A bridge that deploys vast inflatable buoys to slow violent storm surge . A barrier reef maturate from minerals harvested by electrical stream . An artificial island protecting the most surge - prostrate region . Most of us are brace for a snowstorm this calendar week , but the winner of a recent intention competition , Stormproof , are imagining how to protect cities for the next summertime tempest season .
This fall , One Prize , an annual “ scientific discipline and design ” competition that focuses on a new root every year , asked designer to imagine the future of the stormproof metropolis — including concepts that might not condition as conventionally acceptable . “ A stormproofed future is imperative for maintaining macrocosm , ” explained the organizers . “ This is a call to combine technical and quality - of - living plan to guarantee a smart future for contemporaries to derive . ”
Turn Manmade Waste Into an Artificial Protective Coastline
The winner of the entire competitor , Kenya Endo , argue that Tokyo is n’t prepared — financially or socially — to protect itself from storm using traditional method . “ Even over 60 class of constructing dams , Tokyo is not ready for another 1/200 storm event , ” Endo writes . “ We need more DAMS ! However , facing population decrease , aging society , it is not the clip to envision a mega - infrastructure as water management scheme . ”
What does Endo purpose alternatively ? Rather than build up new dams , Tokyo should compile a waste product of its current dam system — million of tons of deposit develop by erosion — and utilize it to bulge up its shoreline .
This new coastal barrier would direct storm water into channels where it would be sanctify and put in — then , this freshly desalinated water could be used to cultivate unexampled planting over the sediment , create farmland and coastal recreation roadblock .
Surge-Defending Coral Reefs Made From Shipping Containers
In the late 1970s , a German devil dog scientist invented a unconscious process calledBiorockthat was intended to restore damaged coral reefs . The process work by transmitting a down electrical current through ocean water , which attracts minerals in the water supply and creates growths of brucite and limestone that are as unassailable as distinctive concrete .
That ’s the unconscious process Ben Devereau declare oneself in his entry , which involves using Biorock to create a protective coral reef around a low - lying community in Sumatra .
By submerging abandoned shipping container along the shoreline and channel a stream through them , the mineral social organisation would slow storm water and mitigate upsurge .
Devereau also imagines using these topnotch - strong reef as base for diminished buildings above the water line , which could serve as residential district space the rest of the prison term .
A Protective 7.5-Mile Artificial Peninsula
“ Barrier Staten Island ” proposes building a monumental new peninsula along the south eastern shoring of Staten Island — one of the sheer hardest pip areas of NYC during Superstorm Sandy .
This 7.5 - mile stretch of terra firma would radically alter the landscape painting of the borough , its independent purpose being to protect the island from being pummeled by the crest of another surge . But it would also provide the island with young recreation and tourism area — from black market trail to areas for kayakers .
Hundreds of Miles of Meadows, Wetlands, and Basins
Designer Katherine Rodgers ground her proposal , “ Peripheral Multiplicity , ” on the Gateway National Park System , a series of recreational areas along the NYC coastline — include the Rockaways and Staten Island — that are most at - risk during storms .
Rodgers proposed that this is the most vital area to focalize on for protection : Creating a vast “ frayed edge ” of newfangled types of landscapes , including sea meadows , tidal wetland channels , wetland catchment basin , pond , light-green and blue belts , and protective dock , will slow future storm upsurge and fight human development further ashore .
A Bridge That Deploys an Inflatable Surge Barrier
Another first appearance byWill Belcher , Joey Hays , Chris Landau , andHenry Moll , blot over onBustler , guess a remarkable multi - pronged Defense Department scheme for Ocean City . First of all , a series of dune fields would create a massive layer of surge protection — plus doubling the surface area ’s useable boardwalk :
Then , a novel bridge would go from one side of the Ocean City Inlet to the other , attend a hidden purpose . It would function as a tourist attraction most of the clip , but during storms , inflatable barrier along its undersurface would be deploy to create a massive bulwark against the battering read/write memory of the storm surge .
Those sail - esque kind on the horizon of the interpreting below ? Those are permanent , deployable Traction Kite Power Plants , which capture wind energy after violent storm to ply Ocean City with emergency stand-in top executive .
tick off out more on each proposal over on theONE Prizewebsite .
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