Abstract
Aquaculture was introduced in the seven lakes in the 1960s and has significantly contributed to the income of the fishing community, while ecotourism has boosted the local tourism industry in the city. However, these activities pose threats to the degradation of the environmental quality of the Seven Lakes. The sustainability of the aquaculture and tourism activities in the seven lakes was assessed using the ecological carrying capacity model. This model was composed of three criteria: biophysical, socioeconomic, and ecotourism. The biophysical criterion involved the collection of water quality indicators in the lake during the wet and dry seasons. Household survey and Key Informant Interviews were conducted to gather primary data on the socioeconomic and tourism indicators. The maximum value or limit of each indicator was based on water quality standards for the biophysical indicators, while the maximum values for the socioeconomic and tourism indicators were based on literature and secondary data from the local government unit (LGU) of San Pablo. Experts and key respondents ranked the various biophysical, socioeconomic, and ecotourism indicators following the Rank-Sum method to determine the weight of each indicator. Ecotourism lakes Yambo and Pandin had high (0.8549) and very high (1.2119) ecological carrying capacities (ECC), respectively, while Lake Mohicap had a medium sustainability index with an ECC value of 0.6500. Lake Sampaloc had a low sustainability index with only 0.0325 ECC value. Aquaculture lakes Calibato, Palakpakin, and Bunot had negative ECC values, indicating unsustainable ecosystems. Estimating and illustrating the recreational and aquaculture carrying capacities of the lakes can provide local policymakers a comprehensible overview of the potential consequences of the unrestricted proliferation of the various activities in the lakes.
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Acknowledgments
This study would not be possible without the financial support and overall assistance provided by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and the National Research Council of the Philippines (NRCP) to the researchers throughout the study. The authors also wish to express their utmost gratitude for the guidance, support, secondary data provision, and cooperation from the Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Department of Tourism (DOT)—Region 4A, Laguna Provincial Office, San Pablo Mayor’s Office, San Pablo City’s Tourism and City Environment and Natural Resources Offices, Nagcarlan Mayor’s Office, and Rizal Mayor’s Office. They also wish to acknowledge the local residents nearby the seven lakes, including the FARMC (Fisheries and Aquatic Resource Management Councils) and bantay-lawa members, fisherfolks, civic groups, elderlies, women representatives, experts, and other stakeholders, who willingly spent their time participating in various discussions and interviews.
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Magcale-Macandog, D.B. et al. (2023). Ecological Carrying Capacity Modeling and Sustainability Assessment of the Seven Lakes of San Pablo City, Laguna, Philippines. In: Dhyani, S., Adhikari, D., Dasgupta, R., Kadaverugu, R. (eds) Ecosystem and Species Habitat Modeling for Conservation and Restoration. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-0131-9_25
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