Close to half of the industrialized world now lives within a kilometre of the coast, indicating the long-standing attraction of the ocean. The sea increasingly presents an opportunity for colonization and a means for alleviating the pressure on coastal land. It also offers renewable energy sources, new materials and potential increases in food production. Very Large Floating Structures (VLFSs), especially pontoon-type VLFSs, represent an environmentally-friendly means of creating artificial land from the sea without destroying marine habitats, polluting coastal waters or altering tidal and natural current flow. This ground-breaking book begins with an introduction to VLFSs and some thoughts on the colonization of ocean space with their appearance in the waters off developed coastal cities. Each chapter covers an important component and area that is essential to the concept, analysis, design, construction and maintenance of VLFSs. These include: Wave Properties, Hydroelastic and Structural Analysis, Station Keeping System, Breakwaters, Maintenance and Anti-Corrosion Systems, Research and Development, Very Large Floating Structures is fully illustrated and contains pertinent equations describing the mathematical models for analysis, practical insights and a large body of references on VLFSs. This book is for professional engineers, academics and researchers in offshore and structural engineering and naval architects. It is also of use to students of undergraduate and postgraduate engineering programmes with an offshore and marine engineering specialization and naval architecture programmes. Book jacket.