ABSTRACT. This presentation investigates the opportunity that the water presents to solve the most urgent global problems. These includes fundamental challenges such as climate change, urbanization, population growth and land scarcity. We call this shift of humanity to the oceans ‘the Blue Revolution’. It includes using the water in a sustainable way to make cities, produce food and energy, and create new ecosystems. This presentation 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. On a city scale, an urban metabolism calculation model is presented to estimate how floating production can contribute to local energy and food production, reducing cities’ pressure on land and resources.

In our research, we found that land scarcity will soon be a huge problem with a global lack of space of 22 million km2 (about the total land size of N. America) already in 2050. We also found that oceans provide the space we need and is capable of capturing huge amounts of CO2 by utilizing the potential of floating algae systems. Capturing CO2 is needed to achieve the Paris Climate Agreement. In fact only 1% of the oceans are needed for intensive algae cultivation to be able to capture the total required amount of CO2. We also studied what the Blue Revolution can do for cities. We found that cities can produce a substantial amount of their own food and energy on the water. These findings have been published in the scientific Journal of Cleaner Production.

Moreover, we found that cities can be at least 130 times as efficient in producing food and energy on the water than current agriculture on land. One square meter of water can produce as much as 130 square metres of land. By saving these quantities of land, nature areas including the remaining rainforests, can be conserved by shifting production to the water. Only to 1% of the water is needed, the remaining 99% can be converted into a maritime reserve where aquatic ecology can be preserved.

7 key factors are presented that need to be taken into account when realizing floating projects. These key factors will be explained by concrete project examples of Blue21.

1. Think of a city as a living entity that should sustain itself

2. Have a positive impact instead of reducing bad impact

3. Apply innovative environmental governance and monitoring

4. Make functional things PIMBY - Please In My backyard

5. Switch from rigid land ownership to a fluid symbiosis between land and water

6. From consumers to independent co-producers

7. Switch to a new way of working

ABSTRACT. I B A D O C K - Floating exhibition and office building Architect Prof. Han Slawik architect

Stoltenkampstr. 3-A DE-48455 Bad Bentheim Krom Boomssloot 4-B NL-1011 GV Amsterdam

Client IBA Hamburg GmbH

Project location Am Zollhafen 12, 20539 Hamburg / Germany

Climate Change A floating building is rising and falling with the water. It could float wherever it is needed and is a symbol of the flexibility of the ideal urban transformation in times of climate change.

IBA DOCK In Hamburg Germany’s largest floating building is located: the IBA DOCK. The building and the gangway move up and down with the daily tide of 3,5 m. It floats on the water even in extreme storms and adjusts to the nature.

A bridge leads to the entrance on the top deck, accessing exhibition and presentation areas, a city model, cafeteria and an outdoor terrace. Next to the exhibition area there are offices.

The building is on a 43 m long and 25 m wide concrete pontoon. The 3-floors structures were built in a modular lightweight steel frame with prefabricated modules. They were assembled on site and can be dismounted when the building changing the location.

Energy and Sustainability The IBA DOCK is also an exhibition of innovative construction and energy saving technologies - a great example of sustainability and energy efficiency: Almost all components are reusable and the whole building can be assembled/de-assembled/re-assembled.

The IBA DOCK uses only the environmental energy of the sun and the water with CO2-neutral heating and cooling system. A heat pump exploits energy from the Elbe and the electricity demand of this is covered by a photovoltaic system on the roof. Other cooling or heating is not needed.

Completion: 2010 Usable floor area: 1.623 m² Gross floor area: 1.835 m² Building volume: 5.492 m³

ABSTRACT. The perception of inner-city water surfaces has changed significantly in recent years. They are appropriated by various actors or placed in the focus of development by the city's urban planning authorities. The realized and initiated projects show a great variety of uses and different ways of dealing with water surfaces. Examples are floating settlements, floating offices or temporary projects, such as the Floating University in Berlin - a construction, developed as a place for workshops and summer schools on the water -  as well as the Flussbad Berlin – a project that places the water space itself in the centre of attention with the objective of making the river Spree accessible for swimming.

