Local Ecology: The City of Alexandria - Essay Example

? LOCAL ECOLOGY (Alexandria, VA, USA) of (affiliation) LOCAL ECOLOGY The of Alexandria is located in the Commonwealth of Virginia, which is along the west side of the Potomac River. It is a high-income city due to its proximity to Washington, D.C. where many federal agencies and offices are located. Its population is only about 147,000 which translate to a population density of approximately 9,400 people per square mile. Its total area is 15.4 square miles (15.2 sq. miles of land and 0.2 sq. miles of water); Alexandria is a very historic place because of the key role it played during the American Civil War. Alexandria was declared an Eco-City in 2008, which means its inhabitants have promised to use the bare minimum for its consumption of food, water, energy use, and land utilization (a reduced carbon footprint and in pollution) and at the same time preserve its historic heritage. In other words, it has endeavored to achieve planned development and progress but together with environmental sustainability. Alexandria has a fertile soil (ideal for crop cultivation, especially tobacco), an excellent fishing ground from its waterways, and good hunting in its forests, although admittedly, the city is a relatively small geographic area compared to other metropolitan areas of the country. This was its original condition back when it was still a colony, but today, modern developments in it had altered its ecology due to anthropogenic disturbance (human intrusions) such that only small areas or habitats are left in their original pristine conditions unchanged since the first European settlements in the sixteen century. This is why the citizens of Alexandria are very cognizant of its ecology, altered due to its early forest conversions, plantations, logging (Rice, 2009, p. ix) and in fairly recent period (in the last few decades), modern real estate developments. Alexandria is too aware of the fragility of its natural environment, which was why it declared itself an eco-city to raise public awareness of the need to manage its ecology better and preserve its biodiversity. The specific factors that characterize and describe the local ecology of Alexandria is its vast natural resources, rivers, waterways, rolling hills and mountains, broad valleys and large plains with a wide variety of flora and fauna. These various species exist in a number of inter-locking relationships, among which are predation, competition, symbiosis (mutualism, parasitism and neutralism); Virginia has established a Department of Conservation and Recreation under its Natural Heritage Program. Alexandria is included in this state program, which has on its own initiative declared itself an eco-city, as mentioned earlier. A significant milestone achieved by the city of Alexandria was the closure of its coal-fired power generating plant as of December 31, 2012 which significantly improved the air quality in its immediate environs. The closure and decommissioning of the GenOn Potomac River Generating Station or PRGS was part of its Environmental Action Plan, which had also included the establishment of several hike, walking and bike trails, a high solid-waste recycling rate, operation of hybrid buses, installation of more solar power panels, pursuit of a sustainable Green Building Policy, and the adoption of 20 environmental factors (criteria) that will measure its eco-sustainability progress. All these are designed to reduce carbon emissions and other greenhouse gases, which contribute to global warming, and in turn, cause climate change (City of Alexandria, 2013, p. 1). Alexandria is serious with its environmental programs, and many areas previously used for human activities had been restored, rehabilitated, or allowed to return to its natural state in a long-run non-interference or non-intervention policy (that is, these areas are allowed to revert back to their natural state, eventually) and to ensure nature conservation, designated as protected areas off-limits to human exploitation; it has won praises and many awards for its programs. The human activities which have impacted adversely on the local ecosystem of Alexandria are continued development, increasing population density, and higher demand on water resources in which the city is largely dependent on the Potomac River as a source of its potable drinking water. In this line, the city attracts newcomers who are largely more affluent than existing residents; these new people are less likely to use public transportation and oftentimes, own several vehicles, which in turn contributed to increasing traffic congestion. Additionally, these new residents drive the demand for new office and residential high-rise condominiums, again contributing to higher population density. As a result, the city has a big problem with storm water runoff, because the ratio of impervious solid surfaces (roadways, buildings, parking lots, shopping malls, etc.) is now increasing in relation to permeable (porous) areas that absorb rain water; it means there are more hard cement and asphalt surfaces today. Council members have called for a more comprehensive urban planning, whereby designs for city living should be consistent with the criteria set by urban planners, namely: vitality, sense, fit, control, and access as advocated by pioneer urban planner David Lynch (Ford, 1999, p. 248). One way by which global warming can potentially affect the city of Alexandria is the rise in the global temperatures, making its air pollution to worsen, because its forest lands would be reduced. The city has already undertaken mitigation measures, foremost of which was closing its old coal-fired power plant but this improves air quality only within the immediate vicinity. Other areas are still subjected to higher air pollution from neighboring states. The city has also been trying to reduce gas emissions further, by discouraging the use of motor vehicles and asking people to bike instead. Compared to other areas in the world, Alexandria is not going to be much affected by the global warming phenomenon; instead, its potential problems are mostly localized in nature that is quite consistent with continued growth. It can still take some measures to avoid the more common problems of really big cities or metropolitan areas. For example, its compact land area makes it ideal to adopt an urban planning model based on compact development by reducing the vehicle-miles-traveled (VMT) by investing in more public infrastructure projects to encourage its state residents to take public transport instead of driving their own cars that cause congestion. VMT is a good measure by which urban planners determine sustainability of urban development (Ewing et al., 2008, p. 202) by reducing the need for long commutes. References City of Alexandria (2013, February 26). “City's top ten environmental achievements of 2012.” The Alexandria Environmental Policy Commission. Retrieved March 07, 2013 from http://alexandriava.gov/Eco-City Ewing, R., Bartholomew, K., Winkelman, S., Walters, J. & Anderson, G. (2008, November 27). Urban Development and climate change. Journal of Urbanism, 1(3), 201-216. Ford, L. R. (1999). Lynch revisited: New urbanism and theories of good city form. Cities, 16(4), 247-257. Rice, J. D. (2009). Nature and history in the Potomac country: From hunter-gatherers to the age of Jefferson. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press. Read More