Carrying Capacity

Secondary elements such as barriers, sidewalks, and diaphragms may increase the load carrying capacity of girder bridges. This in turn affects reliability. The objective of this study is to evaluate the potential benefit of secondary elements on the system reliability of girder bridges, if these elements are designed with the structural system to participate resisting vehicular live loads. Simple span,

Agriculture faces a multitude of challenges in the 21st century, and new tools are needed to help determine how it should respond. Among these challenges is a need to reconcile how human food consumption patterns should change to both improve human nutrition and reduce agriculture's environmental footprint. A complete-diet framework is needed for better understanding how diet influences demand for a fundamental agricultural resource, land. We tested such a model, measuring the impact of fat and meat consumption on the land requirements of food production in New York State (NYS). Analysis was confined to this geographic area to simplify the modeling procedure and to examine the state's ability to reduce environmental impact by supplying food locally. Per capita land resource requirements were calculated with a spreadsheet model for 42 diets ranging from 0 to 381 g d−1(0 to 12 oz d−1) of meat and eggs and 20 to 45% total calories from fat. Many of these diets meet national die...

Brief Phrase: This paper evaluates the official awareness of tourism carrying capacity (TCC) concept among the destination management stakeholders who are planning and directing the Valley of Whales as a natural heritage site in the Fayoum Destination in Egypt.

Once it was an environmental issue, then an energy problem, now climate change is being recast as a security threat. So far, the debate has focused on creating a security ‘hook’, illustrated by anecdote, to invest climate negotiations with a greater sense of urgency. Political momentum behind the idea of climate change as a security threat has progressed quickly, even reaching the United Nations Security Council. This article reviews the linkages between climate change and security in Africa and analyses the role of climate change adaptation policies in future conflict prevention. Africa, with its history of ethnic, resource and interstate conflict, is seen by many as particularly vulnerable to this new type of security threat, despite being the continent least responsible for global greenhouse gas emissions. Projected climatic changes for Africa suggest a future of increasingly scarce water, collapsing agricultural yields, encroaching desert and damaged coastal infrastructure. Such impacts, should they occur, would undermine the ‘carrying capacity’ of large parts of Africa, causing destabilizing population movements and raising tensions over dwindling strategic resources. In such cases, climate change could be a factor that tips fragile states into socio-economic and political collapse.Climate change is only one of many security, environmental and developmental challenges facing Africa. Its impacts will be magnified or moderated by underlying conditions of governance, poverty and resource management, as well as the nature of climate change impacts at local and regional levels. Adaptation policies and programmes, if implemented quickly and at multiple scales, could help avert climate change and other environmental stresses becoming triggers for conflict. But, adaptation must take into account existing social, political and economic tensions and avoid exacerbating them.

Pasca Bencana Tsunami Aceh 2004, terdapat perubahan pada daya dukung lahan yang dipengaruhi oleh bencana alam yang merusak lahan pertanian. Selain faktor alam, perubahan daya dukung lahan di Aceh juga dipengaruhi oleh alih fungsi lahan akibat dari proses rekontruksi dalam masa pemulihan Kota Banda Aceh yang merupakan pusat Ibu kota Provinsi Aceh. Maraknya pembangunan di Aceh memicu terjadinya pertumbuhan penduduk yang juga berdampak pada Kabupaten Aceh Besar yang letaknya bersebelahan dengan Kota Banda Aceh. Pertumbuhan penduduk dan alih fungsi lahan pertanian akan berpengaruh terhadap daya dukung lahan wilayah tersebut. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui bagaimana tingkat daya dukung lahan dari tahun 2005-2016 serta jumlah penduduk optimal yang ada di Kabupaten Aceh Besar. Metode yang digunakan adalah deskriptif kuantitatif. Data yang digunakan adalah data sekunder yang didapat dari Badan Pusat Statistik Kabupaten Aceh Besar. Hasil penelitian menunjukan bahwa secara keseluruhan daya dukung lahan Kabupaten Aceh Besar dari tahun 2005-2016 adalah sebesar 1,71 dan termasuk pada kelas II. Artinya, Kabupaten Aceh Besar mampu melakukan swasembada pangan, namun belum mampu memberikan kehidupan yang layak bagi penduduknya. Secara keseluruhan terdapat 8 kecamatan yang berada pada kelas III, yaitu Kecamatan Lhoknga, Leupung, Mesjid Raya, Baitussalam, Krueng Barona Jaya, Darul Imarah, Peukan Bada dan Pulo Aceh. Berdasarkan hasil perhitungan tahun 2016 Kabupaten Aceh Besar memiliki jumlah penduduk optimal 664.524
Kata Kunci: Daya dukung lahan, Jumlah Penduduk Optimal, Kabupaten Aceh Besar

