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Baguio City’s Urban Carrying Capacity: A Forum

The Local Regional Studies Network of UP CIDS and the Cordillera Studies Center, UP Baguio are organizing an onsite forum, “Baguio City’s Urban Carrying Capacity,” on 11 September 2024, 9 am, Audio-Visual Room, College of Social Sciences, University of the Philippines Baguio. The forum is free and open to the public, but seating is first-come, first-served. Participants are enjoined to pre-register.

Concept Note

The rapid influx of tourists, students, and business establishments have all contributed to the congestion and dwindling of the Baguio City’s resources relative to transportation, accommodation, and utilization of resources. Daniel Burnham originally envisioned the city to only accommodate between 25,000 and 30,000 people (see Alabanza 2007; Doronila 2009; Gutierrez & Cariño 2009. However, as of the 2020 census, the population of Baguio had grown to 366,000, to say nothing of 1.3 million tourists who visit the city every year.

Numerous studies have, in one way or the other, have shown how the city has exceeded its “urban carrying capacity, which is defined as the level of human activities, population growth, land use, and physical development, which can be sustained by the urban environment without causing serious degradation and irreversible damage” (De Guzman, Cabrido, and Tabangin citing Oh, K.Y.J.; Lee, D.; Lee, W., 2002).

This forum will provide a venue for the stakeholders of Baguio City to continue discussing policy actions that need to be undertaken to address the issue. It seeks to:

    • Review existing studies on Baguio City’s carrying capacity, including their respective recommendations
    • Help assess policy actions that stakeholders have undertaken so far to mitigate issues and concerns
    • Identifying other areas of policy actions (i.e. education, tourism, transportation, etc.).
    • Help the city government identify other partners that could play a role in efforts to address the issues

The City Planning and Development Office will be presenting the results of their study,“Estimating the Transport Urban Carrying of a City” in 2018-2019. This forum is also one of UP Baguio’s contribution to the celebration of the 115th Baguio City Charter Anniversary.

Resource Speaker

Architect Donna R. Tabangin is Baguio City Planning and Development Officer. She is the co-author of the study, “Estimating the Transport Urban Carrying Capacity of a City.”

Organizers and Queries

For queries, please email [email protected].

This forum is organized by the Local Regional Studies Network (LRSN) of the Center for Integrative and Development Studies, University of the Philippines, the policy research unit, and the Cordillera Studies Center, University of the Philippines Baguio.

LRSN is one of the Research Programs of UP CIDS, and it currently involves, among others, faculty and staff of the University of the Philippines Baguio. Learn more about UP CIDS and download 1000+ policy papers for free.