I’ve been thinking about trying to depict some of the ideas from this conversation: https://slrpnk.net/post/12735795, using a sort of flat, diagram-like style similar to this old photobash:
Though a bit more complex. The obvious answer is ‘don’t build cities in swamps’ but we already have a bunch of them, and though I don’t live there I recognize that they have a lot of unique cultural and historical value and are peoples’ homes, so I’m interested in what a solarpunk-adapted version of these would look like.
At the same time, I know basically nothing about New Orleans or similar areas, have no background in civil engineering, and no qualifications to make this except for the capability to do so using an old version of GIMP. So I’d absolutely love to identify issues, places to make improvements, and things that are missing now rather than once I’ve spent days chopping up images and finessing them into something coherent.
So what’d I get wrong? What’s unworkable, out of scale, or dangerous? What style of buildings or cultural touchstones would you like to see? What kind of plants are missing?
A few things. First of all the dolphins for the house boats need to be much taller. When you have flooding they have to be above the waterline to have the house boats not float about and so nobody rams them, which would be bad for the boat.
Amphibious public transport is not that great of a solution. Boats can be easily larger then a bus and with proper waterways, which a city would have. In terms of capacity a fairly small boat can easily carry as many passengers as a tram. They also are more efficent without wheels in water. Also you have a problem with doors and other parts which need to be opened often on a bus, since those nearly have to be under the waterline. That also is somewhat true for the ropeway. A ferry connection would be just as fast and can have the same capacity. So a ferry elevate rail interchange might be better.
Good point on the dolphins!
The amphibious public transit idea came from another discussion where someone suggested them so they could double as a fleet of rescue/evacuation vehicles. They basically wanted sturdy buses that wouldn’t stall when traversing a few feet of water, and which didn’t pose as much risk of getting stranded. I don’t know if that makes them any more practical or if a flood-prone city would just maintain a fleet of buses and a fleet of boats for rescue situations. Duckboats would almost definitely be harder to maintain than either one separately, but they might justify the cost if it means they’re getting their money’s worth by using them normally for public transit?
I think you’re absolutely right that a ferry connection would be easier to set up and maintain.
People are making a lot of good points about boats, but on the other had, I know that indigenous people, poor communities, and communities outside main developed areas use boats a lot just fine! I wonder what the difference is–I was thinking about this earlier. Maybe, in a swamp city (not just water, but kinda salty water, which is even worse), we want to go all in one quick biodegradables–stuff that only lasts for a year or two but then is easily composted. Natural materials, and then digging out the canoes or whatever is a community activity! This wouldn’t work for emergency vehicles, because they wouldn’t be motored and wouldn’t go that fast, but it would prevent big waves from like disrupting houseboats like someone said.
One of the ways that maybe the traditional biomes shown in solarpunk might not translate as well to my city: they really seem to want infrastructure that lasts near-forever, and I literally don’t think that’s possible here. We’re just too storm-battered, too humid, too wet. I’d definitely wanna see what more people think about short-use biodegrades. I know solarpunk hates single-use and waste, but I think maybe this doesn’t count if the materials compost well?
I hate cars and car-centric urbanism, so maybe this is a way to make sure the use of boats doesn’t just become the way cars are in New Orleans today–a slower pace of life, you have to paddle the boat. More like bikes than cars that way/
I’ve heard Roman concrete can withstand and even be strengthened by salt water.