History Main / CityOnTheWater

A fairly common feature in near-future works is cities built on artificial islands in the middle of the ocean. Often they are built to alleviate overcrowding on land, especially when ClimateChange causes sea levels to rise and envelop coastal cities, but just as often they are sites for {{Mega Corp}}s to do things that may or may not exactly be "legal" in most conventional nations.

* ''Fanfic/Plan7Of9FromOuterSpace''. Gneelix proudly shows off holographs of his past adventures. One shows construction workers proudly standing on the deck of a newly completed mid-Atlantic seadrome. The next image shows the same group fleeing in terror as the floating airport is [[RealityEnsues swamped by a vast rogue wave]].

* Qaanaaq in ''Blackfish City'' by Sam J. Miller, where the events of the novel take place. There's also mention of a flotilla of US navy ships that is all that's left of the United States federal government.

* ''Plan 7 of 9 from Outer Space''. Gneelix proudly shows off holographs of his past adventures. One shows construction workers proudly standing on the deck of a newly completed mid-Atlantic seadrome. The next image shows the same group fleeing in terror as the floating airport is [[RealityEnsues swamped by a vast rogue wave]].

A fairly common feature in near-future works is cities built on artificial islands in the middle of the ocean. Often they are built to alleviate overcrowding on land, especially when GlobalWarming causes sea levels to rise and envelop coastal cities, but just as often they are sites for {{Mega Corp}}s to do things that may or may not exactly be "legal" in most conventional nations.

* Tenochtitlan, capital city of the Aztec civilization, was mostly built of "floating gardens" constructed around islands in a large lake. What is left of the city is located in the middle of modern-day Mexico City.

** [[MyRulesAreNotYourRules Yevon's capital city Bevelle]] built atop the water, something Wakka doesn't seem to acknowledge, [[spoiler:foreshadowing the revelation of Yevon's true face.]]

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'', Lulu tells the story of a city that was once built entirely atop a river, only to sink after its supports collapsed. Wakka condemns [[AdvancedAncientHumans those who built it]] as only doing so for the sake of defying nature, and according to Yevon's teachings, such hubris is the reason Sin exists to begin with.
** Lulu later mentions that [[MyRulesAreNotYourRules Bevelle is also]] [[{{Hypocrite}} built atop the water]] (something Wakka doesn't seem to acknowledge), [[spoiler:foreshadowing Yevon's hypocrisy.]]

** Lulu later mentions that [[MyRulesAreNotYourRules Bevelle is also]] [[Hypocrite built atop the water]] (something Wakka doesn't seem to acknowledge), [[spoiler:foreshadowing Yevon's hypocrisy.]]

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'', during the Shoopuf ride, you learn about the city built over the ocean, which was built just because it could be. Needless to say, it got destroyed by Sin and sank to the bottom.

Related to UnderwaterCity, which is when the colony is underwater instead of on it. Likely to also be a CityOfCanals, and sometimes part of an OceanPunk world.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'': The Tilean city of Miragliano is crossed by a network of canals, seven large ones and many more narrow ones, that the natives use as roads, and which are often filled with a procession of boats and elegant barges.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'': In ''The Traveller Adventure'', the planet Heguz is an [[SingleBiomePlanet Ocean Planet]]. It has had two colonies, both set up on large floating bases. Both colonies mysteriously disappeared without a trace.

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': In ''TabletopGame/{{Mystara}}'', one module features a floating city built on giant wooden platforms, kept above water by an enchanted idol that makes everything linked to it unsinkable.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'': The Taotake live on the seas in nomadic fleets of thousands of ships, which often grow large enough to serve as floating, moving cities in their own right. Many of their component boats are large enough to house full-sized mansions or to bear covering of earth in which orchards and food crops are grown.

* Atlantis, from ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' (in addition to being capable of becoming an UnderwaterCity should the need arise).

* Franchise/GhostInTheShell:

* Creator/DavidBrin's novel ''Literature/{{Existence}}'' has artificial islands popping up as sea levels rise. However most of them are resorts for the super-rich or havens for questionably legal biotech experiments. China has a "shoresteading" program for desperate people to try and make the upper levels of flooded mansions in what used to be Shanghai liveable.

