Ecological footprints and appropriated carrying capacity: what urban economics leaves out

1992/10/01 by William E. Rees · 7 citations
Environmental Science · #Water Resources and Sustainability #Sustainable Development and Environmental Policy #Sustainability and Ecological Systems Analysis

paper · pdf · doi:10.1177/095624789200400212

openalex publication_date 1992/10/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04

Abstract

Ecological footprints and appropriated carrying capacity: what urban economics leaves out uses the concepts of human carrying capacity and natural capital to develop a framework to evaluate each city's "ecological footprint". It also argues that prevailing economic assumptions regarding urbanization and the sustainability of cities must be revised in light of global ecological change.

Cited by

• Perceptual and structural barriers to investing in natural capital: Economics from an ecological footprint perspective
• Carrying capacity, population equilibrium, and environment's maximal load
• Technology and the sustainable tourist in the new age of disruption
• Scale dependency of biocapacity and the fallacy of unsustainable development
• Planning and Sustainability: The Elements of a New (Improved?) Paradigm
• Carrying capacity [wikipedia]
• Ecological footprint [wikipedia]