Artificial floating islands for environmental improvement

This paper provides a review of the artificial floating island (AFI) concept, structure, and functions. This review discusses the potential advantages of AFI technology for a variety of applications that include nutrition removal, biomass production, aquaculture and agriculture, as well as wastewater and stormwater treatment. The paper briefly discusses the role of a numerical model in the decision making process for choosing appropriate scale of AFI system for the sites to be treated. Besides suggesting potential future research prospects, this paper also raises certain drawback issues that AFIs may post to the environment. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.