The climate change-induced global sea level rise is continuously leaving a grave impact on agriculture and communities. This results in the loss of farmlands and devastation of coastal lands due to high salinity.
A Japan-based architectural start-up called N-ark is a company that tackles climate change by reinventing architecture from the sea and has provided an innovative solution to this problem.
Green Ocean is a solar-powered floating marine farm that stores rainwater, enhances the water surrounding it, and helps produce food using salt-resistant technology and ocean-friendly structure.
It’s a sustainable greenhouse that cultivates crops and algae, on the surface and underwater respectively. This is a two-way approach that benefits both the marine and terrestrial environments.
It also features a V-shaped roof that aids in storing rainwater and directing it to a tank where it is combined with seawater then used as plant fertilizer.
Thinned wood and carbon joints are the construction materials of this marine farm.
Moreover, it employs a seawater farming approach where it captures water and nutrients from the ground and air by integrating and neutralizing the seawater and rainwater.
One technology in seawater agriculture is moisture culture, which permits plants to grow with humidity control and only consumes one-tenth of water that traditional irrigated agricultural systems use. This may be employed even in locations where water is scarce.
The collected cold seawater is also utilized in the air conditioning of the farms.
Green Ocean was designed by N-ark in collaboration with Cultivera, an agrotechnology research and development firm, and they plan to establish the floating marine farm in 2022.