How big could Dublin be?

Affable

Copenhagen is pretty big, in a country with about Ireland's population.
The Amsterdam area is huge, in Holland, not a massive country compared to France or the UK. Ireland doesn't seem that overcrowded and Dublin seems quite a financial centre, lot of immigrants want to come etc...how big could Dublin support being IYO?

ChocolateSauce

Dublin's metropolitan area = 6,980 km2

Major city with highest density (for most accurate result), Hong Kong, 6,326 km2

So assuming we were built up like Hong Kong and assuming we didn't expand the city any further, the answer is 44.15 million people. Hypothetically.

Dankoozy

its already too big, they don't have enough water to supply all of Dublin and they have to go as far as the Shannon to get water for Dublin. driving a car there is a complete pain, property is still far too expensive there and we already have too many people in this country who somehow think they are better and more technologically advanced than the rest of us because they live in the big smoke

Hookey

ChocolateSauce wrote: »

Dublin's metropolitan area = 6,980 km2

Major city with highest density (for most accurate result), Hong Kong, 6,326 km2

So assuming we were built up like Hong Kong and assuming we didn't expand the city any further, the answer is 44.15 million people. Hypothetically.

Except we'd go the "suburban sprawl" route if Dublin got bigger; unlike HK there's no reason to build up, so we'd build out. I'd certainly expect continuous suburbia all the way to Malahide in the north and Greystones/Kilcoole in the south in the next 30-40 years. Maybe further.

A Primal Nut

Dankoozy wrote: »

its already too big, they don't have enough water to supply all of Dublin and they have to go as far as the Shannon to get water for Dublin. driving a car there is a complete pain, property is still far too expensive there and we already have too many people in this country who somehow think they are better and more technologically advanced than the rest of us because they live in the big smoke

I'm from Cavan and live in Dublin and I've never met anyone here who thinks they are better or more technologically advanced than anybody else in Ireland. Thats in country people's imagination; like most people, they love to feel victimised.

Would love to see some skyscrapers in Dublin; that would rock.

Húrin

I could imagine some further expansion into the Dublin mountains but not much - they get pretty high pretty quickly.

There is room on the flat north side for significant further expansion.

However as Dankoozy pointed out due to water issues, Dublin is already too big and should not be encouraged to expand further.

irish_bob

Affable wrote: »

Copenhagen is pretty big, in a country with about Ireland's population.
The Amsterdam area is huge, in Holland, not a massive country compared to France or the UK. Ireland doesn't seem that overcrowded and Dublin seems quite a financial centre, lot of immigrants want to come etc...how big could Dublin support being IYO?

dublin has a larger population than copenhagen , the difference between ireland and the likes of the netherlands and the uk is , in ireland where you have a town , you then have often up to 10 miles of open spaces untill you even find another parish let alone a town , in the uk , big citys are often only 20 miles apart

Cool Mo D

Húrin wrote: »

I could imagine some further expansion into the Dublin mountains but not much - they get pretty high pretty quickly.

There is room on the flat north side for significant further expansion.

However as Dankoozy pointed out due to water issues, Dublin is already too big and should not be encouraged to expand further.

Dublin does not have unsolvable water issues - there is plenty of it around, and most is lost through leaks, which are very repairable. If water issues were a big enough deal to stop building over, you should tell 95% of the inhabitants of LA and Las Vegas to start packing.

ChocolateSauce

The main problem with expanding further north is that some of the most valuable farmland in Ireland is in north county Dublin. Same with going west. Really I think we should start building up.

Cianos

Dublin will not expand significantly for many years, if at all. It is a city built for a low density population, with badly planned urban sprawl spreading out in to housing estates with no connectivity to each other besides using a car or bad public transportation.

The commercial focus of Dublin (the city centre) is a tiny geographical area where rent prices are ridiculously high - hence the pattern of global brand names taking over the shopping streets one by one. Nearly all other surrounding areas do not have enough pedestrian traffic and lack the life and energy of the small city centre.

The prospects for small independent businesses to have a commercial presence in a high density area are really bad, so any new or interesting enterprises are restricted from setting up and benefiting from a lively urban area.

In satellite commercial centres such as Dundrum, Blackrock, Stillorgan etc again the focus is on a singular shopping area (or shopping centre), with low availability and high rent.

There is nothing to encourage growth in the city (and improve the economy of the country as a whole), since new enterprises are so restricted from starting up, and each suburban area is dull and lifeless because of very poor infrastructure.