Those new demands for use of inner-city water surfaces have been added to the existing requirements, as for example the use of water as a traffic area. These requirements, however, often compete with each other and so far, there is still no discourse about the negotiation of those. What new demands are placed on water surfaces? What meaning can inner-city water surfaces receive in the future for urban society? Which narratives can be evolved? And how does this affect the spatial planning of these areas?

After years of experiences in the construction of floating houses with her architectural firm Rost.Niderehe Architekten I Ingenieure, the author currently investigates these issues in her on going doctoral project. The originally architectonic perspective has changed into an urban one. In the presentation realized floating projects of the author will be presented and issues arising from this experiences for the urban development of inner-city water surfaces will revealed.

ABSTRACT. The change in the energy supply in Germany and thus particularly in the "Rheinische Revier" due to the closure of lignite-fired power generation has a profound effect on existing supply infrastructures, economic value chains and thus also on the life plans of the population affected in the future. The increasing competition for land raise the pressure to accommodate unusually high densities in small urban areas and to open up new settlement areas. In addition to the sensitive, small-town and village structures, in which an acceptance of more urban densities to an appropriate and locally adapted extent is currently difficult to foresee, new urban structures can be considered in previously unused areas. The open-cast mining areas, which will be used as lakes in the future, offer sufficient space for living and working on the water. Using a floating construction, buildings and infrastructures (wastewater treatment, direct current network) could be installed at an early stage of the opencast mining flooding and, as the number of buildings and areas increases, further buildings and areas could be added in order to integrate learning processes and empirical values step by step into the new areas and finally build a functioning small town on the lake. This could be exploratively worked out within the coming IBTA (International Building and Technology Exhibition) framing the development over the next decades. The future highly-relevant topic of dealing with rising sea levels in numerous coastal cities will be exemplarily addressed. In addition, flooding areas of rivers and river deltas are already exposed to increasing settlement pressure worldwide. Here, floating or amphibious structures can contribute to climate change adaptation and the reduction of catastrophe-induced damage and build up a new area of competence in the region (living, working and supplying on the water).

ABSTRACT. Global and regional reasons for the development of the institution are called. Especially the locally situation is presented. In former time and partly to-day also the region is characterized by a lot of lignite open mines. At present, a structural change is taking place. In order to reduce the CO2 generation the production of electricity by means of brown coal is set according to the decision of an advisory commission. The lakes created and the resulting open-cast mining landscape offers the opportunity for tourist use of floating architecture. In the context of global climate change and rising sea levels, it will be necessary above all to develop and build affordable, floating structures in developing countries. The created Lusatian Lakeland landscape with different shore and water features has an excellent potential for this. Some examples are presented. Location "Geierswalder See": Marina with currently 5 floating houses. Location "Partwitzer See": Floating holiday house Location "Gräbendorfer See": Floating diving school Location "Bergheider See": open-air house as a floating research station Location BTU C-S, campus Sachsendorf: Wide hydraulic trial channel. Experimental investigations are carried out at all sites and some results of this are presented in the paper. At the same time, valuable, long-term secure jobs will be created for structural change after the stop of the brown coal production in this region.

ABSTRACT. Lanting is a traditional floating house that exists in Banjarmasin for more than a century. It was initially an adaptation to socio-economic activities on the rivers. It is a cultural asset, a flood-proof building design with local materials and technology, as well as a natural protection to the riverbanks from abrasion. A shifting to land-based development has situated the river/ riverbank as a backyard of the city associated with slum and environmental issues. Under a current urban development policy, this is subject to be cleared for green public space. This revitalisation policy is contested and challenges the existence of Lanting as a living habitat. This study explores and evaluates tactics and strategies for the existence of floating houses community along the Martapura River by examining the socio-cultural and spatial characteristics; and the political economy dimension, in particular stakeholder views and the urban policy setting.