* The Skeezers in ''Literature/GlindaOfOz'' live in a [[DomedHometown city]] suspended over the middle of a lake. In times of danger they can magically submerge the entire city for protection, turning it into an UnderwaterCity.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'': The Taotake live on the seas in nomadic fleets of thousands of ships, which often grow large enough to serve as floating, moving cities in their own right. Many of their component boats are large enough to house full-sized mansions, or to bear covering of earth in which orchards and food crops are grown.
* ''TabletopGame/TranshumanSpace'': The supplement ''Under Pressure'' mentions "drifters", people who've dropped out of society by purchasing old cargo ships and converting them into small or medium sized habitats. ''Cities on the Edge'' has a section about the floating island industry in the Maldives, made out of seacrete and artificial coral. Most of these islands are just big enough for a single dwelling, but there are larger ones, and the smaller ones sometimes congregate into temporary cities, as do drifter vessels. It's generally assumed by land-dwellers that these cities are {{Wretched Hive}}s.

** A major gameplay element, as any faction can create sea based settlements as well as the standard land based ones, in contrast to the VideoGame/{{Civilization}} series where only land based cities are permitted. The Nautilus Pirates faction starts the game with such a settlement and can create an ocean empire faster than the others. If a land base has a Pressure Dome building, it will no longer be destroyed during flooding thanks to global warming. Instead, it will turn into a sea base. Any sea base can become a land base, if the water level drops (e.g. global cooling).

** Then there's the Black Tortoise from ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert3'', a huge floating fortress. Its also possible to make base in water, certain structures such as refinery's, power plants, and airbase can be built on water.
* ''VideoGame/{{Brink}}'' is set aboard The Ark, an experimental floating colony designed to be completely self sufficient.

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'', during the Shoopuf ride you learn about the city built over the ocean, which was built just because it could be. Needless to say, it got destroyed by Sin and sank to the bottom.

* Ancient civilization in ''Webcomic/GiftsOfWanderingIce'' was very fond of floating cities. Each of them had an impressive underwater part, just like an iceberg, and their hexagonal platforms could connect with eath other forming temporary honeycomb like archipelagos.

* [[https://www.amusingplanet.com/2016/01/neft-daslar-city-built-on-oil-platforms.html Neft Daşları]] in the Caspian Sea, the world's first offshore oil platform that grew into a city constructed on top of ships that had been sunk to form a foundation, drilling platforms and connecting bridges.

* UsefulNotes/{{Venice}}, although it's not in open sea, is probably the best known example we have today.

** ''VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire'' has Pacifidlog Town, a small town on floating platforms connected by gangplanks.

* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': In the first season, the Fire Nation has a TailorMadePrison for earthbenders: a giant offshore platform built entirely out of metal (metalbending wouldn't be discovered for another season). One of the reasons TheMovie is so reviled is that it replaces the platform with a quarry, making the earthbenders' plight less "nothing to help us escape" and more "we can't be bothered to escape". ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' has a similar situation with Ghazan's prison, out at sea and made entirely of wood (Ghazan isn't a metalbender, but they're known to exist by then) and without a speck of dirt anywhere. As we find out during his escape, Ghazan is a ''lavabender'', and just having a few pebbles on hand is enough for him to create a buzzsaw out of lava.

** PokemonRubyAndSapphire has Pacifidlog Town, a small town on floating platforms connected by gangplanks.

* [[https://www.amusingplanet.com/2016/01/neft-daslar-city-built-on-oil-platforms.html Neft Daşları]], the world's first offshore oil platform that grew into a city constructed on top of ships sunk to form a foundation in the Caspian Sea.

* Classic ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'' supplement ''The Traveller Adventure''. The planet Heguz is an [[SingleBiomePlanet Ocean Planet]]. It has had two colonies, both set up on large floating bases. Both colonies mysteriously disappeared without a trace.

* One of the TabletopGame/{{Mystara}} modules for Basic/Expert/etc ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' features a floating city built on giant wooden platforms, kept above water by an enchanted idol that makes everything linked to it unsinkable.
* The ''TabletopGame/TranshumanSpace'' supplement ''Under Pressure'' mentions "drifters", people who've dropped out of society by purchasing old cargo ships and converting them into small or medium sized habitats. ''Cities on the Edge'' has a section about the floating island industry in the Maldives, made out of seacrete and artificial coral. Most of these islands are just big enough for a single dwelling, but there are larger ones, and the smaller ones sometimes congregate into temporary cities, as do drifter vessels. It's generally assumed by land-dwellers that these cities are {{Wretched Hive}}s.

[[quoteright:350:[[Series/StargateAtlantis https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/stargate_atlantis.jpg]]]]

* The ''Anime/PsychoPass'' movie is set to take place primarily on a floating city owned by a Southeast Asian government in the Pacific called Shamballa.