Carrying capacity and ecological footprint of Taiwan

Taiwan is located in the Western Pacific where typhoons and earthquakes frequently strike. The environment and geological conditions are sensitive and vulnerable to these phenomena. In recent years, rapid socio-economic growth has increasingly put pressure on land development on the island of Taiwan, causing frequent conflicts over land in mountain, river, and sea areas. Additionally, the increasing impact of climate change has made the maintenance of a stable equilibrium of the ecosystem, ensuring the survival of the population, and the sustainable development of the nation, important issues that must be actively faced, taking into account limitations on land and resources. "Doubly exposed" to globalization and global warming, Taiwan must actively ensure the balance between national land conservation for the future and economic development in its four regions. Taiwan must also coordinate regional development and effectively distribute resources among regions to achieve equal development and mitigate the challenges of resource shortages. Studies of carrying capacities have focused on environmental carrying capacity, recreational carrying capacity, and urban carrying capacity, mainly exploring the limits on population that are imposed by a single environmental system. Few studies of the amount of population that can be supplied by the land as part of the overall environmental system, the amount of available resources, the amount of consumption, the consumption differences and developmental issues, have been published. This study examines Taiwan's carrying capacity (resource supply side) from the perspective of "land resources", "food resources", and "carbon emissions". It determines the population size that can be supported by each resource to reveal the current levels of development of Taiwan's regions and future expected demands on each resource, and the carrying capacity of each resource in each region is compared with the ecological footprint (resource demand side) to support a discussion of regional adaptations. This study provides innovative thinking and methods to reduce resource shortages and the pressure that is imposed by climate change, to seek new opportunities for Taiwan's progress toward sustainable development.