History Main / CityOnTheWater

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 setting or a FloodedFutureWorld.

* ''Franchise/GhostInTheShell'':
** ''[[Manga/GhostInTheShell Ghost in the Shell: Man-Machine Interface]]'' (the manga) features Poseidon Industrial's artificial island city, where Motoko Aramaki's real body is typically stored.
** [[Anime/GhostInTheShell1995 The second film]] has an android manufacturer that bases its factory on a ship [[spoiler:because they're dubbing the ghosts of young girls into their robots]].

* Neo Venezia in ''{{Anime/ARIA}}'', naturally, since it's a replica of Venice.
* The first ''Anime/PsychoPass'' movie takes place primarily in a floating city owned by a Southeast Asian government in the Pacific called Shamballa.

[[folder:Film]]

* ''LightNovel/TheAsteriskWar'': Rikka, the series' main setting, is an artificial island-city based on a crater-lake in North Kanto.

* ''VideoGame/{{Pokemon}}'':

* 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 each other forming temporary honeycomb-like archipelagos.
* ''Webcomic/{{SSDD}}'' has the Britannia, a massive ship built on an iceberg that England's wealthy fled to when the Anarchists took over.
* In ''Webcomic/TheKennyChronicles'' Tarnekis, genetically engineered [[HalfHumanHybrid human-animal hybrids]] are largely forced to live on converted cruise ships. The sequel series, ''Ferrets vs. Lemmings'' takes place on an artificial island.
* In ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'', there are a number of these (although we only see the one) in the future of Alpha Timeline Earth after the Condesce floods the planet, where Roxy and the timeline's Exile population live. Unlike the shiny high-tech version of this trope you usually see in science fiction, these are ugly blocks of prefab housing stated to be basically floating slums, since the well-being of her subjects isn't terribly high on the Condesce's list of priorities.
* In ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'' the capital of the United Nations of Sol is Dom Atlantis, a megalopolis of some 4 billion situated in the North Atlantic.

''VideoGame/{{Pokemon}}''

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

* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'': In Ixalan, the closest thing the closest the pirates of the Brazen Coalition have to a capital is the city of High and Dry, a collection of derelict ships lashed together and kept afloat. It originally grew around two ships that became hopelessly entangled after ramming into each other, with more and more ships being added over time until it became a full-sized settlement. It usually floats off of Ixalan's northeastern coast, and serves as neutral "ground" for the pirates to meet, unwind and strike deals with each other.

** The populace of the water-world Mon Calamari live in giant floating cities. One half is above water for the Mon Cals and air-breathing visitors, one half underwater and flooded for the Quarren.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Cyberpunk}}'': [=MetaKey=], an artificial island owned and operated by [[MegaCorp MetaCorp]] and the brainchild of Joseph Meta. The city is a libertarian paradise where the only illegal thing is endangering the city itself, and has become a haven for all kinds of dealings the megas don't want people to find out about.

** The Rising Tide expansion pack for its SpiritualSuccessor, ''VideoGame/CivilizationBeyondEarth'', also allows players to build cities on ocean tiles. Ocean cities work very differently to land-based cities, with increased production rates for naval units and certain buildings, while facing other challenges, such as Kraken attacks and obstructive Hydra-coral growths. A new Sponsor, the very British/Scandinavian-flavoured North Sea Alliance, gives a number of bonuses to oceanic cities. According to the fluff, the founder of NSA is famous for pioneering the concept back on Earth with the so-called [=ARCs=], one of which he personally piloted to an island nation in danger of flooding and handed it over to the locals, earning himself international fame. Aquatic cities are unable to expand borders by accumulating culture (buying hexes with cash still works) but can build a recurring project that moves the city one hex upon completion, which expands borders. There is even an achievement for crushing an enemy unit with a city (difficult to do, since everyone can see the warning "arrow" coming from the city towards a particular tile). This way, aquatic cities can act as mobile bases for an invasion and an impromptu aircraft carrier.

* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind'' has the city of Vivec, [[{{Egopolis}} named after]] its eponymous [[PhysicalGod God-King]], off the southern coast of Vvardenfell. It consists of nine "cantons", tiered artificial islands connected by a maze bridges. It is the largest city in the game as well as headquarters of the [[CorruptChurch Tribunal Temple]] whose [[ChurchPolice Ordinators]] serves as city guards.

