Geochemical urban footprint of chennai megacity onto river sediment upstream downstream gradient sources and resilience

Abstract

Urban areas are extremely important for the development of culture society and economy Fast developing cities are highly affected by multiple sources of contamination the effects of these pollution overlap in space and time In India there are many urban river systems supplying water to huge service area In the recent decades due to the industrial explosion and human overpopulation has aggravated pollution These hydrosystems are in endangered situation including the impact on the ecosystem in those rivers Urbanisation and industrialization put deep and irreversible impact on aquatic systems These aquatic system need to be protected for sustainability of future generation The management of water resources in megacities is a major global challenge In the western world the second industrial revolution led to a major degradation of the water bodies so that the 1970s is the most polluted decade in the history of western Europe and the North America Today emerging countries are facing the same problem amplified by exceptional demography : since then the urban rivers of the great Indian megacities have become the most polluted in the world and it is necessary to outline i the contamination levels ii the most present trace elements iii the tracers of an urban activity iv endocrine disruptor levels and v the geochemical footprint of the city onto the water resources This research is particularly innovative since it is the first time that new indexes have been implemented to explain the pollution of water bodies in India newline