ABSTRACT. The floating house designed by Mai Bui Ngoc and Rafal Mazur in Warsaw is an example of the architecture without constant context. Usually buildings are designed in a specific location, which gives architects an inspiration for the design of the new form. In the case of the floating house the goal was to make a universal artefact as a car or a phone. This artefact should be more connected to the owner than to the landscape. This artefact should be also neutral to the landscape and it should not be destructive for the surroundings.

The question of the form of the floating house was the starting point of the work on this project. The answer lays between two archetypes; a typical house and a boat. Analysis of the existing floating houses gave the conclusion that authors of these houses were usually very close to one of these two archetypes. It is a need to put a lot of effort to design an object which does not remind a real house and a yacht design.

Living on the water is often connected with the inconveniences associated with the effects of moisture, particularly in the autumn or winter. High airtightness of the building enable to eliminate these inconveniences. Advanced technology and good quality of construction in this case allow defy nature and provide the conditions in which a resident of this home has an adequate standard of everyday use. The floating house was designed as low-energy building which is a solution for using electricity as only one available source of energy, so the cost of the heating and cooling could be minimized. This is a very important aspect, because the house on the water is not so extravagant way of life, but it becomes an ecological alternative to traditional housing.

ABSTRACT. 2023 World Jamboree is going to be held in Saemanguem area, the southwest part of the Korean Peninsula, which has been reclaimed by long seawall. Area for tourism and recreation will be used for the international event. The area under development still has land and lake together. The principal department planned land based camping site after reclamation of the most part of the lake. But considering the environment and sustainability, development of floating camping site can be a strong alternative. The proposed project of floating camping site mainly focused on considering the regional characteristics of the relevant area, eco-friendly design with natural environment rather than large scale of reclamation, securement of water space by water level control and design of various site plan alternatives, and facilities design with modular & prefabricated construction and easy removal possibility after the event. If the camping facilities would be built on the water, participants from all over the world could have very special camping experiences on water rather than in mountain as usual. Ideas of floating camping site design executed as term project in Kunsan National University will be presented.

ABSTRACT. The paper presents results from a social research on floating buildings in hotel, gastronomy, and tourist services sector in Poland. Main purpose of the study was to assess the level of knowledge about using floating buildings in service sector, and diagnose stimulants and inhibitors of their use, including the costs.

The research carried out in 2018 was a cooperation of Faculty of Architecture at Warsaw University of Technology and Centre for Innovation and Technology Transfer Management of Warsaw University of Technology.

Combining the qualitative and quantitative methodology, research was conducted using the Focused Group Interview (FGI) and on-line survey (CAWI). Both research techniques involved a non-probabilistic, purposive sampling in order to reach a specific subgroup of the service industry: owners or employees of catering, hotel or water tourism facilities having or considering having an object on the water. Participants represented facilities on water or with direct / indirect access to water, both new and experienced companies.

Research shows floating buildings in the service sector are a niche topic, but a developmental one. Although respondents see how floating buildings can be used in service sector, they also notice difficulties resulting from lack of a complete legal description for this phenomenon as well as troubles with cost assessment (e.g. average rental price). However, the most common reason for rejecting the possibility of using floating buildings is the lack of attractive water reservoirs in the area. The study identified stimulating and inhibitory factors broken down into building characteristics and external conditions. While floating buildings encourage more popular use with their originality, attractiveness, and mobility, safety is still perceived as a challenge. Specific conditions in the context of Warsaw were also analysed.

