Assessment of Antarctic Tourism Waste Disposal and Management Strategies towards a Sustainable Ecosystem

Over the past two decades, Antarctica has experienced a severe eco-environmental degradation due to tourism impacts. The new, diverse and complex tourism activities and technological advancements demonstrate the current regulatory system is insufficient. This study aims to analyze the Antarctic tourism impact, investigate the assessment methods and propose a dynamic management system. This paper suggests two assessment indicators i.e. Antarctic ecological footprint (ATEF) and Antarctic tourism environmental carrying capacity (ATECC) along with nine management strategies. A flowchart demonstrates dynamic process of impact analyses, assessment and management. This system can be deployed to design a dynamic regulatory system toward sustainable Antarctic tourism. (C) 2012 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.