英文摘要 |
The measurement of urban sustainability has always been based on the definition of sustainable development and the evaluation of sustainability has usually only listed sustainable development principles without further elaboration. Furthermore, the exploration regarding the implementation of sustainable development is lack of consistency, which casts doubts on the feasibility of sustainable development principles. Based on the measurement of urban sustainability, this article proposes policy recommendations to challenge the consistency of implementing sustainable development.The Ecological Footprint (EF) analysis was proposed by William E. Rees and Mathis Wackernagel in 1994. The characteristic of the EF analysis is to calculate average consumption behavior in a certain area and to transform the consumption behavior to land areas per person. By doing so, land areas consumed by each person can be calculated to see whether the land areas used exceed the average land areas available to each person (i.e. ecological benchmark) and whether they have caused irreversible damages to the environment. Although there exists debates regarding the land classification system and the single data indicator, the EF analysis still provides useful insights to help proposing policy strategies based on the strong sustainability definition. A long-term observation of the EF analysis can provide further the trend of sustainability of a certain area.Using the EF analysis as the theoretical foundation, this article calculates the ecological footprint, ecological benchmark, and ecological deficit in Taichung metropolitan area from 1988 to 1997. Section 1 discusses the definition of urban sustainability, and strategies for implementation. Section 2 explores the relationships between the EF analysis and urban sustainability and uses the EF analysis to measure urban sustainability. Section 3 is the result of the ecological footprint, ecological benchmark, and ecological deficit in Taichung metropolitan area. Section 4 examines the sustainability trend from 1988 to 1997. The last section is the conclusion. |