Abstract
Increasing population, urbanization, and desire for coastal living creates an annual demand for housing units in coastal cities around the world that is not currently being met. The United States alone needs approximately 5 million new apartments by 2030, and the problems of housing availability and affordability are greatest in the coastal cities. These are also some of the most expensive cities in which to build housing due to limited land and constraints on materials and labor. The rate that housing must be produced in coastal cities is challenged with current construction and land use practices. Globally, a few companies are producing floating housing; none appear to be focusing on permanent, large-scale floating housing. Black & Veatch proposes developing floating housing communities constructed using innovative modular approaches to provide affordable and climate resilient housing. Housing construction costs can be significantly reduced compared to traditional, land based, “stick built” construction methods. Housing built in low-cost locations on floating platforms can be moved to urban areas and moored at shore or in open water to provide thousands of new housing units at affordable costs. Although similar solutions have been successfully deployed by others, no one appears to be addressing the affordable housing need at the scale proposed here.
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Notes
- 1.
Average Median Income is a metric calculated by the Unites States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to determine the income eligibility requirements of federal housing programs. The value calculation is based on the estimated area median family income.
- 2.
Calculated based on Regional Housing Needs Allocations for Very Low and Low Income. Total housing required for the cycle divided by number of years in cycle.
- 3.
Social vulnerability refers to the resilience of communities when confronted by external stresses on human health, stresses such as natural or human-caused disasters or disease outbreaks. Reducing social vulnerability can decrease both human suffering and economic loss.
- 4.
HBG is a California based firm that designs, manufactures, and builds modular affordable housing.
- 5.
A microgrid is a group of interconnected loads and distributed energy resources within clearly defined electrical boundaries that acts as a single controllable entity with respect to the grid. A microgrid can connect and disconnect from the grid to enable it to operate in both grid-connected or island-mode.
- 6.
Advanced waste water treatment process used by cruise ships provide a level of treatment similar to municipal treatment plants [15]. Smaller systems of 200,000 gallons per day (equivalent to 730 units respectably using per capita approach) can cost up to 35% more depending on the nitrogen removal than a small central wastewater treatment of 1.5 million gallons per day [16, 17].
- 7.
Steam desalination or reverse osmosis is used to produce potable water, in addition to cruise ships, both technologies are also used to provide water for communities with limited water supplies. Historically the cost for reverse osmosis has been high compared with traditional processes but they are becoming more prevalent as cities have no choice as their water supply shifts to sources with increased saline content (brackish aquifers, seawater) and other pollutants that require more advanced treatment to meet the required quality standards [18, 19]. Sandia National Laboratories and the United States Department of Interior, Bureau of Reclamation identified cost reduction and decentralization of the potable water supply as components of the Desalination and Water Purification Technology Roadmap [19]. The increased use desalination in lieu of the traditional method and the move towards decentralized supply will mean that the cost to produce potable water for floating housing will not be higher than land-based housing.
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Khangura, J., Haney, J. (2022). Floating Modular Housing to Address Demand and Affordability. In: Piątek, Ł., Lim, S.H., Wang, C.M., de Graaf-van Dinther, R. (eds) WCFS2020. Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering, vol 158. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2256-4_3
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