The International Research Fellowship Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct three to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad.
This award will support a twelve month research fellowship by Dr. Thomas D. Abel to work with Dr. Shu-Li Huang at the National Taipei University if Taipei, Taiwan.
This project will evaluate the impacts of the new and growing "sustainable tourism" industry on Taiwan. It will involve the use of ecological economics to evaluate the sustainability, carrying capacity, and linked natural and human transformations that result from tourism development. Expected results will be the production of ecological footprint measurements of large and small tourism development sites. Other indices will be produced to judge the carrying capacity and intensity of existing and proposed tourism developments. Ethnographic research will measure transformations in political-economic hierarchy and economic strategies of households adjacent to existing tourism centers. With the assistance of Dr. Huang, this study will use computer modeling to produce scenarios of possible Taiwan futures. This research will provide policymakers and researchers with quantitative indicators. It will demonstrate the usefulness of linked human-ecological research for understanding the consequences and benefits of economic development in an interdependent global community.
