Research progress on environmental carrying capacity

To study the theories and quantification methods of environmental carrying capacity is of significance in reality for directing human beings economic behaviors and harmonizing the relationships between social development and environment. In this paper, the definition of environmental carrying capacity was introduced from the aspects of "capacity", "threshold" and "capability", with the main characteristics of objective and subjective, regional and temporal, and dynamic and adjustable, and its research progress was reviewed. On the basis of these, the quantification methods of environmental carrying capacity, including exponential assessment, carrying rate assessment, system dynamics, and multi-objective optimization, were analyzed, and the research perspectives of environmental carrying capacity were discussed.