Modeling future scenarios for an ecosystem services ES based land use planning for sustainable peri urban development a case of gummidipoondi Chennai India

Abstract

Urban Sprawl transforms urban-rural linkages, posing significant negative impact on the peri-urban ecosystems. In India, unplanned growth of peri-urban areas (PUAs), in the absence of statutory development plans, trigger arbitrary land-use land cover (LULC) changes. This results in significant loss of Ecosystem Services (ES) that sustain the ecology and economy of urban and rural areas. Since LULC change influences the ES potential, assessing the impact of future land-use decisions on ES is important for sustainable land planning. This research proposes an ES-based land use decision-making model for PUAs of India to achieve sustainability. The model is operationalized in Gummidipoondi, a potentially developing PUA of Chennai, India. newlineThe objectives of this research are (1) optimizing the interaction between nature and future urban development by integrating the knowledge of ES to land use planning of PUAs of Indian cities (2) developing an ES assessment method that reflects the local characteristics of Indian ecosystems. newline