Bhopal biodiversity index, strategies & action plan

Abstract

Diversity is a concept which refers to the range of variation or differences among some set of entities; biological diversity thus refers to variety within the living world. The term 'biodiversity' is indeed commonly used to describe the number, variety and variability of living organisms. Cities are growing rapidly and the rapid growth puts pressure on land-use planning and zoning efforts and cause conflicting desires over land areas. Animals and plants need habitats which provide the adequate living conditions. These habitats are being reduced or destroyed today. On the ninth meeting of the Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP9) in Bonn, Germany the Minister for National Development of Singapore, Mr. Mah Bow Tan, proposed the establishment of an index to measure biodiversity in cities. The City Biodiversity Indexing is a dynamic process, being prepared for depicting the urban biodiversity status. This helps in evaluation, planning, improving and reviewing the city’s conditions in biodiversity perspective. It is the only Index that focuses on biodiversity. Its coverage is diverse and comprehensive, incorporating 23 indicators on biodiversity, ecosystem services, and good governance and management. The aim for my thesis is to prepare city biodiversity index and strategy/action plan for local biodiversity enhancement with an objective to understand the spatial extend of biodiversity in Bhopal city within the municipal boundary, to prepare biodiversity index of Bhopal city & to give proposal for strategies/action plan by incorporating the issues identified while preparing city biodiversity index. The expected outcome would be to provide guidelines/policies/action plan to build a quality urban environment, a comprehensive conservation network and to build a sustaining ecosystem services and to achieve these outcome Bhopal Municipal Area would be the limitation for the study.