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hulk_(ship_type) Hulks]] are repurposed ships' hulls which function as a small-scale version of this trope. With their sails or engines removed, they're not going anywhere, allowing them to be used for many different purposes purposes like storage or [[PrisonShip incarceration]].

* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilRevelations'': Terragrigia

* Aether Paradise, in ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'', is an artificial island where the Aether Foundation is headquartered and where most of its members live. Its intended purpose is a conservation area for endangered Pokémon, so it was built this way to be far away from any other human civilization and structured and controlled exactly how the Aether Foundation needs it to be. Said remoteness, however, also [[spoiler:allowed them to perform experimentation on Pokémon, brainwashing sessions, and dangerous Ultra Space wormholes in total secrecy under the leadership of Lusamine.]]

* The pirate city of Armada in ''Literature/TheScar'' takes this trope UpToEleven, being built of thousands of ships, large and small, of every conceivable design roped together en masse.

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 due to the idea of international waters where a nation's jurisdiction no longer applies. This is an oversimplification of actual laws and treaties regarding the high seas as there are still some laws that apply universally like those against piracy, but the allure of an unregulated frontier is a strong one in the popular imagination and thus in fiction.

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.

* ''Webcomic/TheLegendOfGenji'': The Ocean Folk are an indigenous group that originated on the Earth Kingdom's eastern shores. They are famous in-universe for building floating cities atop ocean waters using vines and clay.

* ''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 [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome swamped by a vast rogue wave]].

* The 1933 German film ''F.P.1'' involves a floating airport that would have solved the entire [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Atlantic_gap Mid-Atlantic Gap]] problem if they'd actually gone and built it.

!!Examples:

** [[Anime/GhostInTheShell The second film]] has an android manufacturer that bases its factory on a ship [[spoiler:because they're dubbing the ghosts of young girls into their robots]].

* The Greg Mandel trilogy by Creator/PeterFHamilton. Listoel is a flotilla of former oil tankers and ore carriers converted into cyber-factory ships powered by thermal-exchange generators, operating outside Britain's territorial waters to create consumer goods to be smuggled into a Communist-controlled Britain. Most of the cyber-factory ships are now docked in British harbours prior to being transferred onshore, but Event Horizon keep it going to supply energy to Britain and as a base for their [[NGOSuperpower more hardline operations]].

* The Greg Mandel trilogy by Creator/PeterFHamilton. Listoel is a flotilla of former oil tankers converted into cyber-factory ships powered by thermal-exchange generators, operating outside Britain's territorial waters to create consumer goods to be smuggled into a Communist-controlled Britain. Most of the cyber-factory ships are now docked in British harbours prior to being transferred onshore, but Event Horizon keep it going to supply energy to Britain and as a base for their [[NGOSuperpower more hardline operations]].

* The Greg Mandel trilogy by Creator/PeterFHamilton. Listoel is a flotilla of former oil tankers converted into cyber-factory ships powered by thermal-exchange generators, operating outside Britain's territorial waters to create consumer goods to be smuggled into a Communist-controlled Britain. That government has collapsed but at the time of the novel Listoel is still operating, though most of the cyber-factory ships are now docked in British harbours prior to being transferred onshore.

* The Greg Mandel trilogy by Creator/PeterFHamilton. Listoel is a flotilla of former oil tankers converted into cyber-factory ships, operating outside Britain's territorial waters to create consumer goods to be smuggled into a Communist-controlled Britain. That government has collapsed but at the time of the novel Listoel is still operating, powered by thermal-exchange generators.

* Frequent in RealTimeStrategy games that involve naval combat (most ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer'' titles, for example): The ship-building structures are constructed directly at sea.
** Then there's the Black Tortoise from ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert3'', a huge floating fortress. It's also possible to make base in water, certain structures such as refinery's, power plants, and airbase can be built on water.

* 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.

* ''VideoGame/QuantumProtocol'': The art of the city indicates that it's an island, but in the penultimate dungeon, it's revealed that the island is being balanced by a machine so it doesn't tip over, indicating that the island is artificial.

* In ''Franchise/StarWars'', the populace of the water-world Mon Calamari live in giant floating cities. One half is above water for the Mon Cals and air-breathing visitors, one half underwater and flooded for the Quarren.

* ''VideoGame/QuantumProtocol'': The art of the city indicates that it's an island, but in the fourth dungeon, it's revealed that the island is being balanced by a machine so it doesn't tip over, indicating that the island is artificial.