Random Thought: Minimum Size of a Vault

[TomJ]

I had this thought a few days ago when I was walking through the local mall and saw an ad for Fallout 4. I just thought how big the mall I was in would compare to that of a Vault. So I did some math and figured that the minimum square footage for a Vault would be around 501,000 square feet or 46,545 square meters.
Breakdown of Space

• 300,000 square feet for living quarters: 300 units at 1000 square feet per. I assume could house 1200 people. And yes I know that's 200 people more than lore, I wanted even numbers.
• 50,000 square feet for food production. I found out that a 6000 square foot system can feed 240 people. That system needs 10,000 square feet of space. 5 systems feeds the 1200 people.
• 75,000 square feet for other production. I assumed two hydroponics systems would be used for medicinal plants and growing Hemp. And 30k of space for things like chemical and consumer goods production. And the reactor level is in this estimate.
• 20,000 square feet for common areas. Recreation, Educational, Overseer's office, Atrium, Clinic and such.
• 56,000 square feet devoted to corridors.

Mind you, the mall I was in has 1.3 million square feet of sales space. So two Vaults could fit in a mall and that just seems mind boggling enough for me to share.

 

[The-Artist-64]

The numbers of Fallout always gave me trouble. Logically, I thought, there weren't enough people to form a huge standing army and have at least a thousand expended every year? That, all while having the majority be farmers and traders. I mean, sure, it's been two centuries and generations have increased in size, but my brain still couldn't wrap around it.

I always thought that there had to be a few more in vaults than they were proposing. 1,200 sounds better to me. As for the analysis, that seems about right. Don't forget to include the storage rooms and armories, though.

 

[Hassknecht]

The question is if 1000/1200 people is actually enough genetic diversity.
The estimates for minimum viable populations (mostly done for multigenerational starships) range from only 80 (with lots of social engineering and careful planning) to up to 40000, accounting for accidents, diseases, and catastrophes as well as maximum genetic diversity (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094576513004669).
40k people would be a lot bigger, though, the living space alone (assuming your 1000 sq ft figure) would be 10 million sq ft.

 

[TomJ]

The question is if 1000/1200 people is actually enough genetic diversity.
The estimates for minimum viable populations (mostly done for multigenerational starships) range from only 80 (with lots of social engineering and careful planning) to up to 40000, accounting for accidents, diseases, and catastrophes as well as maximum genetic diversity (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094576513004669).
40k people would be a lot bigger, though, the living space alone (assuming your 1000 sq ft figure) would be 10 million sq ft.

From what I've gathered, 200 people would be fine with what they were doing. I have sort of assumed that there are larger Vaults out there. Either military or Enclave or what have you. I also assumed 1000 square feet for a family of 4 because that's what my family had in the 1950's for five people. 4 people would be needed for most families just to maintain a stable population with some families having 3 just to keep things balanced. But that would lead to growth over time because Vaults are rather safe, assuming the experiment is benign, unlike 106.

The numbers of Fallout always gave me trouble. Logically, I thought, there weren't enough people to form a huge standing army and have at least a thousand expended every year? That, all while having the majority be farmers and traders. I mean, sure, it's been two centuries and generations have increased in size, but my brain still couldn't wrap around it.

I always thought that there had to be a few more in vaults than they were proposing. 1,200 sounds better to me. As for the analysis, that seems about right. Don't forget to include the storage rooms and armories, though.

I kinda figured that all the storage would be in the common areas of near the production areas. Long term Vaults wouldn't need to store as much since the people would have to deal with being isolated.