The Ulsan City Government has officially launched what it calls an “underwater city” project, upon winning a central government business project where new technologies will be built and maintained to sustain an underwater living environment for people.
According to the city government on Thursday, the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries has selected the southeastern coastal city for the project. With a project grant of 31.1 billion won ($25 million) from the ministry, the city government will carry out the project with the Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology (KIOST) using total funds of 37.3 billion won until 2026.
For the project, the southeastern coastal city will develop technologies to create an underwater residential habitat for a maximum of five people at a depth of 50 meters in the ocean.
Ulsan City will also construct a working prototype for a modular-type underwater living space where up to three people can live at a depth of 30 meters.
Through the project, Ulsan City hopes to develop new technologies such as equipment that will allow them to analyze marine environments, as well as carry out underwater construction, by using unmanned equipment, creating underwater energy supplies and communication, monitoring the health of underwater inhabitants and securing their safety.
“It’s a meaningful project that pioneers an unchartered space under the oceans and thus expands habitable spaces for humanity,” an official from the city government’s Oceans, Ports and Fisheries Division said. “We hope the city’s new challenge can propose a new way to prepare for the climate crisis and shortage of resources.”
The modular underwater living space will be comprised of the main module, a habitation module, a chamber module and a data center module. Courtesy of Ulsan City Government
The ministry selected Ulsan because the ocean water off the city coast possesses ideal conditions for carrying out an underwater research project in terms of turbidity (the cloudiness or haziness of a fluid), tide levels and temperature. The seabed has been stable without any major earthquakes for the last 20 years, proving that the area has a comparatively high level of safety against natural disasters. The city also has shipbuilding and offshore plant technologies that are globally recognized.
The city government and KIOST will execute the project in a step-by-step process, from designing the underwater module spaces to constructing them, to operating them and developing technologies to maintain the facility. Each step will go through a performance test.
Their joint research and development begin this year, starting with analyzing the traits of the seabed along with the sea conditions of the project’s testbed. It will be followed by designing the underwater facility’s main module, habitation module, chamber module, and data center module. Construction and performance tests for the facility will be complete by the end of 2026.
“To realize an underwater living space that is completely independent of land, we need various technologies working in unison, from underwater construction robots and offshore plant technologies to those that allow underwater telecommunications, energy storage and utilization,” the city government official said. “The project, once completed, will greatly improve the city’s local industry and future competitiveness.”
Once the project is successfully accomplished, it is expected to open the way for follow-up test projects, such as establishing a marine natural disaster forecast system against earthquakes and tsunamis, as well as building an underwater data center with high energy efficiency, and safety and tourism packages allowing underwater living experiences.
