Proposal
Ocean Hyacinth is a network of floating tidal marshes that will purify the contamination caused by the ship breaking process. During the continuous tidal water exchange on the Ocean Hyacinth, the combination of various soils, plants, animals, and bacterial will not only filter and break down the contaminants from the sea but also form a tidal marsh ecosystem as a floating island. In addition to revitalizing Alang’s natural costal ecosystem, we also propose the Ocean Hyacinth to become a platform for aquaculture facilities, tidal power generators, and lighthouses. The surface provides people a coastal park with beach space. The light power for navigating ships at night and general utility power for the island are generated by tidal energy.
Coastal Pollution
The contamination of estuaries poses a major threat to the costal ecology since these waters need to server as a nursery zone for many fish species and shellfish populations (e.g. shrimp, oysters, scallops and crabs). In this milieu, this project focuses on the severely broken costal site caused by the ship breaking process.
Ship Breaking
Ship breaking is a process of dismantling, recycling, and disposing of retired ships. Although there are a significant amount of materials that are reusable, recyclable, or safely disposable; significant amount of hazardous substances and chemicals are also released to the ocean. The tidal condition is the most important factor to settle the ship breaking site. The workers take an advantage of tidal system in order to deal with huge ships. The workers start breaking when the water reaches the ship and come back from work place when the tide is rising.
Site
Alang is a small coastal town in Bhavnagar district in the Indian state of Gujarat, India. Approximately 10 km long sea front on the western coast of the Gulf of Cambay adjoining to Alang-Sosiya village (50km from Bhavnagar by road) is developed as the largest ship recycling yard in the world. The linear coastal work place is seriously contaminated.
Image Credit | Jihyoon Yoon, Daekwon Park
Sounds like an exciting project. I build floating islands and have quite a bit of experience with them. Let me know if I can be of assistance.