how critical is passive stability?

The town of Blairmore, Alberta, Canada has a
population of about 6500, and is about 500 meters wide
by 3 kilometers long. It is nestled in the Crowsnest
Pass in the Rocky Mountains. I'd say that is on the
order of 250 meters wide (ie within one order of
magnitude). If there were tall buildings in that town
the population could be higher or more densely packed,
but from what I saw nothing is over two stories.

Ed

> >
> > On Jul 14, 2006, at 2:37 PM, joe@...
> >
> >> In fact, there's perhaps an interesting challenge
> for the group: can
> >> you find any town or village of at least 5000
> people, which is
> >> constrained by geography into a narrow strip on
> the order of 250 m
> >> wide?
> >
> > There are probably some towns in valleys in Bhutan
> that fit that
> > criterion. Paro has a population of 4500, but I
> can't tell how wide it
> > is, because Google Earth doesn't have good
> resolution in Bhutan, and I
> > can't find any online street maps.
> >
> > Also, last night I flipped through a book that
> reminded me of the cliff
> > dwellings at Mesa Verde, Colorado. It seems that
> the largest of those
> > (Cliff Palace or Long House) are smaller in area
> than you want, but
> > they have high aspect ratios and had peak
> populations near 1000:
> >
http://www.nps.gov/meve/cliff_dwellings/cliff_dwellings_home.htm
> >
http://www.nps.gov/meve/cliff_dwellings/cliff_dwellings_home.htm>