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      Can Smart Growth Save the Chesapeake Bay?

      1 , 2
      Journal of Green Building
      College Publishing

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          Abstract

          The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States, and was once one of its most productive. Historically, the Chesapeake supported thousands of migrant and resident species, including oysters, blue crab, shad, herring, and waterfowl. Today the estuary's productivity is a shadow of what it once was. In 1880, for example, the oyster harvest was 120 million pounds, but this declined to a mere 3 million pounds by 2000—and that actually represented an increase from a historic low in 1993. While the native Chesapeake oyster has fallen victim to disease, a major contributing factor to its decline, along with the health of the estuary, has been the loss of habitat from dredging, sediment loading, and increased pollutant levels. Nearly all of the sediment and pollution originates from human activity on the land surface of the Chesapeake's watershed (Figure 1). As population and development continue to grow in the region, pollution from urbanized areas has become an issue of primary concern. Using examples primarily from the Chesapeake Bay region, we discuss how smart growth strategies can contribute to ecosystem restoration, and provide examples of how geospatial technologies have been developed to serve as decision support tools, ending with a summary of some of the challenges that remain for sustainable urban development.

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          Most cited references9

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          “Impervious surface coverage: The emergence of a key environmental indicator.”

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            “Land-use changes in a pro-smart-growth state: Maryland, USA.”

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              Urbanization and the loss of resource lands within the Chesapeake Bay watershed

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                Author and article information

                Journal
                Journal of Green Building
                Journal of Green Building
                College Publishing
                1552-6100
                1943-4618
                August 01 2007
                August 01 2007
                : 2
                : 3
                : 41-51
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Department of Geography-Earth Science, Shippensburg University, 1871 Old Main Dr., Shippensburg, PA 17257.
                [2 ]The Woods Hole Research Center, 149 Woods Hole Rd., Falmouth, MA 02540.
                Article
                10.3992/jgb.2.3.41
                095bac9c-b7e9-48d2-ad9b-cdbc4238a800
                © 2007
                History

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