Open Access Review Article J Environ Stud April 2017 Vol.:3, Issue:1 © All rights are reserved by Taiwo, et al.. Journal of Understanding the Concept Environmental of Carrying Capacity and its Studies Famutimi John Taiwo1* and Oni Oluwasola Feyisara2 Relevance to Urban and Regional 1 Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Faculty of Environmental Studies, Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo, Ondo State, Nigeria Planning 2Department of Architecture, Faculty of Environmental Studies, Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo, Ondo State, Nigeria Keywords: Carrying capacity; Overshoot; Sustainable environment; *Address for Correspondence Urbanization Famutimi John Taiwo, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Faculty of Environmental Studies, Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo, Ondo Abstract State, Nigeria, Tel: +2348038422059; E-mail: [email protected] The increasing urbanization and the rapidly accumulating Submission: 31 October, 2016 population have caused tremendous changes on the earth’s Accepted: 31 March, 2017 landscape which do not only trigger off improvement in civilization Published: 07 April, 2017 and modernization, but have also progressed global challenges such as flooding, desertification, global warming, loss of bio-diversity, Copyright: © 2017 Taiwo FJ. This is an open access article distributed housing crises and hunger among others: which have not only under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits remained a source of concern but also a herculean task for planners unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided and other professionals in the built environment, to contend with the original work is properly cited. in the 21st century. These challenges, however, denote that an overshoot of the earth’s carrying capacity has been reached [1]. And if this issue is left unattended to there is the likelihood that, far environmental problems we are experiencing today such as greater calamities may be engendered to make the world both overpopulation, rapid urbanization, green house effect and global inhabitable and unsustainable in the years to come. If the focus of planning is to provide a desired array of ‘quality of life’ to people warming, biodiversity loss, desertification, depletion of ozone layer, now and without jeopardizing that of future generations, through acid rain, oil spills, dumping of hazardous waste and a host of others physical and social designs of the human environment, it is therefore are simply, an expression of the earth’s ‘overshoot’ or feedback arising imperative to examine not only what is engineeringly, economically, from the overloading of the earth’s support [1]. The realization of these socially, politically and legally acceptable, but also the degree to challenges has culminated in growing concerns among world leaders, which physical and functional plans are tied to ecological systems for resource supplies and for residuals assimilation. The paper attempts to policy makers and professionals in the built environment, on the document the origin of carrying capacity as a concept, reviewing its trend or type of best practices to adopt to make the earth a sustainable dimensions as it relates to the understanding of urban and regional place to live in. Achieving this requires a critical understanding of the planning as a field of human endeavour. It argues that, recognizing sustainable limit or cut-off point the earth can safely support without and establishing the limits or capacities of urban activity system along the lines of the carrying capacities provides decision makers with a any jeopardy for its current and future inhabitants. workable approach to assessing the natural and human viability of In their contributions to the sustainable development debate, urban and regional planning proposals. The paper finally posits that, there is the need for all the stakeholders, urban analysts, professionals Ewing et al. assert that we cannot make meaningful decisions about in the built environment who in their operations, are to inbuilt the where we need to go before we know where we stand [5]. This finiteness of the earth’s capital assets into the existing and potential suggests that, knowing the limit to which development is feasible goals and aspirations of man in the 21st century. within the context of the carrying capacity of our natural ecosystems becomes imperative so as to be able to withstand the changes arising Introduction from human actions. Ewing et al. argument appears to be in tandem with those of the World Development Report (2003) which stipulates The advent of globalization and the quest for development have that sustainable development in our planet earth and its entire fabric triggered off impressive economic progress, creating materials and requires an understanding of the limit of growth [5]. In view of this, luxury of life. At the same time, this progress and its associated therefore, the paper focuses on carrying capacity as an issue that benefits have imposed a tremendous cost to the global environment. needs to be critically examined if the present rising wave of humanity In spite of the serious challenges and threats introduced into our is going to be supported indefinitely by the earth’s dwindling common global environment in return, it is certain; according to IIT resources. In doing this, the paper is sectioned into five phases. (2012) that development around the world is taking place at a faster Following the introductory section is the meaning and definition rate [2]. As Onibokun pointed out cities will continue to grow while of the concept of carrying capacity and its evolution/historical and challenges will continue to become more complex as development conceptual background. Next to this is the consideration of the continues to take place in the different spheres of the world [3]. various dimensions of concept, while the last section addresses the Therefore, the actions we take now will determine whether or not relevance and applicability of the concept to the practice of Urban the current course of development will be sustainable for the future, and Regional Planning in Nigeria. or will merely produce deleterious repercussions that are capable of destroying us. Meaning and Definitions of Carrying Capacity Consequently, recent data suggests that many of the global The term “carrying capacity” can simply be defined as the Citation: Taiwo FJ, Feyisara OO. Understanding the Concept of Carrying Capacity and its Relevance to Urban and Regional Planning. J Environ Stud. 2017;3(1): 5. Citation: Taiwo FJ, Feyisara OO. Understanding the Concept of Carrying Capacity and its Relevance to Urban and Regional Planning. J Environ Stud. 2017;3(1): 5. ISSN: 2471-4879 maximum population that can be supported or sustained by an 5) The species in-built resilience for systematic or sporadic ecosystem over time [6,7]. Carrying capacity can equally mean “the perturbations or threats to the environment. maximum pressure or load that a system can conveniently withstand However, if the carrying capacity of a population’s species is before breaking down”. A system breaks down when it can no longer exceeded, the following repercussions may occur: cope with the pressure from the loads it is carrying. In like manner, when the carrying capacity of the earth as a system can no longer 1. The species or the organisms may become locally extinct; sustain the pressure of population explosion, the unacceptable 2. The environment may be permanently altered or destroyed; impacts occur in the form of deteriorating or negative effects. In other words, carrying capacity of an area refers to an extreme limit. 3. In case of too many animals, overgrazing may occur, loss This limit defines the population carrying capacity of the area. If this of vegetation cover, irreversible changes to soil quality and limit is crossed then the nature will react by imposing pressure to productivity, which in turn leads to a reduced carrying resist the abrupt growth and development of the people resulting capacity for the livestock of the area concerned. into equilibrium. These pressures can be in form of floods, droughts, Humans today extract and use around 50% more natural famines, landslides, etc. resources than only 30 years ago [12]. For example, International Carrying capacity has been conceptualized differently among Energy (2012) equally observed that the world energy-consumption various professions. For instance, in the construction industry, the patterns escalated from 4,672 million tonnes of energy in 1973 to term is used to refer to the ability of the foundations, materials or 8,677 million tonnes of energy in 2010. This increasing resource structures to accommodate a given load (load-bearing capacity), in extraction does not just lead to environmental problems, but it is terms of either weight or volume and number of cars a freeway or often linked to social problems such as human rights violation and a bridge can carry smoothly [8]. In international shipping activities, poor working conditions. These negative environmental and social it may be defined by the quantity of cargo an ocean-going freighter impacts are mostly felt in Africa, Latin America and Asian countries or steam boat can carry [9,10]; and from the perspective of tourism with low environmental and social standards [13]. Given current management, carrying capacity denotes the number of people who growth, world extraction of natural resources could increase to 100 can use a given area without an acceptable alteration