Improving ecosystem health through planning for groundwater and vegitation : a case of Bhopal city

Abstract

Urbanization is a necessity of the current times. The world is expected to become more urbanized as we peek into future. However, urbanization has brought about changes – both positive and negative to the social, economic and environmentalsystems. Researchers are now indicating as to how urbanization alters the localand regional environment and the ecosystem. Impacts of urbanization are yet to deciphered completely and hence difficult to assess in terms of magnitude and intensity. Among the many changes brought in by urbanization, the most visible and impactful is the land use/land cover change. It not only alters the systems above ground but also creates modification to those that are below the surface. Therefore, ecosystems such as the freshwater cycle and hydrological cycle are affected. Groundwater which is an important part of hydrological cycle is often the one which is largely ignored because of its hidden nature. The vegetation cover on the other hand gets distributed into patches due to built-up. In some cases, introduction of new species can also change the heterogeneity of the endemic species. This fragmentation of the natural landscape impacts the dependent flora and fauna of the area and in most cases negatively. The study aims to improve the ecosystem health of urban areas through planning for groundwater and vegetation. This has been achieved by first understanding the relationship of ‘ecosystem health’ with ‘groundwater’ and ‘vegetation’ in urban areas; second by analysing the existing status of groundwater and vegetation of the city; third by selecting a study area for detailed study depending upon the quality of groundwater and vegetation; fourth establishing a cause/effect relationship between ecosystem health and urbanization and finally by proposing planning interventions for improving urban ecosystem health through policy and spatial measures. The city of Bhopal was selected based on recent reports and researches pointing to its degrading environmental quality. The study initiates by understanding the critical components of urban ecosystems through available data and established research. Groundwater and vegetation were the two components identified based on their importance in the overall ecosystem. Research and reports were reviewed to identify the issues within each component. Analysis of data and past and future growth projections helped in identifying a study area within the city which had groundwater and vegetation in critical condition. The literature study then helped in establishing a cause/effect relationship between urbanization and ecosystem health. Analysis through GIS tools and software like FRAGSTATS enabled to arrive at similar result for the study area. The study area has showed rapid urbanization in the recent decades and had impacted on the various factors such increasing localized flooding, reduced flow in local streams, loss of vegetative cover and most importantly reduced yield and drying up of wells and tube wells in recent years. Some researchers also pointed out to the pollution impact due to nearby water bodies. The analysis revealed that the current trend of fast paced and unplanned development will further degrade the study area. The solutions to these identified issues were related to policy level interventions and spatial planning measures. Groundwater recharge and Afforestation were identified as one of the possible solutions to address these issues. Therefore, solutions such as “Groundwater protection zones” were selected to protect the good recharge potential zones identified from analysis through GIS software and tools. To strengthen the implementation mechanism policy measures such as modifications to the development control rules and recharge through Government land parcels are proposed. Preliminary calculations reveal that such measures might serve successfully to improve the quality and quantity of the groundwater and vegetation leading to improved ecosystem health of the study area.