ABSTRACT. 1. Relevance: is a response to the need to live in coexistence with water, which results not only from increasing flood risks, but also from the degradation of the natural environment in cities and the need to contact nature. In the face of forecasted climate changes, adaptation and resilience should be the basis for future development strategies and constitute an alternative to expensive flood protection infrastructure. 2. Aims, Scope & Methods: The authors analysed the threats and advantages of the amphibious architecture and presented solutions for the development of floodplain areas aimed at adapting to changing water levels, improving water retention, continuity of ecological corridors, as well as recreational values of river valleys. The subject of research in the Wielkopolska region was 12 towns located along the Warta River, in which the spatial development structure and local planning documents have been analysed. 3. Effects & Results: The areas of special flood hazard in studied towns cover from 6% to 30%. In the flood plains, protected by the reservoir in Jeziorsko and local flood embankments, mainly grasslands are located, but there are also housing (Puszczykowo 13%, Pyzdry and Międzychód 3%) and industrial functions (Luboń 8%, Oborniki 9%). 6 of the 12 towns are embanked (the basic form of flood protection), but the river banks are poorly accessible, and the development located in these areas is to a negligible extent adapted to the possibility of penetration by flood waters. In local plans, defensive solutions, legal and investment restrictions prevail, and the sectoral approach to planning and management of river valleys makes it impossible to achieve synergy effect. The high ecological potential of valleys, especially in small towns, is an advantage of the low level of investment, but the poor availability of riverside areas limits the recreational use of the aquatic landscape.

ABSTRACT. Formation of cities was always dependent on water. Location over the water areas gave the opportunity for development and increase of prosperity. And although water was also a threat and cause of damage, the benefits of its neighbourhood prevailed. Today, the challenge for developing cities is a climate change observed in recent decades, which results in violent natural phenomena, e.g. floods and hurricanes. One of the main problems faced by residents of housing estates located on the water is the increasing risk of flooding. Actions are taken to adapt the functioning of the urban structure and buildings to new water conditions. Currently, the process of floodplain development is progressing on a larger scale. This phenomenon is intensifying and as a result many housing estates are created in areas exposed to flooding. The approach to flood issues in the context of architecture and spatial planning has evolved in recent decades. The new water paradigm is expressed in striving to keep it in place.

How did the settlement in the floodplains look once and today in Warsaw? The research study was preceded by a historical feature and then the article drew attention to the ways of shaping new housing estates in flood areas in Warsaw. Using the case study method, new housing estates developed in the flood plains have been analyzed, with a listing of their strengths and weaknesses and the assessment of solutions. Issues were discussed on how to protect the buildings from the harmful effects of water. On the basis of the conclusions from the Warsaw case study, project guidelines for floodplains in Warsaw were developed, the aim of which was to identify the most important priorities in the development of floodplains and increase the security of investment arising in these areas.

ABSTRACT. The low-lying delta of the Philippines’ Metro Manila is threatened by annual typhoons and rapid urbanization. As the federal government seeks to make the city more ‘flood-proof,’ it has brought in foreign planning experts who push Western technocratic programs, a trend affecting communities across Southeast Asia. In many cases, the forces of globalization have outweighed local needs, and megaprojects built under the banner of climate adaptation have led to evicting those most vulnerable to yet least responsible for climate change. Consequently, we must ask: whose resilience is being fostered? Unfortunately, the rhetoric of climate change adaptation too often involves displacement and is a justification for unsustainable growth. In Metro Manila, the lack of flood resilience is not fundamentally a technical problem, but a sociopolitical one. We must recognize and negotiate how designers inherently bring their personal resilience imaginaries to climate adaptation projects, which can affect the way these projects perpetuate social inequalities. By looking at how the contested visions of the World Bank’s Flood Management Master Plan and Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission’s projects work to adapt Metro Manila to an uncertain future, the paper will argue that these flood risk reduction projects are negotiations of competing priorities, some of which have nothing to do with resilience at all. Alternatives to these socio-spatially uneven plans will also be explored.

