Carrying Capacity Studies
- This is a innovative study and first of its kind in the country to study the pressure on the resources towards development process.
- GoAP has released an amount of Rs. 1.00 crore as grant to the study.
- EPTRI sent a proposal for Rs. 1.5 crores to GoI.
- Efforts are being made to collect Rs. 50.00 lakhs from the industries situated in and around Visakhapatnam.
- A field office is established at Visakhapatnam and posted 2 EPTRI staff members to operationalizing the Office.
Project on Carrying Capacity studies in Visakhapatnam region
Overview:
Planning for sustainable development calls for trade off between the
desired production consumption levels through the exploitation of supportive
capacity and environmental quality with the assimilation capacity of regional
ecosystem. In this context, an understanding of carrying capacity provides and
operational frame work enabling planning for sustainable development.
Any level of development or economic activity that does not exceed the
carrying capacity of the planning region is sustainable in ecological terms.
Human society depends on many ecologic and economic resources for survival and
the carrying capacity study helps to identify the single vital resource that is
in least supply. Thus in endeavor, scarce resources must be managed in the
face of many competing demands in the natural and human environments which in
turn must withstand perturbations caused by changes in man’s social and
economic activities.
The regional carrying capacity is a multidimensional concept of
inter-related capacities of various regional processes of resources extraction,
production, consumption, and waste/residual generation
The Carrying Capacity studies aims to bring out the steps to raise the
levels of ecologic compatibility and economic efficiency while ensuring
sustainable development in a region. Since there is a limit for the total waste
that can be discharged in the area without environment problems, the best
combination of the industries, which ensures optimum utilization of the gas and
oil produced in the area, generating maximum employment opportunities and
wealth in the area, subjected to the environmental constraints. In this
context, an understanding of Carrying Capacity of Visakhapatnam region provides
an operational framework enabling planning for sustainable development.
Visakhapatnam, the major port city of the State and also well connected
with all other modes of transport added value in choosing this region for
promoting industrial developmental activities. The natural gas and oil in the
region of Visakhapatnam could be used for a variety of industries, and each of
these industries may produce different employment opportunities, value addition
to the raw material, and generate waste products. Unfortunately, environmental
problems associated with industrial development in the past are coming in the
way of further industrial growth in this region
In the absence of clear understanding of the current environmental
scenario, market forces like eco-mark bring in pressure on the entrepreneur for
investment of expensive treatment systems, which will add high cost to the
production. A clear understanding of the environmental setting facilitates the
investor to evaluate business proposition considering the production costs,
which attracts such investments in the region.
Recognizing that the quantity, productivity and regenerative capacity of
a region’s resources are limited, a strong motivation exists for
conceptualization of environmental carrying capacity, a concept akin to that in
population dynamics in Ecology, as a basis for regional planning and
evaluation.
The study results in:
- Developing powerful tool for assessing the overall potential for socio-economic development
- Availability of baseline data, which results in saving time and money in conducting elaborate unit wise EIA studies
- Sectorial plans can be harmonized for healthy development
- Long term environmental monitoring will be initiated which is an integral part of the present study
Usefulness of the project:
The above results help the industries department, regulator agencies,
entrepreneurs, infrastructure development agencies, State planning department,
urban planners and municipal authorities in their sectoral planning /
management activities.
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