There has been some recent discussions on arcologies and urban combat. While I know little about military equipment and doctrine, I know a great deal about urban environments. I offer this discussion to anyone interested:
Whether a suburb, a major metropolitan center or a future Arcology, all urban environments have certain basic infrastructure needs.
1. WATER needs to be purified and distributed in pipes under pressure and with pumps. As a general rule, the larger the population the bigger the pumps.
2. SEWAGE needs to be removed which requires more pipes and pumps.
3. POWER needs to be provided to every room in every building, usually via electric wires (although gas pipes could serve in some applications). Electric power requires generation equipment and a variety of transformers to massage the power to satisfy the needs of different users (a bedroom in a single family residence has very different power needs than a factory that refines aluminum ore.
4. COMMUNICATION needs more cables and wires. Some wires (like fiber optics) require special protection. Behind the communications scene are many large computers.
5. TRANSPORTATION requires an infrastructure to move people from home to work to shopping to other locations. The stores need to be able to receive regular shipments of bulk supplies (the entire contents of a typical grocery store is replaced every 3 days on average – so they need to receive 1/3 of their entire stock every day).
6. RESIDENCES require small shipments of supplies at frequent intervals plus the ability to deliver large items and infrequent intervals (like furniture).
7. SOLID WASTE requires an infrastructure to collect, remove and process all of the garbage.
8. EMERGENCY SERVICES require access to every area so Fire Fighter can control a fire, an Ambulance can transport an accident victim to a medical facility and police can fight crime.
All of this infrastructure requires maintenance, upgrades and replacement – that demands access. The unavoidable result of these basic needs is that the vast majority of any and every urban area will be within a short distance of a ‘road’ able to accommodate large vehicles (the typical design minimums are 7+ meters of paved vehicular use area designed to accommodate the passage of a roughly 2.5 m x 15 m vehicle). Virtually every room will be within 30 meters of such a vehicular access space and all critical infrastructure will be immediately adjacent to this access space.
What is an arcology?
It is not a really big apartment building with elevators and long halls. Imagine instead building a small city that is 1 km x 1 km. It has narrow streets and are ‘pedestrian friendly’ but can accommodate emergency vehicles. These streets are lined with buildings of uniform height (probably 3 to 5 stories, but 60+ stories is possible). Now imagine placing a 1 km x 1 km concrete slab over the top of the entire city and building another similar city on top of the slab. Keep alternating between buildings and slabs until the entire structure is as tall as you need (probably 60 stories or less at our current TL ). Maximum height is primarily limited by elevator technology – who wants to be locked in an elevator for 30 minutes while it travels to the top floor. Where modern cities and towns are connected by long horizontal highways, the ‘towns/levels’ in an arcology require a vertical transportation network.
With grav vehicle technology, the outside edges of the arcology could be open, allowing an air raft to fly out of level 4 and re-enter at level 25. In the case of a less friendly environment (like a toxic atmosphere) it might be better to seal the outside wall and create large vertical traffic shafts inside the arcology. Remember that delivery ‘trucks’ and emergency vehicles will require this vertical access, it is not only for private air rafts. At pre-grav TLs, it would probably be more economical to build a horizontal city rather than an arcology (with a dome for weather protection if needed). A large vertical elevator to transport vehicles could be constructed to establish a pre-grav arcology if desired. Several proposals for a ‘vertical train’ have been suggested.
In conclusion, combat in an arcology will be virtually identical to any other urban combat environment.
Whether a suburb, a major metropolitan center or a future Arcology, all urban environments have certain basic infrastructure needs.
1. WATER needs to be purified and distributed in pipes under pressure and with pumps. As a general rule, the larger the population the bigger the pumps.
2. SEWAGE needs to be removed which requires more pipes and pumps.
3. POWER needs to be provided to every room in every building, usually via electric wires (although gas pipes could serve in some applications). Electric power requires generation equipment and a variety of transformers to massage the power to satisfy the needs of different users (a bedroom in a single family residence has very different power needs than a factory that refines aluminum ore.
4. COMMUNICATION needs more cables and wires. Some wires (like fiber optics) require special protection. Behind the communications scene are many large computers.
5. TRANSPORTATION requires an infrastructure to move people from home to work to shopping to other locations. The stores need to be able to receive regular shipments of bulk supplies (the entire contents of a typical grocery store is replaced every 3 days on average – so they need to receive 1/3 of their entire stock every day).
6. RESIDENCES require small shipments of supplies at frequent intervals plus the ability to deliver large items and infrequent intervals (like furniture).
7. SOLID WASTE requires an infrastructure to collect, remove and process all of the garbage.
8. EMERGENCY SERVICES require access to every area so Fire Fighter can control a fire, an Ambulance can transport an accident victim to a medical facility and police can fight crime.
All of this infrastructure requires maintenance, upgrades and replacement – that demands access. The unavoidable result of these basic needs is that the vast majority of any and every urban area will be within a short distance of a ‘road’ able to accommodate large vehicles (the typical design minimums are 7+ meters of paved vehicular use area designed to accommodate the passage of a roughly 2.5 m x 15 m vehicle). Virtually every room will be within 30 meters of such a vehicular access space and all critical infrastructure will be immediately adjacent to this access space.
What is an arcology?
It is not a really big apartment building with elevators and long halls. Imagine instead building a small city that is 1 km x 1 km. It has narrow streets and are ‘pedestrian friendly’ but can accommodate emergency vehicles. These streets are lined with buildings of uniform height (probably 3 to 5 stories, but 60+ stories is possible). Now imagine placing a 1 km x 1 km concrete slab over the top of the entire city and building another similar city on top of the slab. Keep alternating between buildings and slabs until the entire structure is as tall as you need (probably 60 stories or less at our current TL ). Maximum height is primarily limited by elevator technology – who wants to be locked in an elevator for 30 minutes while it travels to the top floor. Where modern cities and towns are connected by long horizontal highways, the ‘towns/levels’ in an arcology require a vertical transportation network.
With grav vehicle technology, the outside edges of the arcology could be open, allowing an air raft to fly out of level 4 and re-enter at level 25. In the case of a less friendly environment (like a toxic atmosphere) it might be better to seal the outside wall and create large vertical traffic shafts inside the arcology. Remember that delivery ‘trucks’ and emergency vehicles will require this vertical access, it is not only for private air rafts. At pre-grav TLs, it would probably be more economical to build a horizontal city rather than an arcology (with a dome for weather protection if needed). A large vertical elevator to transport vehicles could be constructed to establish a pre-grav arcology if desired. Several proposals for a ‘vertical train’ have been suggested.
In conclusion, combat in an arcology will be virtually identical to any other urban combat environment.
