Atlas

It is estimated that 83% of the U.S. population lives in urban areas, up from 64% in 1950. By 2050, 89% of the U.S. population and 68% of the world population is projected to live in urban areas.

  • Urbanization is the process through which cities grow, and higher and higher percentages of the polutlation comes to live in the city

  • Urbanization refers to the population shift from rural to urban areas

As the US continues to urbanize the population will continue to accumulate in mega regions depopulating the rural areas; up to the point where they can no longer maintain the tax base to operate municiple, county, and even state governments in the most extreme cases.

Regions

Cascadia

Shared with Canada

Northern California

Southern California

Arizona Sun Corridor

Very high temperatures and water shortages. Possible power shortages to run AC.

Could be a major smuggling cooridor if the Northern Mexio territories continue as they are or get worse over time.

Front Range

Federal government operations, museams, et all are moved from DC to the federal corridor due to sea level rise. If Brazil can move their capital so can we. This would be massivly disruptive to all kinds of things.

Texas Triangle

Gulf Coast

Has been hit hard by rising sea levels, decline in fisheries, and fossil fuel industry.

New Orleans. May or may not be completly flooded.

Shared with Mexico

Florida

Average elevation above sealevel (ASL) is 6’.

Miami is already suffering from clear sky flooding, salt water interusion in aquifiers, and climate gentrfication.

Would expect to see more building collapses like the Champlain Towers as salt water erodes the limestone and corrodes foundation pilings.

Piedmont Atlantic

The appalachia area contains a massive subterranian urban infrastructure. Protects infrastructure from hurricanes and other disruptive storms.

It’s a major manufacturing center and transshipment hub between the Atlantic ports, Gulf of Mexico, and Great Lakes.

Old mines have been retrofitted as informal communities and tied into the various tunnel systems; unofficially of course. The worst sections resemble a 40K under-hive.

Great Lakes

Holds 84% of North America’s surface water and about 21% of the world’s surface fresh water.

St. Lawrence Seaway

Northeast

Assume that there would be massive engineering projects to hold back the rising tide as long as possible. Would probably start similar to the Thames gate and Venice sustems and grow from there.

  • How long could it be kept up?

  • What gets protected

  • What has to be abondoned

Other major cities will have the same issues and handle them with varing degrees of success and/or competance.

Special Locations

Gulf of Mexico

Lots of wierd and interesting communities living on the abandoned oil rigs.

  • Aquaculture

  • Synthesizing compounds from remianing oil and gas reserves

  • Smuggling

  • Pirate radio stations or the resonable equivalent

New Venice

An area of a city that was abondoned to sea level rise.

Night City

Located between Northern and Southern California.

Territories

All of the Continetal United States (CONUS) outside of the mega regions.

Basically it’s a return to the old west where we had territorial governments over huge areas of land and very limited federal resources.

Lot’s of room for shenanigans like the Lincoln County War, range wars, smuggling, train robberies, hijackings, fueds, etc.

Assume that there are also a modern equivalent company towns built around various exploitable resources.

References