ABSTRACT. An Giang province in Vietnam's Mekong Delta is dominated by a hybridization of artificial and man made waterways to control floods and maximize its production of rice. With modernized infrastructure occurring in conjunction with the increasing severity of water pollution, economic local practices for managing human waste such as fishpond latrines were made illegal to elevate rural standards. In the absence of seasonal flooding that previously acted as a carrier of alluvial soils and aquatic life, monocrop rice production became dependent on chemical fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides as soils were depleted. Former means of nutrient cycling, such as the fishpond latrine - a vernacular outhouse constructed to deposit waste to feed pond fish below, are replaced by industrial agriculture. Nutrient displacement occurs at both ends - in fields where imported artificial fertilizers replace natural soils and in households where waste is disposed into nearby waterways due to the lack of consistent water infrastructure and affordable latrines.

In order to resist the monoculture practice, integrated agriculture implementing diversification can improve farmer livelihoods and allow opportunities for agriculture to be adaptive to flood seasons and their cyclical nature. The fishpond latrine directly ties household sanitation to the delta’s landscape and becomes a scalable framework that reinforces nutrient recycling, the connection between water and waste, and the bridging of landscape and household spaces together. A diversified landscape allows different land uses such as homes, gardens, livestock and ponds to work cyclically.  Water — previously seen as a contaminated resource — is able to act as a carrier of nutrients within a locally productive landscape and flow seamlessly between household sanitation, agriculture and the landscape. The research consists of a mixed-method approach through experiments with design. It explores the conservation of nutrients in water and the limitations posed by pollutant risks and access to clean sources.

ABSTRACT. In the United States, within the floodplain boundaries, and all construction within those boundaries must comply with the floodplain ordinances. In order to comply with building elevation requirements, the lowest floor of the building must be at or above the regulatory flood elevation determined from flood maps. However, once built, this elevation is fixed, so floods very likely inundate the fixed-elevation of the building.

A US entrepreneur has patented a method for elevating a building on demand at the touch of a button. When there is a flood warning, the building frame is elevated on screws to any desired height above grade up to the limit of the screw length. The building is elevated by a mechanical elevation system that signals a motor and gear reducer to activate at each screw, thus lifting the building. It stops when instructed or at some pre-determined height, and is then lowered by the same means – the push of a button. This system has been approved for use in the US by the International Code Council Evaluation Service. It eliminates the problem of a fixed building floor elevation, and it improves the building’s streetscape since the floor of the building can be established at the height most desired for building access and use.

The presentation will demonstrate the important elements of this unique design, and it will illustrate how it operates in both raising and lowering the building. A prototype full scale building has been tested in a lab with over four times the expected load to demonstrate the systems strength and robustness and to prove the concepts under severe loading conditions. The test building was also subjected to lateral loads caused by high winds to demonstrate the resistance to push over or lateral deflection from a severe storm event like a hurricane.

ABSTRACT. Usually, the concept of sufficient stability of the floating structure is identified with the capacity of keeping a small heel angle despite the heeling moment caused by wind force or concentration of users on one side of the building. In another aspect, stability may be considered as the optimal natural roll period, which cannot be too short, not to cause unnecessary accelerations and loads, neither too long, not to make the feeling of endless rotation of the building. Among designers, contractors and investors of floating buildings, the opinion prevails that these structures should have heavy floats and light superstructures in order to keep the center of gravity low, which ensures comfort and safety. In fact, more precisely, the variable responsible for these characteristics is the initial metacentric height, which is the relationship between the hydrostatic features of the submerged part of the structure and the mass properties of the entire object. The article answers the questions about how heavy the floating system should be, what is the minimum acceptable draft and in which case it is beneficial to use internal fixed ballast. The authors propose a simple approximate method based on mass coefficients of the building and dimensions of the floating system resulting from the metacentric formula This method can be used in the design process at the stage of the initial architectural concept. The studies of completed floating buildings and the results of theoretical calculations indicate that the common habit of using a heavy and deep floating system is not always reasonable. In the case of floating buildings, which, unlike ships, can be exploited only under very small heel angles, the shape and the width of the submerged part of the object may turn more important than its draft or mass for achieving the required stability.

