Ecumenopolis

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Ecumenopolis (from Greek: οικουμένη, meaning world, and πόλις (polis) meaning city, thus a city made of the whole world) is a word invented in 1967 by the Greek city planner Constantinos Doxiadis to represent the idea that in the future urban areas and megalopolises would eventually fuse and there would be a single continuous worldwide city as a progression from the current urbanization and population growth trends. Before the word ecumenopolis had been coined, the American religious leader Thomas Lake Harris (1823-1906) mentioned city-planets in his verses, and science fiction author Isaac Asimov uses the city-planet Trantor as the setting of some of his books.

Doxiadis also created a scenario based on the traditions and trends of urban development of his time, predicting at first a European eperopolis ("continent city") which would be based on the area between London, Paris, and Amsterdam (or the Blue Banana).

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[edit] As a Realistic Futurist Set of Predictions

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While the idea of one continuous global city plays itself out in a number of works of science fiction, the book itself was a serious attempt to consider long run landscape changes resulting from large scale urban expansion.

It was never conceived that all land on Earth would be paved over; rather that urban development would extend in ribbons across land masses. A review of the current nighttime lights of the earth reveals that this type of pattern has emerged in some places. This land development is highly correlated with economic development.

The global urbanized area extends across world regions along recognized transportation trunklines. For example, the Ecumenopolis in North America runs along I-95 from Portland, Maine down to Miami. In Southeast Asia, continuous development runs from Hanoi to Bangkok then down via Phuket to Singapore, then over to Indonesia and the island of Java, ending at Bali.

The total global population was modeled ranging from 15-50 billion. Doxiadis recognized constraints on development, and concluded a 15 billion global population, mostly concentrated along linear strips of urbanized development, was the likely scenario. It should be recognized that in this future growth scenario (1) development would level off and be sustainable, (2) most of the global land area would remain open space.

A more environmentally friendly version can be conceived, with a global population of 8 billion, 80 percent of which would live in metropolitan areas that roughly map out a global ecumenopolis type of settlement pattern. In this case, primary resource production requirements are reduced and there is more open space amongst the development. Settlement patterns may range from exurban large lots in places to densely settled nodes like Hong Kong and Mexico City. Overall, average development densities might approximate the suburbs of England and Japan, with either row houses or townhouses with garden areas, or single family houses on very small lots.

Given a new wave of technology, perhaps starting sometime in the 22nd century, a new growth spurt could remake the global landscape, and increase population to 50-100 billion or more. This could over time produce a landscape more similar to the imaginations of science fiction writers thinking of a highly developed and populated capital planet of a set of federated planets. The science fiction scenarios were not, though, how the author of the book perceived future global development.

[edit] Fictional treatments

In modern science fiction, the ecumenopolis has become a frequent topic. Capitals of galactic empires are typically portrayed as ecumenopoleis. Famous examples are:

[edit] See also

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