At Trending City we always enjoy sharing innovative projects that help clean up the negative impacts of urbanisation and now one well known car company is doing just that!

As pollution of our global waterways worsen and increased urbanisation reduces native landscapes many have searched for solutions. It is estimated that in Sydney, Australia more than half of the shorelines are artificial.

Volvo has teamed up with the Sydney Institute of Marine Science and Reef Design to create the Living Sea Wall.

The roots systems of mangroves are home to many organisms filter-feed of pollutants purifying the water. Prior to urbanisation and the construction of seawalls much of Sydney harbours shoreline was lined with these mangroves. The Living Sea Wall is designed to imitate these root systems providing a habitat for these organisms.

The system will consist of 50 tiles that mimic the route systems of mangroves. These tiles will be installed on existing sea walls throughout Sydney harbour allowing for these filtering organisms to colonise the walls over time. In addition to this researchers will monitor this project over the next 20 years to analyse the changes in biodiversity and water quality due to these sea walls.

Could we see similar projects implemented in other parts of Australia and around the world?

To check out more from Volvo here, Reef Design Lab here or here for Sydney Institute of Marine Science. For other similar projects click here or here

Images Courtesy of Volvo Australia - here