ABSTRACT. Flooding is the most frequent natural hazard in Canada, with each event causing property damage and social disruption. As climate change continues and the frequency and intensity of flooding increase, we need to adopt new housing typologies⁠—for example, amphibious construction. This technology can increase the resilience of flood-prone communities. In 2017, the National Research Council of Canada began sponsorship of a four-year project with the University of Waterloo and the Buoyant Foundation Project to develop prototypes and guidelines for the safe implementation of amphibious retrofits on homes, with the potential for eventual inclusion in the National Building Code of Canada. As part of the project, a remote monitoring system was developed for continuous collection of data to document the structure’s buoyant movement and stability, particularly during high wind events. This paper outlines the instrumentation and monitoring methods chosen and developed for a floating pavilion prototype located in a stormwater retention pond at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. The hardware system consists of a data logger reading data from several sensors including an anemometer to collect wind speed and direction, a 3-axis accelerometer to collect acceleration data, and a 3-axis gyroscope to measure rotational data. A preliminary analysis will be conducted to ensure best practice in quantitative data collection. This data will contribute to developing the guidelines for constructing safe and stable amphibious retrofits.

ABSTRACT. In recent years, due to climate change and social revolution, floating buildings and settlements have been playing an increasingly important role. Floating building is considered not only as an effective solution adapting to rising sea levels but also as a new way to investigate new energy sources. The development of innovative technologies tends to make floating buildings more comfortable, sustainable and self- sufficient that can provide all it needs by itself from food, energy, water to waste treatment. As the result, creating a self - sufficient energy supply system (SESS) is one of the main targets to achieve the concept of self-sufficient floating buildings. In fact, the difficulty of living on the water subject is the connection to the electricity grid on the land; and the SESS is an effective solution for the design of floating houses that helps the house independent from the grid. Moreover, the SESS is also an effective solution to both cost issues on a microeconomic level and concerns about greenhouse gas emissions on a global level. Thus, this paper aims to discuss the potential use and development of SESS as well as investigate the concepts of the SESS in floating buildings. The SESS can be summarized as the energy supply system generating and providing to floating houses partly or even fully energy requirement for lighting , heating, and cooling from renewable energy sources (sun, wind, geothermal, water, and biomass). Furthermore, the paper will also suggest some reference ideas of the ESS for the design of floating building projects.

ABSTRACT. The amphibious design has existed as a solution to flood-prone areas in different geographical zones throughout the history; however the amphibious architecture gained importance not only by the rise of environmental challenges that highlights the debates on sustainable future, but also the need for climate-resilient human settlements as a response to achieve sustainable development goals. The multi-disciplinary character of amphibious architecture, which operates at the intersection of design, architecture, and engineering, could be more efficient and proactive by integrating it with policy- and economy-based design strategies. This paper discusses the importance of a sustainable design framework for amphibious architecture integrated with renewable energy systems. The purpose of this study is to reveal amphibious architecture’s potential for evolving into hybrid-scapes through active and passive design strategies with reference to its character. Therefore, the objective of this study is threefold: (1) to overview the current on (inter)national classification standards, design codes and rules for providing a common ground for amphibious design guidelines, (2) to analyse case studies in order to find underlying motives for formulating policy- and economy-based design strategies, and (3) an attempt to bridge the gap between amphibious architecture and renewable energy. In view of that, the future directions in hybrid-scapes –which is the concept based on the logic of transforming amphibious structures that are created by active and passive design strategies from energy-dependent structures into self-sufficient systems via renewable energy resources– are portrayed by means of qualitative research methods. In conclusion, integrated approaches are debated in order to put emphasis on the criteria of ecosystem compatibility, climate neutrality, and sustainable energy for developing a multi-disciplinary design framework for amphibious architecture.

