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

My City My Responsibility - Climate Friendly Lifestyle

Dear All, 

While we as a species are struggling to cope up with the rapidly changing climate and its impacts. It has become very crucial for us to adapt ourselves to the existing situation Sustainably as well as to develop the capacity to recover from the impacts. The first step towards such initiative is about knowing the science behind climate change and how real it is. We at Samuchit Enviro Tech are involved in conducting a Climate Friendly Lifestyle Workshop for the same cause where one can understand his or her contribution to climate change and tune into lifestyles that are in harmony with our ecosystem. Here we educate people on the science of climate change and the way forward by measuring their impact through a simple carbon footprint calculator.  

Last weekend, Earthcare Designs Foundation and Abhivyakti Media for Development gave us an opportunity to conduct this workshop at their premises in Nashik, Maharashtra. Total 26 people participated in this workshop. Participants came from varied fields ranging from doctors, architects, writers, social researchers, green building consultants, students etc. It was a mixed group of active citizens already doing their part to make their city sustainable. This workshop enabled them to measure their lifestyles in terms of climate friendliness and the way forward in terms of going low carbon. 

On calculating their carbon footprint, it was noteworthy that two people from the group had their footprint less than one ton CO2 equivalent which means that they are living a low carbon lifestyle already. While the others had a footprint of more than two tons, they were very curious to know how the two people managed to live within the limits of two tons of CO2 equivalent as per the desired norm. Out of this curiosity, the group decided to have a meeting once in a month or so where they discuss their lifestyles and how to go low carbon in a sustainable manner. Also when I added them in our whats app group it was fascinating that the people whose footprint was less than one ton shared how use of LEDs and walking or cycling wherever possible directly reduced their footprint drastically. If each of us start incorporating such small steps, we can definitely make our planet a better place.  

Photos of the workshop

I would like to thank the team of Earthcare and Abhivyakti, especially Anita Borkar and family for hosting the workshop and for overall arrangements. 

If you want to measure your contribution towards Climate Change and live a Climate Friendly lifestyle kindly write to me on pournima@samuchit.com. We conduct this workshop every month in Pune, Maharashtra. 

Pournima Agarkar.