As I'm writing my little novella which is set in 2029, one of the things that really makes doing so enjoyable to me is checking facts and figures in my fictional setting, and then cross checking them with actual events, items or places to determine how reasonable or feasible they are.
Maybe you'll find it interesting, or maybe not. In any case...
In the case of my story, I'm forced to consider a couple of places that for personal reasons I have a fondness for, being Rocinha, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Hak Nam (more commonly referred to as Kowloon Walled City), that once existed in Hong Kong. Those two places that I'm rather familiar with I then compared with Mega-City One from the series, and in my story "MR1" or "Mega-Region 1" (a condensed and densified currently existing "Northeast Megaregion").
The Numbers:Though I'm having a tough time pinning down Mega-City One's area as it fluctuates, for this exercise I've decided to shrink it down to the smallest size I've found, and then apply the highest population. Roughly that means an area surrounding N.Y.C. and Washington, D.C., and then connecting them up.
Mega-City One:25,000km
2 area; 800,000,000 pop.; 32,000/km
2 pop. density av..
MR1~2029:22,304km
2 area; 417,000,000 pop.; 18,697/km
2 pop. density av.. ("Pastoral Zones" = 51,211/km
2 p.d.a.)
Rocinha, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil:1.44km
2 area; 69,356 pop. (2010); 48,164/km
2 pop. density av.
Hak Nam, Kowloon, British Hong Kong:0.027km
2 area; 50,000 pop. (1990); 1,851,852/km
2 pop. density av.. (peak 1,920,000/km
2)
For those unfamiliar with Rocinha and Hak Nam, I've included some photos from the web below.
Rocinha:
Hak Nam from roughly 1975 (when I'm most familiar w/it) Sing Tao to the left:
Hak Nam as it eventually grew to before demolition:
Hak Nam Cross-section:
Perform some web searches, there are a lot of photos and they were/are really fascinating places that to put it bluntly, just seem to work.
K2
