A worldwide mapping of the technical potential for floating urban development offshore

A worldwide mapping of the technical potential for floating urban development offshore | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article A worldwide mapping of the technical potential for floating urban development offshore Lieke Bikker, Tomer Fishman, Gil Wang This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-5280982/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Land scarcity, population growth, climate change adaptation, sustainability development goals, and disaster mitigation in coastal cities are some of the main factors motivating research on large floating solutions for urban needs. For three decades, conceptual and fundamental studies have explored the field of large floating solutions from various technological perspectives, providing mainly proof-of-concept for this novel approach. However, little is currently known about the actual potential and the scale of implementation for urban development offshore. Using a parametric worldwide GIS model, this research evaluates the concept of modular floating structures (MFS), designed for sustainable offshore urban development, on a global scale. It shows that MFS technology could potentially house up to one third of the current global population in the adjacent marine environment of coastal cities, providing a sustainable alternative to alleviate the pressure of onshore development and its associated impacts using only 0.05% of ocean space. Physical sciences/Engineering Social science/Science technology and society Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-5280982","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":371768977,"identity":"0e89efd9-920a-496c-acae-3d4a501767be","order_by":0,"name":"Lieke Bikker","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Leiden University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Lieke","middleName":"","lastName":"Bikker","suffix":""},{"id":371768978,"identity":"3fe26646-f49c-43eb-8b43-6788943afdcc","order_by":1,"name":"Tomer Fishman","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Leiden University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Tomer","middleName":"","lastName":"Fishman","suffix":""},{"id":371768979,"identity":"f965aa39-0ae7-4ce9-b2ea-b42ca8b32612","order_by":2,"name":"Gil Wang","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA0klEQVRIiWNgGAWjYLCCD0BswMDYAOExMzcQ1ME4IwFFC4yBBzDzgLUgjMCvxeD42cOvbX/YyJtLNzc+LmCwk2dgJ6TlTF6adU5CmuHOOQebjWcwJBs2EHKY2YEcM+OchMMJBjcS26R5GJgTCPrF7PwbM2OLhP8wLfVEaLmRY/yYIeEATMthwlrsb7wxY+xJSzbccCOx2ZjH4LhhGyEtkv05xh9+2NjJG9xIf/iYp6Janp//8AG8WoCATQLBBsYOGyH1QMD8gQhFo2AUjIJRMJIBADjQQFwlQm3JAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"","institution":"Coastal and Marine Engineering Research Institute (CAMERI)","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Gil","middleName":"","lastName":"Wang","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2024-10-17 08:23:31","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-5280982/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-5280982/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":73363251,"identity":"76234946-4d6a-4b71-8965-679f2b57b00c","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-01-09 09:08:38","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":2611330,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Aworldwidemappingofthetechnicalpotentialforfloatingurbandevelopmentoffshore.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5280982/v1_covered_9e0953fe-23ff-481f-a896-521ef132683c.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"A worldwide mapping of the technical potential for floating urban development offshore","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-5280982/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-5280982/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"Land scarcity, population growth, climate change adaptation, sustainability development goals, and disaster mitigation in coastal cities are some of the main factors motivating research on large floating solutions for urban needs. 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