Growing Pains
Backstory: How much room do you need to live comfortably? Perhaps a three-bedroom house, or a single room in an apartment complex. This is a highly subjective question with as many answers as there are people in the world. As human population grows worldwide the question of required space per individual becomes even more important. The long-term question becomes, “Will we have enough room for everyone at the current population growth rates?”
Activity: Think carefully about how much space, in square feet, you need to maintain a moderately comfortable lifestyle. Let’s say you feel fine with a large room approximately 14 × 14 feet in size. Multiply these two numbers to obtain the total square footage: 196 ft2 in this case. Now look up the total area of the county in which you reside currently (or perhaps choose your hometown’s county). Type your town’s name followed by the word “area” into any online search engine and you should get the data (in square miles) you’ll need for this activity. Now convert the square footage that you need into square miles using a square foot to square mile converter, also found on the web. Finally, divide the county area by your space requirements in square miles to find the number of people your county could hold if everyone had the same space requirements that you have. Now address the following:
How many people, based on your calculations, could your county theoretically hold?
What is missing? Keep in mind that you need to have resources for people such as shopping centers, roads, water treatment plants, firehouses, etc. Create a more thorough list of needed space for other required resources.
What about aesthetic requirements such as parks, swimming pools, hunting property, etc.? What other additional requirements do you feel are necessary to live comfortably? Think about everything that might take up an area of land.
Based on your data, is your county capable of continued growth? Are you in a high growth area, such as a major suburban county, that may be experiencing congestion already? Is there enough room to avoid future growing pains?
What impact, if any, would including apartment complexes have or your totals? Is this important in areas with limited land availability?
Activity results are being submitted...