ABSTRACT. The paper aims to answer the following questions: What are the trends in streetscape design? And how can streetscape become more resilient to climate change in the coming years? Although the research questions of exploratory nature also challenge theoretical claims, this is a hypothetical study, designed to foster a discussion about the visions of the future streetscape and new technology for an urban sidewalk. It covers description and a cross-case comparison of an experimental product – the Climate Tile, implemented in Denmark in 2018, and a theoretical solution - the Sponge Pavement - a model system based on the structural soil foundation and permeable surface, evolved as an idea in 2018 in Poland. The cases are examples of innovations selected to describe a new type of water-permeable surfaces matching the urban context. Both solutions share common features: they are in that there is no need to place heavy equipment on the project site; they match the urban context of a dense city, being smooth, resistant and easy to clean. The comparison of the Climate Tile and the Sponge Pavement allowed determining the optimal application for the given solution. It also proved the trend towards the rainwater management-oriented direction of the development of the streetscape of the future. The study results could contribute to the discussion of the streetscape of the future. We would like to focus on the idea of the Sponge Pavement for further development in laboratory tests and as the pilot project. 

ABSTRACT. In the state of Kerala, India, flooding happens more frequently in the past few years than before. The recent flood of 2018 in Kerala was the worst in nearly a century. Approximately one-sixth of the total population was affected by the floods, according to the officials. It is considered a problem as the human settlement expanded to river banks and low lying areas. The article shows the study of adopting amphibious technology to India by proposing a Tourism Facilitation Center in Kerala. Model studies using different types of buoyant foundation and superstructure were done. A self-sustaining building is conceptualized by conducting various studies including soil investigation, water quality monitoring and theoretical structural evaluation. Development phases of positioning of Guidance Posts are analyzed and has arrived at an idea of centric GP system. Stable and efficient buoyant foundations are planned for the Tourism Facilitation Center in a distinctive form. The article briefs through how various components are designed for the first amphibious building in Kerala, India.

ABSTRACT. Some of the worlds largest cities will be at risk with the rise of sea levels amid climate change. According to the United Nation’s World Water Development Report 2019, almost 20% of the world’s population is at risk from flood by 2050. Rapid population growth and unplanned urbanization often take place in vulnerable areas, often pushing poorer communities along watercourses prone to flooding. Architects and urban planners are looking beyond the traditional tools of planning and design towards building on water to develop sustainable settlements with flood resilient designs. This paper will look at current at-risk settlements and compare their morphology and density. By analyzing maps and population databases and flood-prone regions, with the aid of GIS, we are able to identify communities that would profit with the use of flood resilient strategies. With planning, climate change adaptations can become opportunities for enhancing and thriving urban life.

ABSTRACT. China’s coastlines house many ethnic communities. Some of them are related to water. The paper will focus on the floating village Sandu’ao, located in the south-east of China, inside a bay of Fujian Province. Its social organization is intrinsically connected to the hydraulic element from weddings, funerals to religious celebrations. The villagers mainly live from fishing income and they developed a floating market where they produce ocean farming of fish, shrimps, lobsters and seaweed. There are 80,000 cages and fishing nets that supply the entire coastal region. As for the elements used to build the village’s houses, they are made of wood and sheet steels. Bamboos are wired to plastic barrels, tyres or blocks of PVC foam to make floating pontoons or give buoyancy to the buildings. Their floating streets are shaped like roads on land but they sway under the wind. Also, the materials used to build the houses change over time. During the seventies, they were made of wood, straws and reeds. Nowadays, they are made out of waste materials and wiring networks such as water, electrical systems installed to meet today’s needs. Every household possesses a wooden or motorized boat as mean of transportation. Before settling inside the bay, the villagers lived on traditional boats, the sampans, where a covered area could be used as a room. But over time, they wanted to benefit from the lands’ advantages and make the fish markets’ selling easier although the Chinese government didn’t consider them as part of the country like other communities on land, provoking stigmatisation. Thus, this paper will reveal how this Chinese floating community has strongly bonded with the hydraulic element and marine life in every aspect of their social life in order to survive and what western developed countries could learn from them. Also, problems caused by poverty and overfishing will be presented through informations collected during a field trip realised in October 2018.