{"title":"Identifying the impact of urban development on abutting ecology in Chandigarh using remote sensing based ecological index","authors":"Nirwan Nirwan, Kavichelvan Kanagavel, Asfa Siddiqui","doi":"10.1007/s10668-024-05369-9","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>The city of Chandigarh has been urbanizing and expanding at an aggressive rate. Despite the urban expansion being mostly planned in nature has shown underlying indications of deteriorating ecological health in the city and its abutting natural resources. Changing migration patterns and decreasing vegetation cover are just few of the indicators raising the need to analyse the ecological quality of the region. Ecological quality can be seen as a measure of the health of an environment to sustain life. Remote sensing can be used to monitor the land surface over varied spatiotemporal extents. This study uses the Remote Sensing-based Ecological Index (RSEI) to study the spatiotemporal changes in the environmental quality of the city of Chandigarh over four decades. Four factors i.e., greenness, wetness, dryness, and heat that affect environmental quality are analysed using principal component analysis to calculate RSEI. The contribution of each of the indicators to RSEI and the spatial correlation of results are studied using correlation analysis and Moran’s Index. Landcover maps are developed using Cart classifier to understand the growth patterns and establish relation to changes in ecological index values. The change in RSEI for individual land cover categories shows the degradation of ecological health in natural resources. The RSEI values of vegetation and surface water show a deteriorating trend from 1991 to 2020. Furthermore, the study area shows intense degradation of RSEI values in the city outskirts where a major shift to built-up landcover has taken place. The association of landcover change and its impact on ecological quality can assist planners in adopting suitable strategies to assure that ecological health is integrated when urban expansion is carried out. This study provides insights into the development strategies and their impact on the ecological resources of the city that may otherwise not be identified by overall RSEI value and landcover assessment.</p>","PeriodicalId":540,"journal":{"name":"Environment, Development and Sustainability","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.7000,"publicationDate":"2024-09-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Environment, Development and Sustainability","FirstCategoryId":"93","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-024-05369-9","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The city of Chandigarh has been urbanizing and expanding at an aggressive rate. Despite the urban expansion being mostly planned in nature has shown underlying indications of deteriorating ecological health in the city and its abutting natural resources. Changing migration patterns and decreasing vegetation cover are just few of the indicators raising the need to analyse the ecological quality of the region. Ecological quality can be seen as a measure of the health of an environment to sustain life. Remote sensing can be used to monitor the land surface over varied spatiotemporal extents. This study uses the Remote Sensing-based Ecological Index (RSEI) to study the spatiotemporal changes in the environmental quality of the city of Chandigarh over four decades. Four factors i.e., greenness, wetness, dryness, and heat that affect environmental quality are analysed using principal component analysis to calculate RSEI. The contribution of each of the indicators to RSEI and the spatial correlation of results are studied using correlation analysis and Moran’s Index. Landcover maps are developed using Cart classifier to understand the growth patterns and establish relation to changes in ecological index values. The change in RSEI for individual land cover categories shows the degradation of ecological health in natural resources. The RSEI values of vegetation and surface water show a deteriorating trend from 1991 to 2020. Furthermore, the study area shows intense degradation of RSEI values in the city outskirts where a major shift to built-up landcover has taken place. The association of landcover change and its impact on ecological quality can assist planners in adopting suitable strategies to assure that ecological health is integrated when urban expansion is carried out. This study provides insights into the development strategies and their impact on the ecological resources of the city that may otherwise not be identified by overall RSEI value and landcover assessment.
期刊介绍:
Environment, Development and Sustainability is an international and multidisciplinary journal covering all aspects of the environmental impacts of socio-economic development. It is also concerned with the complex interactions which occur between development and environment, and its purpose is to seek ways and means for achieving sustainability in all human activities aimed at such development. The subject matter of the journal includes the following and related issues:
-mutual interactions among society, development and environment, and their implications for sustainable development
-technical, economic, ethical and philosophical aspects of sustainable development
-global sustainability - the obstacles and ways in which they could be overcome
-local and regional sustainability initiatives, their practical implementation, and relevance for use in a wider context
-development and application of indicators of sustainability
-development, verification, implementation and monitoring of policies for sustainable development
-sustainable use of land, water, energy and biological resources in development
-impacts of agriculture and forestry activities on soil and aquatic ecosystems and biodiversity
-effects of energy use and global climate change on development and sustainability
-impacts of population growth and human activities on food and other essential resources for development
-role of national and international agencies, and of international aid and trade arrangements in sustainable development
-social and cultural contexts of sustainable development
-role of education and public awareness in sustainable development
-role of political and economic instruments in sustainable development
-shortcomings of sustainable development and its alternatives.