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Busan Metropolitan City to Host the 3rd Floating Smart City Forum to Explore a Sustainable Urban Model

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Busan Metropolitan City Mayor Park Heong-joon announced that the City will host the 3rd Floating Smart City Forum at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow (the 17th) at Signiel Busan.

This forum has been jointly organized by Busan Metropolitan City and the public–private joint task force for floating smart city development, together with the Korea Ocean Science and Technology Council.

The forum will bring together approximately 150 experts and stakeholders in the floating smart city field and will proceed with an opening ceremony followed by presentations and discussions across three thematic sessions, focusing on core technologies and research outcomes for realizing floating smart cities.

The opening ceremony will feature a welcoming address by Busan Metropolitan City, a congratulatory address by the Busan Metropolitan Council, and a keynote speech by Kim Seong-tae, Chair of the Public–Private Joint Task Force for Floating Smart City Development, marking the official opening of the forum. This will be followed by presentations and discussions led by experts in each field across the three sessions.

Session 1

Under the theme “Harnessing New Opportunities in the Marine Floating Infrastructure Industry,” the first session will examine sustainable development strategies for the marine floating infrastructure industry—an area gaining prominence amid climate change and various global factors—as well as the role of government.

Key topics include:

• ●New and diverse opportunities in the marine floating infrastructure sector

• ●A framework for implementing floating cities by integrating various functional modules such as energy, mobility, data, logistics, and smart farming

• ●Establishing foundations and environmental conditions for the realization of sustainable floating smart cities

Session 2

The second session, titled “Mooring Technologies for Floating Offshore Cities and Renewable Energy Utilization Technologies for Offshore Floating Structures,” will discuss core technologies essential to realizing floating smart cities.

Key topics include:

Mooring technologies for floating offshore cities

• ●The importance of mooring facilities as a core element of floating cities

• ●Ensuring stability, environmental friendliness, and sustainability of mooring facilities

• ●Presentation of mooring facility design processes and proposed support structure types

• ●Proposals for using construction materials based on marine waste

Renewable energy utilization technologies for offshore floating structures

• ●Renewable energy technologies applicable to offshore floating structures

• ●Methods and case studies for utilizing seawater thermal energy

• ●Verification of stability and operational methods for offshore solar power systems to mitigate wave impacts

Session 3

In the third session, titled “FLORA (Floating Infrastructure Research Group): Multipurpose Modular Offshore Floating Platform Technologies,” presentations and discussions will focus on advanced floating platform technologies.

Key topics include:

• ●Design criteria, numerical analysis, and simulation technologies for floating platforms applicable to coastal offshore environments, as well as detailed design of steel and concrete modules and large-scale water tank test results

• ●Current development status and key issues of next-generation floating infrastructure technologies

• ●The vision for floating technologies to be utilized in coastal development and future marine infrastructure construction

Busan Metropolitan City plans to comprehensively review the diverse opinions and outcomes of discussions presented at the forum, further concretize its implementation strategy for floating city development, and actively incorporate them into each stage of future project execution.

Meanwhile, the floating smart city initiative is a floating city development project aimed at responding to the climate crisis and realizing a carbon-neutral urban environment based on future innovative technologies. Floating cities are gaining attention as a new alternative for climate refugees living in coastal cities whose livelihoods are threatened by sea-level rise caused by climate change. Busan Metropolitan City is pursuing this project—the first of its kind in the world—to proactively secure related industrial technologies and create new future growth engines.

Previously, the City hosted the 1st Floating Smart City Forum (2022), the Busan Floating Smart City International Conference (2023), and the 2nd Floating Smart City Forum (2024), through which it has presented its vision for floating city development and continuously explored phased implementation strategies.

Im Gyeong-mo, Assistant Mayor of the City-wide Innovation and Balance Office of Busan Metropolitan City, stated, “Floating smart cities represent a meaningful attempt to realize a sustainable urban model based on future technologies. I hope that the technological and policy achievements shared through this forum will serve as a practical driving force for floating city development and further strengthen Busan’s competitiveness in emerging marine industries.”