Abstract

This article examines the concept of carrying capacity as a basic principle of sustainability with applications to ecological and social systems. In the more general sense, carrying capacity refers to the number of individuals of a specific population which can be sustained without degrading the ability of that space to generate and regenerate supporting resources. However, carrying capacity is a dynamic condition that changes over time in response to feedback, growing in times of technological adaptation or innovation and shrinking when degradation harms the ecosystem services. Carrying capacity is an indicator of overshoot when compared to regional or planetary biocapacity. To balance this, one must monitor both the biocapacity generated by ecosystem services and the level of resource use by the population.