Tekniania City (Continued)

Kivoli (the island on which Tekniania City is located) is the largest island in Tekniania, with just over 2900 km2 of volcanic island. Even before the inception of the Allied States, Kivoli was one of the largest trade and culture centres in the entire Teknianian Ocean (their name for the ocean where they are located) south of the equator.

As a result, after the Acts of Unification were drafted and ratified by all of the first Teknianian states, Kivoli was, naturally, chosen to be the capital island unilaterally, and plans were drawn up for a new governmental centre there. Anything outside of what the government needed was not planned, but was more or less allowed to develop naturally, with the State only stepping in with major public works projects and reforms, such as the building of the Tekniania City Underground, the tram network and the construction of the international airport.

After a period of heavy industrialisation, the State of Kivoli stepped in and designated more than half of the island a “Mixed-Use Nature Reserve”. This, in short, means that no industrial buildings can be built here, but blocks of flats and private homes can be built here, so long as they are built sustainably and with due regard for nature and allow native plants and animals to pass through undisturbed.

This, however, did not come easily. Many resisted the changeover from an industry-and-extraction-based economy over to an eco-friendlier one based primarily on the IT, tourism and fishing sectors. During the course of this de-industrialisation campaign, many environmental crimes were discovered, the damage from which is still being repaired to this day.

After all was said and done, a period of relative peace and quiet set in on Kivoli for roughly 20 years. This was, of course, until the Kitanatehugiha Tectonic Event. This was a large scale chain of earthquakes, tsunamis and volcano eruptions, all over a period of roughly 3 months. During this time, more than 50 earthquakes were registered on 37 different islands, which caused a number of tsunamis to head off to even more islands, and that’s not even mentioning the 4 volcano eruptions, one of which formed an entirely new island some 300 kilometres away from Kivoli and another one from Mount Munboia on Kivoli, which, at that point, had been dormant for more than 500 years.

As you can probably imagine, this Event caused more than 4 billion Teknianian pounds in damage and cost the lives of some 5,000 people, most from the earthquakes, with an estimated 100,000 more suffering from injuries ranging from minor lung damage to lost legs and arms and an unknown number of people suffering injuries that may or may not have contributed to them dying prematurely.
After these events, Tekniania City (and Kivoli as a whole) was left devastated, and required repair works on almost all buildings, even those that were supposedly built to be disaster-proof. This was when the Central Floodwall project was instigated, which required an additional billion tp to be built over the course of 15 years.

Most infrastructure was either damaged beyond repair or completely destroyed, so the State embarked on a campaign of “Rebuild Better”, and started a vast array of public works projects, ranging from the establishment of a cycle lanes and streets across the island to a regional rail service that can take people from anywhere on the island to City Central (the main rail station in Tekniania City) in 10 minutes.

Most of the Kivoli shoreline is a beach, which is frequented by people of all ages at all times of the day, with the bay of Kivoli being a particularly popular beach, though the true Kivolians know to avoid it, and to go to the other, just as beautiful beaches, just with less crowds.

Tekniania City, as the seat of the federal government, has always been a target for, shall we say, unfriendly, people. Thus, there are a number of military bases here: 3 for the Sea Guard, a helicopter base for the Air Guard and another one for the State Guard and several barracks dotted around the island (both for the State and Land Guards), not including the large Council Guard population and massive police force, or the enormous Allied Guard Command complex at the base of Mount Munboia.

Now, after the bans on automobiles and aeroplanes, Tekniania City has become a guiding light in green city-planning, along with the rest of Kivoli. All residents have access to high-quality, cheap public transport, enjoy free sporting venues (tennis courts, football pitches, etc.) and an excelling IT sector, providing software and hardware to roughly 5% of the world’s total population.