Zusammenfassung: Von 2007 bis 2016 untersuchte ein interdisziplinäres Projekt im Unterengadin (Graubünden, Schweiz) die alpine Weidewirtschaft. Im Fimbertal/Val Fenga wurden in über 2000 m Höhe spätbronzezeitliche bzw. hallstattzeitliche Baustrukturen entdeckt, die in Verbindung mit zeitgleichen Talsiedlungen um Ramosch als Nachweis für eigentliche Alpwirtschaft in prähistori-scher Zeit interpretiert werden. Um diese idealtypische Kombination eines gestuften Tal-Alp-Systems und die gesamtwirtschaftliche Bedeutung der Viehwirtschaft besser zu verstehen, wurde eine GIS-gestützte Szenario-evaluation der prähistorischen Landschaftsnutzung ausgeführt. Da zur Größe und Struktur der Siedlungen keine ausreichenden Daten vorhanden sind, wurde eine theoretische Berechnung der maximalen Bevölkerungs- bzw. Vieh-/Herdenzahl angestrebt. Die Basis dazu bildet ein komplexes Subsistenzmodell, das aus der archäologischen, physiologischen und landwirtschaftlichen Fachliteratur ausgearbeitet wurde und den Flächenbedarf von Ackerbau und Viehzucht berücksichtigt. Anhand separat modellierter landwirtschaftlicher Nutzungsflächen im Einzugsgebiet (site catchment) der jeweiligen Siedlung lässt sich so die maximale Tragkraft (carrying capacity) bzw. Bevölkerungszahl ermitteln. Die alpine Topografie wird dabei als landwirtschaftlich stark limitierender Faktor betrachtet, sodass eine wachsende Siedlung bzw. Bevölkerung dazu gezwungen wäre, das Vieh im Sommer auf weiter entfernte Hochweiden auszulagern. Aus den Modellen kann allerdings kein ökonomischer oder ökologischer Druck als primärer Grund für die Ausformung der Alpwirtschaft belegt werden. Es wäre in den Talsiedlungen möglich, Ackerbau und Viehwirtschaft für bis zu 200 Personen ganzjährig in unmittelbarer Siedlungsnähe zu bewerkstelligen. Die saisonale vertikale Mobilität muss daher aus anderen Gründen eingeführt worden sein, möglicherweise für die strategische Mehrproduktion landwirtschaftlicher Erzeugnisse für den inner- und transalpinen Gütertausch.

Schlüsselworte: Alpen; Landschaftsarchäologie; Vieh-wirtschaft; Alpwirtschaft; Subsistenzmodell; GIS; Tragfä-higkeit; Mehrproduktion; Bronzezeit; Eisenzeit.

Abstract: Between 2007 and 2016 an interdisciplinary project explored the Alpine pastoral economy in the Lower Engadine region (Grisons, Switzerland). Late Bronze Age or Hallstatt-period structures were discov-ered at 2000  m a.s.  l. in the Fimbertal/Val Fenga valley and were, in association with contemporary settlements in the valley around Ramosch, interpreted as evidence of an actual Alpine pastoral economy in prehistoric times. To gain a better understanding of such an ideal combination of a tiered Alp-valley system on one hand and the overall economic significance of livestock farming on the other, a GIS-based scenario evaluation of prehistoric land use was carried out. Since the data available on the size and structure of the settlement is not sufficiently large, the aim was to achieve a theoretical calculation of the maximum number of people and livestock. This calculation was based on a complex subsistence model which was devel-oped from archaeological, physiological and agricul-tural specialist literature and took into account the area required for crop cultivation and animal husbandry. Based on separately modelled areas of farmland within each site catchment, this allowed us to calculate the maximum car-rying capacity or population sizes. The Alpine topography was seen as a severely limiting factor with regard to agri-cultural output, which would mean that an expanding settlement or population group would be forced to move their livestock to higher pastures further afield during the summer months. The models, however, have not allowed us to state that economic or ecological pressure was the primary reason for the evolution of an Alpine pastoral economy. It would have been possible by means of crop cultivation and animal husbandry to sustain a population of up to 200 people living in or around each valley set-tlement all year round. Seasonal vertical mobility must therefore have been established for other reasons, possi-bly in order to increase the output of agricultural produce for exchange within and beyond the Alpine region.

