriculture and industry.