Question

1. A developer is seeking a permit from an environmental agency to “fill in” a wetland to create a parking lot for a new proposed shopping mall. Evaluate this proposed action—filling in a wetland—from the standpoint of a “strong sustainability” and “weak sustainability” criteria. How would you consider this proposed action from a sustainability standpoint?

Answer 1

Sustainability- Filling Wetland
Filling wetland has problems regarding the sustainability of the environment. The changes can affect the structure of the environment. Sustainability is an important factor that has influence with ecosystem and the environment. Strong sustainability points out the importance of the functions of the wetland that cannot be substituted by human capital or others. Wetland performs an assigned function by the environment. By converting that for economic purposes, it will resist the land to perform its function of the environment. And it cannot be done by another portion of the environment or by human capital. Thus it can affect the sustainability of the environment by converting the wetland for creating a parking lot.
Weak sustainability refers to the idea that tells about the ability to substitute the natural capital by human capital. So, filling the wetland can be substituted by human capital. So, it will not make any change in the functioning of the environment. Setting enough substitutes can balance the sustainability of the environment through the concept of weak sustainability.
So, the sustainability can be viewed under the two sustainable views of strong and weak concepts. Both say how the sustainability can be affected in both cases of filling wetland for economic purposes.