Xaltoca Metropolitan Area

Xaltoca MSA
Urban Free Association
Tlayacatl Xaltoca
Airview of Yancuicopan shoreline
Country	Coalition of Coconeh Calpotlin
Subdivisions	177 Calpulleh
Established	1992
Government
• Coordinator	Ixitolchi Huaquoha
Population  (2018)
• Rank	1rst in CCC
• Density	4,545/km2 (11,770/sq mi)
• Urban	3.5 millions
• Metro	5 millions
Demonym	Xaltocatl

The Xaltoca Metropolitan Area Nahuatl: Tlayacatl Xaltoca) is a free association of Calpulleh, an administrative structure for cooperation covering the entirety of the communities surrounding the Xaltoca Lake. It combines the Azcapotzalco-Texcozingo Urban Agglomeration and the less-populated surrounding territories that are socioeconomically tied to it. It is administered by a Coordination Committee of 177 members chosen by the Councils of its constituent Calpulleh. Its responsibilities include urban planning, housing, and protection of the environment. The Tlayacatl covers around 1100 km² and includes around 5 millions inhabitants, plus the 800 km² of the Xaltoca Lake. It is greatly linked with the southern Chichinautzin Metropolitan Area (Tlayacatl Chichinautzin), anchored around the city of Cuauhnāhuac to the point that they’re often said to form a single “Megalopolis”.

Geography

A 19th century painting of the Valley's mountains

The Tlayacatl is located in the Valley, or Basin, of Xaltoca. It has a minimum altitude of 1,500 meters above sea level and is surrounded by mountains and volcanoes that reach elevations of over 4,000 meters.This valley has no natural drainage outlet for the waters that flow from the mountainsides, and it all gather in the Xaltoca Lake, which has been shrinking due to climate change. Warmer temperatures had increased evaporation and reduced rainfall in the area so that the lakes’ waters were already shallow at about five meters 12,000 years ago. The rate at which the lake disappear has increased since the beginning of the 20th century because of climate change. Urbanisation has also taken its toll, even if both the Calpullists authorities, and their imperial counterparts before them, have continuously avoided building on the Lake’s bed of heavily saturated clay. The lake is also central to the Metropolitan Area’s runoff and wastewater management, through the use of traditional phycoremediation, which is also an important dietary supplement for both human and animals in the form of Spirulina cyanobacterias.

The valley is enclosed completely by mountain ranges, from which flow rain and melting snow into the valley's hydraulic system. This groundwater flow produces a number of springs in the foothills and upwellings in the valley floor. Since the days of the Azcapotzalco Empire, large canals, aqueducts, and artificial reservoirs have been built to canalize both rain and ground waters toward the Lake, to avoid inondation and to serve as waste disposal. Today floating gardens have been replaced by small hydroelectrics dams and run-of-the-river electric stations, and algae-based wastewater treatment plants.

Climate

Distant view of the volcanoes that delimit the Xaltoca Valley

The Metropolis has a subtropical highland climate due to its tropical location but high elevation.

The average annual temperature varies from 11 to 15 °C depending on the altitude. The temperature is rarely below 3 °C or above 30 °C. Overall precipitation is heavily concentrated in the summer months, and includes dense hail. Snow falls rarely, although throughout its history, the Valley was accustomed to having several snowfalls per decade. The shrinking of Lake Xaltoca and global warming have effectively reduced snowfalls.

The weak winds of the Valley do not allow for an easy dispersion outside the basin of the air pollutants which are produced by the industries and vehicles operating in and around the Metropolitan Area.

Administration

Each of the 177 Calpulli part of the Metropolitan Area are considered to be Autonomous and Sovereign entities, as per the precepts of Calpullism. Almost immediately, they regrouped themselves in “Free Associations” to develop large projects none of the singular district could do on its own. These included roads and other large infrastructures, public transports, sewage system, electrification, but also collaboration between their law enforcements units, and economic and judicial collaborations, among many others. With time, the Free Associations became the de-facto actual authorities, corresponding roughly to the ancient “Altepeme”. During the fifties they were recognized as such, during the important “Mid-Century Reforms”, where each and every single Calpulli was no longer allowed to send representatives to the Assembly, they had to be from the Free Association level. During the sixties and seventies, Calpulleh were encouraged to participate in greater cooperation and form larger Free Associations. Four of these “Tlayacatl”, it was the first time the word was used, emerged. It’s only during the nineties that the “Organic School” of Calpullism managed to fuse all of these into a single “Metropolitan Area” which borders closely matched the commuter belts of the three “capitals” of the Coalition : Yancuicopan, Huenochtlan, and Nepatepetl.

Today, the Tlayacatl Xaltoca is ruled by a Coordination Council, as are most Free Associations in the CCC. The members of the Council are elected indirectly by the 5 millions citizens of the Tlayacatl : each of the constituent Calpulleh elect directly their own “district-level” council, who then present to their district the Representative they have chosen to send to the Coordination Council. The voters can accept or refuse the proposed representative. If they refuse it, the District Council has to select and propose a new one. They can do so up to three time before the Council is automatically disbanded and new elections have to be organized. Every year, but at a different date depending on the Calpulli, a randomly selected panel of residents, the size of the panel depending on the size of their Calpulli to ensure representativity, question their Representative and check if he followed the will and served the interest of his Calpulli. If they’re happy with him, he can serve for another year. If not, he’s freed from his obligations and the District Council has to propose a new Representative. A Representative serve for a maximum of three years, as it is how long the District Council’s mandate last, at which point they have to be replaced and a new Council elected, who would then present their own Representative to the Calpulli.

Once all Representatives are chosen, each Calpulli will then hold elections for the position of Coordinator following a FPTP voting system. Candidates have to present themselves to the Coordination Council to enter the race, with the only limitations being that they have to be adults, and to have resided in one of the Metropolitan Area’s Calpulleh for at least the past 10 years. There is no limitation of salary, of profession, or any signature system. Like the Representatives, Coordinators have to go through annual public hearings performed by a randomly selected panel of residents of the Xaltocan Metropolitan Area. Once again, this panel can declare that the Coordinator perfectly served the interests of his people and grant him a mandate for another year, or consider that he has been lacking in his duties and declare new elections to be required. They can also send the Coordinator’s case to the justice system, if they have any doubt of illegal activities performed during his mandate.