Rising sea levels are changing lives and threatening land suitable for agriculture. Growing enough crops to meet the demands of ever-growing population will be a major challenge when we would not be having land for agriculture. A team of designers has turned their attention to the issue and has come up with Sunleaf, a modular hydroponic floating agricultural system for urban coastal environments that allows offshore, locally sourced agriculture. The team looks at the sea level rise as an opportunity and aims to use largely underutilized ‘sea water’ as land.
Designed by Jason C. Cheah, Idrees Rasouli, Sebastian Wolzak, and Roshan Sirohia, the Sunleaf is basically a floating dock with a greenhouse on its top. The Sunleaf floating garden modules, costing a mere $50 each, connect with each other using tiled walkways. The same allows farmers to ted crops with minimum maintenance. While the 1W solar panel drives root aeration, the rainwater is collected and used for irrigation. Since the Sealeaf system is modular, farmers will be able to have aquatic farms of any size.While Sealeaf may take a long time to go into production, it looks to be a promising solution for the future.
Via: Co.Design/CutForth
