Event: WCFS2019: SINGAPORE

World Conference on Floating Solutions, 22-23 April 2019
Venue: Faculty of Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore

Introduction

Singapore, once a third world country under British rule, is today the most expensive city in the world according to a 2018 EIU survey. It has achieved striking success in its land reclamation projects to support its urban and economic growth. 25% of its original 578 sq. km footprint has been reclaimed from the sea. Despite this, in the same time period, its population grew by 380%, creating an urban environment that makes it the world’s densest country.
In 2013, a White Paper was released by the government essentially preparing this island nation for further population growth that would see it grow from the current 5.7 million to 6.9 million by 2030. The Ministry of National Development projected that Singapore would need to find space amounting to 56 sq km. However, land reclamation has become more challenging year by year, as sand mining is now seen to be ecologically damaging and banned by countries that 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. In August 2018, the Society organised a one-day desminar on floating farms for a sustainable future. The seminar speakers include Mr Peter van Wingerden (CEO and founder of Belandon) who gave a talk on farming on water, Mr Leow Ban Tat (Founder and Managing Director of AME2) who spoke on floating fish farms, Dr Shinjo Sato (Nihon University) who spoke on floating composite plant factory, Mr Morten Lund Hoffman (Multiconsult Asia Pte Ltd) who gave a talk on floating structures in Norway and Mr Gary Wong (Keppel Offshore and Marine) who spoke on repurposing offshore technology to unlock the potentials of sea space
Continuing on this journey, the Society is organizing a World Conference on Floating Solutions with a view of elevating international awareness of the benefits of floating structures.

Who should attend?

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.

Registration

In order to register for the conference, please visit this link:
https://tinyurl.com/WCFS2019