Abstract
As the global population races towards nine billion, urban environments have been predicted to consume more resources and ecosystem services than ever before. The Earth’s natural resources have been utilized by humans in unendurable methods resulting in the current geological period, the Anthropocene, where for the first time in Earth’s history, human activity has begun to dictate planetary processes. Recent research has identified and quantified planetary boundaries, the levels at which safe and sustainable levels of consumption of Earth’s natural resources due to human activity can be considered sustainable. The goal of planetary boundary research has been to reduce human activity that exceeds these safe zones in the hope of maintaining humanity in a more stable state. In Lee County in Southwest Florida (SWFL), like most of the United States of America, urban and suburban areas function as ecologically extractive. This term can be defined as land development for urban and suburban areas can lead to negative repercussions on surrounding ecosystems that ripple into a decrease in ecosystem services. Lee County has been evaluated in terms of sustainable initiatives that correspond to each planetary boundary. The sustainable initiatives aim to reduce the carbon and ecological footprint of Lee County and aim to convert the region from ecologically extractive to ecologically restorative. The sustainable initiatives selected were based on unique attributes of SWFL that were feasible to implement. A thorough literature review and planetary boundary quantification was conducted on each sustainable initiative. Opinions on the feasibility of the initiatives were collected from local government officials and professionals
The goal of this study was to present feasible sustainable initiatives for Lee County in an Excel model using Geographic Information System (GIS) data to prioritize which initiatives would yield quantitative impacts on planetary boundaries. The initiatives would make progress in converting Lee County to ecologically restorative by reducing planetary boundary levels at a local level to ensure the human needs are met for future generations. Based on literature review for each initiative, environmental benefits that would be achieved if implemented were quantified. Additionally, a cost analysis was provided for mangrove restoration due to the availability of data on mangrove restoration. The results of the excel based model indicated that mangrove restoration would provide the most quantifiable impact on climate change, ocean acidification, and biogeochemical flows planetary boundary. In the excel-based model the initiative with the most impact on the fresh water planetary boundary was tree planting compared to increased pervious land. The conclusion from the excel-based model was that each initiative produced a quantifiable impact on climate change, ocean acidification, biogeochemical flows, and freshwater planetary boundaries. The excel-based model allows users to prioritize which initiative to implement and what type of results can be expected.