Addressing global environmental megatrends by decoupling the causal chain through floating infrastructure. (October 2019) - Kappenthuler, Steve
Highlights: Future global challenges can mainly be traced back to global population growth and increasing urbanization rates. Floating Infrastructure is a multifaceted approach to address issues related to climate change and land scarcity. Offshore energy generation and aquaculture offer higher efficiency and lower emissions than land based alternatives. Floating construction provides more flexibility and higher resilience for urban development. Abstract: In the coming decades humanity will be confronted with a number of complex challenges affecting the prosperity and livelihood of billions of people around the globe. The root of these challenges lies in the downright explosion in global population over the last decades combined with a staggering increase of urbanization rates leading to an unprecedented level of demand for food, water, materials and space. Consequently, growing scarcity of essential resources are an ever increasing threat towards global peace and stability. This conflict potential is exacerbated by global warming and the associated sea level rise, which can once again be traced back to the rapidly growing demand for energy and food of the world's economies. In this paper we develop a comprehensive chain of cause and effect surrounding these global developments. Furthermore, we discuss how floating infrastructure, through its application to renewable energy generation, food production, flood protection and even urban expansion, is capable of decoupling multiple linkages in the chain, thus presenting itself as a promising mid- to long-term strategy for addressing these global challenges.