Keywords: Alps; landscape archaeology; livestock farming; pastoral economy; subsistence model; GIS; car-rying capacity; produce of exchange; Bronze Age; Iron Age.

Résumé: De 2007 à 2016, un projet interdisciplinaire pour la Basse Engadine (canton des Grisons, Suisse) s’est consacré à l’économie pastorale en milieu alpin. A plus de 2000  m d’altitude, dans la vallée du Fimber/Val Fenga, on a découvert des structures d’habitat datant du Bronze final et de l’époque de Hallstatt. Elles peuvent être corré-lées avec certaines occupations contemporaines de fond de vallée s’articulant autour de Ramosch, et témoignent d’une véritable économie alpestre à l’époque préhisto-rique. Pour mieux comprendre un système qui correspond à une combinaison idéale entre vallée et alpages, de même que pour cerner l’importance économique de l’élevage, on a effectué une évaluation de différents scénarios d’ex-ploitation du paysage à l’époque préhistorique, basée sur les SIG. Comme on ne dispose pas de données suffisantes concernant les dimensions et la structuration des habi-tats, on a procédé au calcul de la population théorique maximale, répétant l’exercice pour le nombre d’animaux ou de troupeaux. A cette fin, on a eu recours à un modèle de subsistance complexe, mis en place grâce aux données fournies par la littérature spécialisée et tenant compte de données archéologiques, physiologiques et agricoles, sans oublier les surfaces nécessaires à l’agriculture et à l’élevage. Sur la base des zones d’exploitation agricole régionales, modélisées individuellement (site catchment) pour chacun des sites, on peut établir quels étaient la charge maximale (carrying capacity) et le nombre d’habi-tants. Dans ce modèle, la topographie du milieu alpin est considérée comme un facteur particulièrement contrai-gnant pour l’agriculture, impliquant que la croissance d’un village ou de sa population devait déboucher sur le déplacement du bétail durant l’été vers des pâturages d’al-titude éloignés. Ces modèles ne permettent toutefois pas d’établir la présence d’une pression économique ou écolo-gique qui aurait été la cause majeure de la mise en place d’une économie alpestre. Dans les habitats de vallée, il était possible de subvenir, grâce à l’agriculture et à l’éle-vage, aux besoins d’une communauté comptant jusqu’à 200 personnes, durant toute l’année et à proximité immé-diate des villages. La mobilité saisonnière, avec des dépla-cements en altitude, relève donc d’autres intentions, peut-être une surproduction stratégique de produits agricoles, destinée à l’échange de biens intra-alpin et transalpin.

Mots-clés: Alpes; archéologie du paysage; économie agro-pastorale; exploitation des alpages; modèle de sub-sistance; SIG; carrying capacity; surproduction; âge du Bronze; âge du Fer.

There is enough evidence to show that the forest biomass has decreased significantly in the Indian Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh. The government has responded through restrictive measures to check this decline. Using tree biomass as proxy for degradation, we assessed the current state of biomass within dominant land use types and examined its implications for sustainability. The highest above-ground mean tree biomass density of 1158 t·ha−1 was recorded for the reserved forest followed by 728, 13, 11, 8, 5 and 3 t·ha−1 in the protected forest, fallow land, cultivated-unirrigated land, grassland, orchard land and cultivated-irrigated land respectively. Of the total accessible biomass, only 0.31% was extracted annually by the local people for fuel, fodder and other uses. Though, the current level of extraction may be sustainable in the short run, insufficient regeneration is observed for long term sustainability. Forest biomass production was simulated for the next 30 years with a logistic growth model and the relative significance of input variables in influencing system behaviour was analysed through sensitivity analysis. The model results highlighted the declining forest resources in the long run. Positive response through appropriate government policies can, however, change the scenario for the better.

