An Architecture School faculty member and class recently received an award from Charlottesville's Planning Commission recognizing the architecture class's work in helping to create an environmental chapter for the city's Comprehensive Plan.
The 2007 Eldon Fields Wood Design Professional of the Year Award will go to Karen Firehock, a senior associate at the University's Institute for Environmental Negotiation, and the students in her graduate planning class for adding an environmental focus to the city's planning, according to Charlottesville Environmental Administrator Kristel Riddervold.
Firehock said the class, "Green Cities, Green Lands," teaches students the basic principles of environmental planning.
"The city needed assistance in writing an environmental chapter for the new Comprehensive Plan," Firehock said.
With this in mind, Firehock said her class investigated how to best protect the city's streams by adding wooden buffers and how to change the trail network to improve animal pathways.
The class looked at the tree canopy for the whole city, using aerial photos to identify all the trees in the city, and found the city has 31.4 percent tree canopy coverage, Firehock said.
According to Firehock, this percentage is much lower than the 40 percent coverage recommended by the National Arbor Day Foundation.
"The city could help cut back air pollution and global warming by planting trees, so we identified places lacking trees and places where the city could add more,"Firehock said.
Riddervold said the work done by Firehock and her students was definitely valuable and will be used in the future by the City of Charlottesville. Riddervold specifically emphasized the importance of the class's findings concerning trees in Charlottesville.
"We have goals to protect and manage the urban tree canopy," said Riddervold, "but until the class was able to do data crunching, we didn't know what the percentage of tree canopy cover was."
According to Riddervold, the accurate canopy percentage will be valuable in making manageable plans to improve environmental sustainability.
Franklin Dukes, director of the University Institute for Environmental Negotiation, said he was happy to hear of Firehock's accomplishment.
"I was pleased to see her get recognized for the amount of work involved in the class and to see the students recognized for going beyond the classroom and making a difference in the community," Dukes added
Firehock said she thought the best part about her class receiving the award is the potential this recognition has to inspire others within the University community.
"I think that the best way the award helps the class is that it gives us better publicity throughout the University," said Firehock. "I hope it inspires other professors to take their classes out into world to do real projects and help the community."
Read More
Shots fired reported at 100 block of Harmon Street, no injuries reported
By Thomas Baxter | 3 days agoThis is the first community alert of June.
Full Board discusses financial aid challenges, medical research and entrepreneurship
By Thomas Baxter | 5 days agoBoard members discussed the Pan-University Entrepreneurship Initiative, a project that aims to help develop more entrepreneurial ventures at the University.
Finance Committee approves 2024-25 operating budget and Major Capital Plan
By Zackary Holt | 5 days agoThe proposed 2024-25 fiscal year budget for the Academic Division includes a 6.8 percent increase in spending over the previous year.
