“Paving the Waves“ to valuing water, celebrating World Water Day 2021
World Water Day is the time to raise global awareness on the true value of water, on what it means to people and how we could utilize and protect this vital resource. Since 2008, Blue21 has committed to creating the world’s first floating city with a positive impact on the planet as we believe that our future is on the water.
On this special day, Blue21 invites you to learn about a more sustainable, adaptive and future-proof way of creating new land: floating urban and maritime development.
Together with Waterstudio amongst other co-organizers, Blue21 took lead in organizing Paving the Waves- 2nd World Conference on Floating Solutions 2020 (PtW-WCFS2020) last October. Despite of being in the midst of the global pandemic, the 3-day event turned out to be a great success, attracting 120+ attendees from 20+ countries, thanks to both the participants and supporters.
WCFS2020 was the first and one of its kind event organized in Europe, with a focus on discussing and disseminating knowledge on various state-of-the-art floating solutions. Industry leaders, researchers and policy makers from both urban and maritime sectors joined and shared knowledge and experiences from different fields and perspectives. The conference had six main themes:
- Business case & real estate development
- Spatial planning & architecture
- Food & energy production
- Ecological impact & nature-based solutions
- Governance & social impact
- Design & engineering of (infra)structures
Inspiring presentations and keynote speeches were given and showcased. Recently the recordings from all sessions have been made available to everybody. You can now watch them on Blue Revolution Foundation vimeo channel.
Floating development utilizes water surface in a smarter and more environmentally friendly manner. They can contribute to climate adaptation, energy transition and social justice. Let’s keep on Paving the Waves to valuing water and contribute to achieving UN Sustainable Development Goals, particularly #11 Sustainable Cities and Communities and #14 Life below Water.
