How large would a mega structure have to be to host 1 billion people indefinitely?

Ruins of buildings, abandoned cities and suburbs dot the coasts of Earth's landmasses, inhabited by wild animals and the pieces of a once vibrant civilization. The oceans are relatively empty, the soil and dirt sapped of all its nutrients, the vegetation on earth fighting the strong winds clinging to the loose ground. Barren. Humanity seems all but gone, the planet destroyed by ignorance of its most feral inhabitants.

The inhabitants did not leave though; they retreated into their shelters to wait out the storm. The shock and fear that came with the last harvest prompted the citizens of the world for answers. Out of the chaos came Arthur Hawking, a architecture and food scientist from ICBC/Coke/Pepsi. He brought the idea of a self sustaining structure to the masses, the possibility of having everything a human needed in one building. Agriculture would occupy the majority of the structures space, but automated farming would allow a consistent flow of product to the population.

Yuma Arizona was chosen to host the structures, a small town in the south west corner of what was Arizona. This city experience the most sunlight in a year, ideal for the arrays of solar panels that would be used to supplement the nuclear power generators build into the structures. The buildings were originally going to be just for some united states citizens who could afford it, but mass hysteria after "the last harvest" made these structures seem like the only resort for all people in the world so the interest skyrocketed and the world flocked to Yuma, 10 billion people in 2081.

How large would one of these towers have to be to host 1 billion people? My story takes place in 2081 (just read this book), and I am looking to accurately scale the buildings in my head and story. Ideally 10 of these would fit into Yuma, so they would scale vertically more then horizontally. They need to account for agriculture space, living space, and some general use space that would likely be equal to the living space (schools, research facilities, clothing fabricators, restaurants etc.). The plan is to wait out the storm, which likely would be about 1000 years (for a healthy topsoil and native animal population). Once everyone is in the structures, each one will be sealed from outside physical contact to allow nature to develop undisturbed by humans, and to restrict any potential crop blight to a single structure.

EDIT: These structures are too large to fit exclusively in Yuma, so for the sake of future answers I will allow the structures to exist in the entire Yuma County.

EDIT 2: Thanks for the help, along the way I was shown this book/site and now feel like I have to recommend it. If this interested you check this out.

posted almost 5 years ago

Alex‭

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