subways and sewers

--- In spacesettlers@y..., "Brad Walsh" wrote:
>
> >My own thoughts are leading me to a vision of a habitat that has
an
> >extensive infrastructure "underground". I'd even venture the
> >opinion that a substantial transportation network could even be
> >incorporated. Now whether that transportation system would be
> >comprehensive, I'm not so sure, but I think it could be
incorporated
> >and service the majority of residents. Now that doesn't mean it
> >would have to be public transportation. It could be a network for
> >electric personal vehicles, Skytran systems, etc.
> >
> >I'd even go so far to as put storage, factory, and support
> >facilities underground. I'd preserve the above ground buildings
for
> >housing, schooling, recreation and office space.
>
> I'm for hiding the ugly stuff too, but consider how inflexible
your world
> will be if one can only live in sites to which the planners have
put water,
> wires and transportation connections. A few decades of cylinder
> civilization will probably suffice to prove to people that a
little normal
> human chaos is necessary for survival.
>

I'm not necessarily advocating an approach that plans the whole
community like Disney's Celebration townsite, where paint schemes
and house designs must be approved by town council.

I think we've all seen the difference between developed property and
raw property. If there is no sewer pipe, water main, or electrical
grid running near your acerage, then there's no way you're going to
have those services.

On the other hand, developed properties have all of those services
laid in, and it's up to the builders, owners, to decide how much
human chaos they'd like in the design of the buildings.

Also, many communities have official community plans. I'd expect the
same thing for a habitat, with high density sections, parks,
schools, suburbs, etc all laid out with all utility and
transportation capacity planned in advance and then the details
would be left to those who want to build there.

A habitat planner might have to contend with a few factors that
their earthside associates wouldn't even dream about. For instance,
how about mass distribution of the buildings throughout the habitat.
Too many buildings concentrated in too small an area may destabilize
spin.

I can't plausably see a situation where a bare habitat is opened and
construction takes place willy nilly. That could happen on earth,
because the construction would take place on LAND, whereas, in a
habitat, we wouldn't be building on Terra Firma, rather we'd be
building inside a large-scale vessel. I think it would all have to
be engineered and many factors would have to be calculated.