Important Innovations Collection: Floating 'Forests' Protecting Shores
|Source: University of Queensland|
Dissipating Wind and Wave Damage
This is new innovation from Australia designed to protect coastline areas from wind and wave damage during natural disasters like hurricanes. Civil engineers at the University of Queensland have designed and patented what they call "Floating Forests". The structure is a floating concrete breakwater topped with a windbreaker. The breakwater dissipates the energy of the oncoming waves and the windbreaker of "trees" is composed of 65 foot tall tubes of concrete and plastic that reduce the force of the wind. The structure is a half mile long and is specifically designed for coastal areas that get hard hit by hurricanes/cyclones. For more details, go to my fellow journalist Ed Kane's blog at Important Innovations Collection: Floating 'Forests' Protecting Shores: New Innovation from Australia Source: University of Queensland Preventing Hurricane Wind and Wave Damage In Australia, a team of ci...