As floating city developments attract global attention as potential solutions to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals and to address coastal land pressures, increased flooding and rising sea levels, the complexities associated with permitting frameworks and the legal consequences for deployment of floating city projects are intensifying. This project examines legal issues related to the development of floating structures and floating extensions of cities, including:
- Development of the legal definition of the floating city;
- Public trust doctrine and the role of trustworthy decision-making in relation to developmental incursions into ocean space;
- Legal personhood and vulnerabilities in novel rights for marine environmental assets; and
- Regulatory reform and the potential use of floating artificial reefs under Blue Carbon and Ocean Carbon methodologies.
Chief Investigator
Research publications
- Brydon Wang (2023) ‘Regulatory Reform and the Potential Use of Floating Artificial Reefs Under Blue Carbon and Ocean Carbon Methodologies’, 42nd International Conference on Ocean, Offshore & Arctic Engineering (OMAE), Melbourne 11–16 June (peer-reviewed, unpublished).
- Valeriya Komyakova, Brydon Wang, Dan Luo and Nic Bao (2023) Submission on the Draft Policy on Fish Aggregating Devices and Artificial Reefs. Submission made to the Great Barrier Reef Park Authority (invited by the Director of the Marine Park Policy and Planning Section of the GBRMPA to the Workshop on the Draft Policy for FAD and Artificial Reefs 23 June 2023).
- Brydon Wang (2023) ‘An Updated Model of Trust and Trustworthiness for the use of Digital Technologies and Artificial Intelligence in City Making’, Media Architecture Biennale (MAB21), Toronto 21-26 June.
- Brydon Wang and Amanda Kennedy (2023) ‘Animating Environmental Personhood in the Great Barrier Reef: Vulnerablity in Novel Rights and Legal Fiction’, Legal Person and River Rights Workshop, Sydney 6-7 Jul.
- Brydon Wang and Amanda Kennedy (2023) ‘Environmental Personhood, Legal Fiction and Vulnerability in Novel Rights’, IUCN Academy of Environmental Law Colloquium 2023, Joensuu, Finland 31 July – 4 August (conference presentation).
- Brydon Wang (2023) ‘Development of the legal definition of the floating city: judicial interpretation and case law on the structural characteristics of floating homes and developments’, World Conference on Floating Solutions 2023, Tokyo, Japan 28-30 August.
- Xiao Lin Zhao, Jianguo Dai, Xiaoli Ding, Rutger de Graaf-van Dinther, Chien Ming Wang, Brydon Wang (2023) ‘Developing a sustainable and smart floating structure solution for enhancing liveability in Hong Kong’s crowded built environment’, World Conference on Floating Solutions 2023, Tokyo, Japan 28-30 August.
- Wang, Brydon & Mark Burdon (2021) Augmenting Superintendent Discretion: Trustworthiness and the Automation of Construction Contracts. In ANU Journal of Law and Technology, 2(1), pp. 119-49.
- Wang, Brydon and C. M. Wang (Eds) (2021) Automating Cities: Design, Construction, Operation and Future Impact. Springer, Singapore.
- Wang, Brydon (2021) The machine metropolis: Introduction to the automated city. In Automating Cities: Design, Construction, Operation and Future Impact. Springer, Singapore.
- Wang, C. M. & Brydon Wang (2020) Floating solutions for challenges facing humanity. In Reddy, J.N., Wang, Chien Ming, Luong, Van Hai, & Le, Anh Tuan (Eds.) ICSCEA 2019: Proceedings of the International Conference on Sustainable Civil Engineering and Architecture. Springer, Singapore, pp. 3-30.
- Brydon Wang (2019) ‘Floating cities: the future or a washed-up idea?’, The Conversation, 3 June.
- Wang, C. M. and Brydon Wang (Eds) (2014) Large Floating Structures. Springer, Singapore.
- Wang, C. M. and Brydon Wang (2007) Colonization of the Ocean and VLFS technology. In Very Large Floating Structures. Taylor & Francis
Funding
- CCC Small Grant
