Designing self-sufficient floating neighborhoods using computational decision support

Floating settlements, which introduce further design complexities over traditional developments, have become an alternative for urban development due to climate change and shortage of land. This study aims to develop a floating settlement concept that presents an approach to the design of floating neighborhoods using parametric modelling techniques in combination with Intelligent Decision Support tools and optimization methods. Optimization results of two algorithms, namely NSGA-II and DE are compared regarding to objectives. The objectives considered in this study are walkability within the neighborhoods, scenic view and cost-effectiveness. Results suggest that DE performs better than NSGA-II in this problem. An application of the method is presented, focusing on the design of floating neighborhoods in the project area namely Urla which is a seaside place along the coastline of Izmir, Turkey.