Engineering Commons^™

Evaluation Of Environmental Carrying Capacity And Application Of The Sustainability Target Method, Chatpet Yossapol

Dissertations

The environmental carrying capacity (CC) is defined as the capacity of the earth to absorb or tolerate potentially stressful burdens imparted at various scales and locations, that is, to accommodate the ecological stresses without showing permanent damage. The CC can be used as a reference dataset for Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) purposes and as a baseline for other environmental studies.

In this research, a set of impact-oriented U.S. CC is developed for both input- and output-related impacts. CC for eight common impact categories is evaluated: resource depletion, global warming, ozone depletion, acidification, eutrophication, photochemical ozone formation, human toxicity, and eco-toxicity. …