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"We are coming to a point in our history in which we need to start looking for more space," Han Admiraal, a civil engineer with over two decades of experience in underground space, told AFP on the sidelines of this year's World Tunnel Congress.
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"Underground spaces could easily be used for growing crops," he said, as he toured the cavernous Bourbon Tunnel, dug deep under the Italian city of Naples as a potential escape route for King Ferdinand II of Bourbon after the 1848 riots.Scientific developments in areas like aquaponics—where vegetables and fish are farmed together—could help relieve the pressure on the food supply chain, and dramatically cut transport costs if such new farms were situated under cities.
Isn't excavation expensive?
(Score: 2) by DutchUncle on Friday May 10 2019, @07:50PM (1 child)
Even some of the populated urban/city areas are only marginally livable (or were considered so before the advent of air conditioning). There's an awful lot of open flat land in the Central Time Zone.
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Saturday May 11 2019, @03:08AM
My point was that there is no need to dig expensive holes. There is plenty of space above ground. Buildings where people live and work are a very small percentage of land use. Most human impact on the environment is farming. Putting up greenhouses and growing more per acre would free up more space and be much cheaper than digging giant caverns.
The whole notion of We are running out of space and need to dig holes to live in is due to living in the middle of a city where land is expensive. It may be economically possible in the city, but I think it is likely cheaper just to build upwards. Either way you have to support any level above the basement. Putting a skyscraper in a hole doesn't make the skyscraper cheaper, it just adds the cost of digging a hole.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.