“Floating space for sustainable living, playing and working”

Introduction

Singapore, a third world country under the British rule, is today the most expensive city in the world according to a 2018 EIU survey. It has reclaimed land relentlessly to fuel its economic growth. 25% of its original 578 sq. km footprint has been reclaimed from the sea. In the same time span the population grew by 380%, making it the world’s densest country.

In 2013, a White Paper was released by the government essentially preparing this island nation for a population growth from the current 5.7 million to 6.9 million by 2030. Following this the Ministry of National Development projected it would need to find space amounting to 56 sq km.

The country has an insatiable appetite for space but land reclamation has become more challenging year by year, as sand mining is ecologically damaging and now banned by those countries, which had traditionally supplied sand to Singapore.

Fortunately, it has about 700 sq km of territorial waters well sheltered by a cluster of Indonesian islands to the south. A 65-million TEU capacity mega port is being constructed which will see all port activities on the waterfront of downtown Singapore being diverted to the west.

We believe this opens up huge opportunities for creation of sea space floating solutions for the future. A group of multi-disciplinary professionals with this vision has come together to form the Society of FLOATING SOLUTIONS Singapore (SFSS).

In January 2018, the Society invited Professor Jacopo Buongiorno of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to speak at the National University of Singapore. He delivered a talk suggesting that to meet Singapore’s energy resilience needs and in view of the limited land area, a floating nuclear plant could be considered. We also had other speakers sharing other floating solutions with us on 1 March 2018. Dr. Øyvind Hellan and Dr Arnstein Watn of SINTEF Norway and Dr Masaki Takeuchi of Shimizu Japan spoke at our conference on titled “The Application and technology of Floating Structures” at the Singapore Institute of Technology.

Continuing on this journey, we are organizing a World Conference on Floating Solutions with a view to elevate international awareness of the benefits of floating structures.

Programme

Mission of the Society

The mission of the Society is to facilitate the application of scientific principles and proven offshore technologies to the design, engineering and construction of floating space solutions to enhance the quality of human life, address issues of land scarcity, harvest offshore renewable energy, increase food and water production, overcome the problem of rising sea level due to global warming in ways that are eco-friendly and sustainable.

Why Singapore

As mentioned above, Singapore needs to find another 56 sq. km of space to accommodate a population of 6.9 million people. The idea of building floating assets for working, living and playing is highly attractive as all other space creation options which have served the nation well for the past five decades are now coming to a dead end.

Singapore has a robust pool of naval architects and marine engineers who have proven their mettle by delivering internationally accredited marine offshore structures to oil and gas fields four corners of the world. They include semi-submersibles, jack-ups, FPSOs, FSRUs FLNGs and offshore crew accommodations.

All the leading classification societies (e.g. LR, ABS, DNV-GL and NKK) have engineering staff in Singapore and some of the biggest dry docks are located here.

This offshore engineering resource is readily deployable to provide the engineering and construction of other floating recreational, commercial, residential or industrial assets.

“Floating space for sustainable living, playing and working”

The theme of World Conference on Floating Structures 2019, “Floating space for sustainable, living, playing and working,” emphasizes the eco-sustainability of living offshore. This conference is organized for architects, city planners, marttime policy makers, practicing engineers, naval architects, contractors, academics, researchers and other construction professionals who are involved and wish to upgrade their knowledge on the analysis, design and construction of floating structures in their course of work. Students are particularly welcomed.

Conference Website

The Conference website is http://wcfs2019.floatingsolutions.org/ at which all updates will be posted.

Organising Committee

Chairman:	Professor C.M. Wang (cm.wang@uq.edu.au)
Co-chairman:	Dr Sabet Divsholi Bahador (bsabet@ecreators-global.com)
Secretary:	Mr Lim Charles (milselrahc@gmail.com)
Treasurer:	Mr Anil Thapar (anil.thapar@bmtglobal.com)
Technical Program:	Dr Tay Zhi Yung (ZhiYung.Tay@SingaporeTech.edu.sg)
Advisor:	Mr Lim Soon Heng (emas@shipyardconsultants.com)
Members:	Captain James Fong (Jamesfong@gmaritime.com) Dr Roland Tan (ps654rt@gmail.com) Mr Dave Kinrade (dkinrade@singnet.com.sg) Mr Ivan S. Stoytche (ivan.s.stoytchev@gmail.com)
Administrator:	Ms Angela Loke (lokeangela934@gmail.com)

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