How to Handle Sea Levels in Maldives Tourism

Considered one of the world's last remaining beach paradises, the Maldives has been facing the threat of submersion since time immemorial. As the lowest-lying country on the planet, the Maldives sits at a meagre altitude of less than 2m from the surface of the ocean. This means that rising sea levels due to climate change can have a disastrous impact on the archipelago made up of more than a thousand small islands. Here's the Maldivian government's most innovative solution against this threat.

1. Rising Sea Levels

Although the Maldives faces a particularly perilous risk due to rising sea levels, the United Nations World Meteorological Organisation has announced that many other countries and coastal communities are facing a similar threat. Nearly 40% of the world's population live less than 100km away from the coastline and according to the WMO Secretary-General Professor Petteri Taalas, the need to protect these people is "urgent". As a nation made up of atolls, the Maldives not only face the ordinary threats of storm surges and coastal hazards but complete submersion if the climate change crisis is left unaddressed. One of the biggest hazards the Maldives may face include "king tides" that can quite literally wash away habitable islands and pieces of land. Climate change and heavy rains and storms mean that these types of tides are inevitable.

2. Building Resilience

Organisations such as the World Economic Forum, the UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for the Ocean and the Friends of Ocean Action have come up with various strategies to build coastal resilience. Hosting events in the past couple of years, all of these organisations have been focused on how to solve the crisis facing the world's island nations and the ocean at large due to pollution and other harmful human activities behind climate change. The Maldivian government, which once hosted a cabinet session underwater to emphasise the great threat faced by the paradise archipelago, have thus devised a floating city solution to combat the issue.

3. The Design and Sustainability

The Floating City that is being built by the local government of the Maldives is set to be unlike the high-end resorts such as Adaaran Club Rannalhi and the many other properties providing luxury accommodation in Maldives. Tipped to be a self-sufficient"island city", the Floating City is being constructed on a lagoon just a hop and a skip away from the country's international airport and capital Male. Architects and building teams from Dutch Docklands and Waterstudio are in charge of this project as the latter is responsible for developing a similar floating housing solution in the Netherlands. Waterstudio was instrumental in creating an urban grid on the water to cater to the environmental needs of the Netherlands and its rapidly changing living conditions.

4. The Floating City

The design and the aesthetic of the Floating City have been inspired not only by sustainability factors but also by the main attractions of the Maldives as a tourist hotspot. The coral reefs, which are instrumental to the eco-system and the countless travellers that visit the country from all corners of the globe, are one of the focal themes of this floating metropolis. Shaped like a hexagon, the segments of the development have been designed to resemble the unique geometry of coral reefs in the Maldives. Floating City will be connected to a number of islands that will serve as a ring-shaped barrier, and the builders of the Floating City hope that the rising sea levels will not impact the structural integrity inside the lagoon. The structure, which has not required the government to reclaim land, is also environmentally sound and will not have a negative impact on the natural ecosystem of the Maldives.

5. Affordable Housing Solutions

The Floating City will include a series of canals, docks, overpasses and low-rise buildings while the homes and offices located inside the city will also be using renewable energy sources.