I wonder how a carrying capacity in a vehicle overcrowded protected area could be developed. It is for a dry mediterranean peninsula under high seasonal touristic pressure. As it is a protected area (Natura 2000 site), how to develop a CC that will include not only parking places but the ecological impact?
Hi Martina,
I may be wrong, but are you using "carry capacity" in the sense of "tourist density?" This being the case, then your question is really about how much human impact -- in the form of visiting tourists and their cars -- the protected area can sustain before negative effects occur for the ecosystem. If I've got this right, you might consider a couple of approaches.
One is to measure impacts in terms of established ecosystem metrics, such as plant cover, plant diversity or presence/absence of sensitive (i.e., indicator) species. A second approach might be to develop metrics that were specific to your concerns and that directly addressed tourist impacts. For example, you might measure soil compaction (from visitor traffic), litter density (trash particles/m2) or perhaps noise levels (from people and cars) in heavily impacted vs. lightly-impacted sites and establish criterion for "acceptable" vs. "unacceptable" impacts. Of course, establishing good management policy would likely involve a a combination of both approaches.
Hope this helps somewhat. Good luck with your project.
-Todd
Normally If the emission of gases, hydrocarbon and noise levels of traffic should not exceed the International standard norms at day and night time for human and wildlife. If exceeding it means beyond carrying capacity. Is this OK !
Martina. Search The concepts and metodologies on Limits of aceptable chance and tourism carrying capacity. Most of them has been developed for National parks in developing countries where the Land is owned by government, however it is easy to adapt them to other conditions
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