Carrying Capacity

In environmental planning, the concept of carrying capacity is from the notion of "limit to

growth". Consideration of carrying capacity or sustainability become criterion of

sustainability itself. Our ecosystem and our population have a limited capacity to cope

up with the environment which may have detrimental effect in the ecosystem. As such

all possible solutions should be processed for the used in a sustainable Environment.

Example of this is the innovation of new building material that uses less carbon footprint

or green building. As the supply of fossils are not finite, innovations such as electric cars

and other means of transportation solution had been introduced and used this day to

cope up the increasing number of commuters and other transport users. With that

example, carrying capacity should be considered in the environmental planning.

Uncontrolled and unsustainable urban development has a significant impact on the

overall quality of the environment. Contemporary spatial management does not take

into account the non-economic conditions of ecosystem functions and their biophysical

limits, which results in a deterioration of the environment. Furthermore, urban

development continues all over the world, which is associated with a projected

population increase, particularly in cities. Therefore, there is need to include analyses in

the field of environmental carrying capacity (ECC) for more sustainable spatial

management and development. The ECC concept is a tool for sustainable development

of human settlements. It could be defined as threshold level of anthropopressure, which

the environment is able to balance and withstand without serious degradation and

irreversible changes. The use of ECC assessment will help ensure the needs of the
city’s residents, which are conditioned by the environment. The paper aims to discuss

this issue. –

Ref: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/MEQ-03-2018-0049/full/html