My City My Responsibility - Analysis of Green Cover of Pune

Dear All, 

JM road Pune

In continuation with my last blog regarding the studies on the local environmental concerns in Pune under the Sustainably Smart Pune 2030 project, I will share some findings from the analysis of green cover in Pune based on landuse classification. 

According to the 2007 landuse classification, green areas are integrated under various land use categories and so it is difficult to get actual numbers on green cover from the landuse classification table. For instance, gardens and playgrounds both are clubbed under the category of recreational spaces. The problem is gardens have major vegetated areas also called as softscape area, while playgrounds consists majorly of non vegetated areas also called as hardscape areas, sometimes there is just exposed ground or some playgrounds have paved areas or structures as well. 

In order to just get an rough estimate of the green cover in the city based on the landuse classification I summed up all the areas under the following landuse categories i.e recreational spaces, hills, agriculture and water bodies, and assumed hardscape areas to be about forty percent. The net green cover was found to be 15% of the total land area of the city. This figure is 5% less than the green cover required for the city as per the National Forest policy i.e. 20% at the city level and 33% at the country level. In a way, we can say that the green cover in  our city is inadequate.

According to the tree census data in Pune we have around 38,60,055 trees. Considering the 2011 population data, we seem to have one tree per person. In order to have better quality of life, we require seven to eight trees per person, so the tree cover in the city is also found to be inadequate. 

Further to this study, according to a compilation on habitat type and change in landuse by a local NGO RANWA it is seen that in the span of 50 years from 1950 to 2000, we have converted original landscapes like forests, riparian areas and wetlands completely to either agriculture or human habitation. See the below chart for reference. 

Source: Ranwa website

We need to preserve vegetation in our city not only for living a healthy lifestyle but also because vegetation plays an important role in moderating the microclimate in the city by acting as carbon sink, enables ground water recharge, provides shade, and conserves biodiversity. However just planting some random trees is not the solution. The strategy should be focused on plantation of predominantly native tree species, shrubs and ground cover so as to maintain or restore the integrity of the local ecosystem with its original biodiversity. 

More on the biodiversity part in the next blog!

Pournima Agarkar. 

www.samuchit.com

My City My Responsibility - Study on Landuse of Pune

Dear All, 

Back in January 2017, I did a quick study on the local environmental concerns in Pune with reference to urbanization, under our Sustainably Smart Pune 2030 project. Now that I am in the process of compiling all the information into a super report I would like to share my findings with you all.

While I was looking for information on the environmental aspects like landuse, biodiversity, green cover, ambient air quality etc, Dr Priyadarshini Karve suggested me to quantify the aspects since it is true that whatever can be measured, is easy to manage. Hence we wanted to quantify the impacts, however at that time all I could find was some numbers and graphs which did represent magnitude of the impact urbanization is having on our environment. Starting with this blog, over the next few weeks, I want to share the journey of exploration and discovery that is leading us to developing an approach to quantification of environmental impacts of urbanisation in Pune. Needless to say, everyone's suggestions, comments, inputs are most welcome! 

So, firstly I looked at land use of Pune, while reviewing various documents. I came across a study done by Prof. Nitin Munde from Pune University, who is a geographer, and used Geoinformatics (GIS) and developed land use land cover (LULC) maps of Pune right from 1973 to 2014. These maps help us to understand the spatial extent of urban growth that occurred in Pune. 

You can see the images of the maps posted for reference. These colour coded maps show category of land under various uses like built up, vegetation agriculture etc...Each land use is depicted by a color and here built up is assigned red colour, land under vegetation is assigned green colour and so on. You can see the spread of red color covering the entire area. This shows the extent of urban growth due to the incoming population in the city either for work or education.   

There is also a graph showing the changes in LULC in percentage for each category. The graph below clearly shows that more and more land is being consumed for built up to provide housing, infrastructure and other basic services due to urbanization.  Whereas the other categories of land which are the providing factors or resources are drastically reducing. Especially the scrub land which has reduced from 49% to 5 % in the span of 40 years, followed by fallow land, then land under rivers and lakes. You can see an increase in land under vegetation and agricultural land, but this is because in 2000, surrounding villages got merged into the Pune city increasing the limits of the city. This can be seen in the maps as well. 

Graph showing the percentage of LULC

In my earlier blogs I mentioned about ecological footprint and how we are experiencing the ecological deficit at the global level. Though its quite tedious to calculate the ecological footprint at a city level, through this study it is quite evident that the rate at which we are consuming our resources leaving no or very less room for regeneration, we are going to remain in debt to our future generations. Just think about it … and stay tuned for more in coming weeks!

Pournima Agarkar. 

www.samuchit.com