Spatial modeling using multi-scale grid system is adopted to determine the threshold and distribution pattern of regional carrying capacity. Water-provisioning service is used as a quantitative approach. Closed system was applied in which it was based solely on the potential of existing resources in the region without taking in to account the flow of material in or out of the system. Steps being taken include the distribution of water demand – of land and domestics – and supply; and the determination of carrying capacity status based on the threshold of water-provisioning services. A grid system with 5″×5″resolution is used to accommodate the various sets and scale, of data. The result shows, 82.29% of Sumedang Regency; 68.43% of Cimahi City; 61.29% of Bandung City; 60.51% of Bandung Barat Regency; and 57.34% of Bandung Regency are still able to fulfill the demands of the population.

... Permissions & Reprints. Review. Carrying capacity, migration, and dispersal in Yellowstone bison. Glenn E. Plumb a , Corresponding Author Contact Information , E-mail The Corresponding Author , PJ White a , Michael B. Coughenour b and Rick L. Wallen a. ...

Seagrass meadows cover about 0.05-0.15% of the world’s ocean and are some of the most productive systems on Earth. Direct and indirect human-derived impacts have led to significant seagrass declines worldwide and the alteration of services linked to their biodiversity. Effective conservation and the provision of sustainable recovery goals for ecologically significant species, such as green turtles (Chelonia mydas), are limited by the absence of reliable information on seagrass extent. This is especially true for the Wider Caribbean Region (WCR) where many conservation initiatives are under way, but impaired by the lack of accurate baseline habitat maps. To assist with such a fundamental conservation need using high resolution remote sensing data, both environmental and methodological challenges need to be tackled. First, the diversity of environments, the heterogeneity of habitats, and the vast extent of the targeted region mean that local expertise and field data are seldom available. Second, large-scale high-resolution mapping requires several hundred Landsat 5 and 7 images, which poses substantial processing problems. The main goal of this study was to test the feasibility of achieving Landsatbased large-scale seagrass mapping with limited ground-truth data and acceptable accuracies. We used the following combination of methods to map seagrasses throughout the WCR: geomorphological segmentation, contextual editing, and supervised classifications. A total of 40 Landsat scenes (path-row) were processed. Three major classes were derived (“dense seagrass”, “medium-sparse seagrass”, and a generic “other” class). Products’ accuracies were assessed against (i) selected in situ data; (ii) patterns detectable with very high-resolution IKONOS images; and (iii) published habitat maps with documented accuracies. Despite variable overall classification accuracies (45-85%), the resulting thematic maps were deemed acceptable to (i) regionally provide, following their critical evaluation, an adequate baseline for further large-scale conservation programs and research actions; and (ii) regionally re-assess carrying capacity estimates for green turtles. They certainly should represent a drastic improvement relative to current regional databases.

This study in National Shrine of Saint Padre Pio, Batangas, Philippines aims to assess the religious tourism and carrying capacity of the area where survey and key informant interviews were used to gather information like church structure, rules and regulation of the shrine, as well as socio-demographic profile of the tourists/visitors. The study revealed that majority of the 120 respondents in the area are young adults in the age group of 20-25 years old that have a monthly income of 200 USD (PhP10,000.00) and below. Church, healing, family bonding and recreation are the top reasons of the tourists in visiting the area. Mode of transportation is mostly by the use of private vehicles specifically cars and motorcycles. Using the formula of Boullon and Limit of Acceptable Change, the carrying capacity for the Shrine was computed to be 1,720 (upper limit) and 431 (lower limit) in the assumption that 8,000 square meters is being utilized. With the growing population volume of visitors, environmental concerns like orderliness and cleanliness, specifically in terms of solid waste management must be included in the set of rules and regulations of the National Shrine so that environmental degradation in the area can be minimized.