The rate of rapid urbanization has been well documented by various actors and across various disciplines.The United Nations projects a population increase of 41% (41.86 million) between 2014 – 2030 in the 9 most populated urban agglomerations in India. India alone is expected to account for approximately 16% of the world’s urban population growth, between the years 2014-2050. The rate of urbanization is especially high in Asia, Africa and South America.
Urban local bodies across these continents face multifarious challenges to cope with the needs of rapidly increasing populations in their cities. Carrying capacity is originally an ecological concept and is defined as, “a species’ average population size in a particular habitat. The species population size is limited by environmental factors like adequate food, shelter, water, and mates. If these needs are not met, the population will decrease until the resource rebounds.” Applying this concept to urban settlements entails the measurement of multifarious indicators that would point to whether each settlement is capable of adequately maintaining a certain level of quality of life. If carrying capacity is applied as a tool to inform policy and law it would ensure the protection of our natural resources and environment.