The carrying capacity of a region: A planning model

Abstract

While traditional planning often assumes unlimited growth potential, in reality such growth has absolute limits in terms of resources available and maintenance of the ecosystem. These limits (the region's carrying capacity) can be modeled; one such model, the State-of-the-System (SOS) Model, is described in this paper and is designed to test various assumptions about the desired growth of an area under explicit side conditions or limitations. Such a model could be used to test the validity of establishing comprehensive plans, to identify critical growth constraints, and to weight policy choices.