Forget Waterworld - this amazing floating city could use freshwater from melting icebergs to generate power and grow its own foo

Glaciers are melting at unprecedented speeds and the problem is only getting worse.

But while policy makers are left scratching their heads, a group of French students believe they have come up with a Waterworld-type solution to make use of the nutrient-rich water, the Daily Mail reports.  

Their concept, dubbed Arctic Harvester, envisions the creation of large villages and towns that float around the Arctic while ‘eating’ icebergs.

They hope the floating hydroponic communities will help grow local food for Greenland, which currently ships in almost all of its produce from overseas.

‘The floating facility is equipped to house a community of 800 people, inspired in its compact urban form by vertically oriented, bayside Greenlandic villages,’ wrote Meriem Chabani, a student at the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture Paris Malaquais.

Ms Chabani, who is working alongside fellow students Etienne Chobaux, John Edom, and Maeva Leneveu, told FastCoExist that they were struck by the idea that Greenland's icebergs support such rich localised ecosystems.

‘An iceberg is an oasis,’ she said. ‘We had what seemed to us a massive resource on one hand, and a massive lack - no local produce - on the other.’

Arranged in a circular form, the Arctic Harvester floats on the water and delivers icebergs into its central bay.

Here, freshwater from the iceberg goes to hydroponic greenhouses to grow fruit and vegetables, which are then delivered to towns along the coast.

‘The central bay is thus the heart of the Harvester’s agricultural process, the centre of its sustainable energy production, as well as an ice garden, offering social spaces and floating communal greenhouses for use by the inhabitants,’ said Ms Chabani.

The propeller-less Arctic Harvester would drift with the currents that carry the icebergs, often circling the ocean currents between Greenland and the coast of Labrador.

Solar panels would provide power for both plants and people during the long summer days.

Meanwhile an osmotic system, which generates power from a combination of saltwater and freshwater, fills in any energy gaps to power the community.

Last year, the concept won first prize in the ‘Innovation and Architecture for the Sea’ category of the Jacques Rougerie Foundation International Architecture Competition.

The team is now working with Polarisk Analytics, a London-based consultancy that works in polar regions, to develop their idea further.