At the end of this century 85% of mankind lives in a city. That’s more than 8.5 billion people. These cities will need twice as much food as today. That’s why North Sea Topicon wants to open new frontiers for human and ecological progress.

North Sea Topicon is a platform which allows top-sectors to join in collaboration towards solving some of the greatest challenges facing civilization. Through knowledge exchange, top-sector cooperation and interdisciplinary expertise, it will generate a business case for contemporary solutions to large challenges.

Cities are mainly situated in vulnerable delta areas that are increasingly threatened by flooding. At the moment, the annual worldwide damage amounts to more than 5 billion euros. In the next 35 years alone, this will increase to 45 billion euros through urbanization in coastal areas.

The effects of climate change are not even included in this. Due to the enormous urbanization and other global developments, we will be short of 22 million square kilometers in 35 years. Roughly as much as the total land surface of North America.

To respond to these enormous global challenges, innovation is needed. The way in which we build cities must be fundamentally different. The water offers unprecedented opportunities for this. 70% of our planet consists of water. Moreover, most cities are on the coast.

See reference paper: Mapping Opportunities for Floating Urban Developments in Port Cities (2018).