A study of water-land environment carrying capacity for a river basin

The concept of driving force-state-response (DSR) framework was used to ide ntify and develop the assessment model of water-land environment carrying c apacity (WLECC) for a river basin. The river basin water-land management (R BWLM) decision support system was developed, based on the assessment model of WLECC, as a decision making tool. The Chung-Kang river basin, located in northern Taiwan, was used as a case study to generate a sustainable water- land management strategy. This strategy simultaneously derives the optimal solutions for landuse management, water demand allocation, and water qualit y management. Furthermore, the sustainable WLECC can also he obtained. The WLECC can be used as the area-based indicator of sustainability to accurate ly measure the progress towards sustainable development for a river basin.