Geoecology of Landscape Dynamics: Seema Sahdev R. B. Singh Manish Kumar Editors

Advances in Geographical and Environmental Sciences
Seema Sahdev
R. B. Singh
Manish Kumar Editors
Geoecology
of Landscape
Dynamics
Advances in Geographical and
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Seema Sahdev R. B. Singh
• •
Manish Kumar
Editors
Geoecology of Landscape
Dynamics
123
Editors
Seema Sahdev R. B. Singh
Department of Geography Department of Geography
University of Delhi University of Delhi
New Delhi, Delhi, India New Delhi, Delhi, India
Manish Kumar
Department of Geography
University of Delhi
New Delhi, Delhi, India
ISSN 2198-3542 ISSN 2198-3550 (electronic)

Advances in Geographical and Environmental Sciences
ISBN 978-981-15-2096-9 ISBN 978-981-15-2097-6 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2097-6
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Preface
The term “Geoecology” was first used by Carl Sauer in 1919. The analysis of
landscape dynamics is one of the focus areas in Geoecology. Geosystems along
with bioecosystem and anthrop ecosystem play a vital role in the formation of
landscape Ecosystems. The structure of landscape has an important influence on
various ecological processes occurring in the landscape. Various natural geological
or biological processes have changed the landscape structure which have significant
impacts on the ecology of landscapes. The analysis of landscape changes has been
occurring at a large scale in the last century. Landscape dynamics are major
challenges as their complex interactions of environmental factors and driving forces
alter the composition of spices and these dynamics are reflected on different
landscape patterns. Principle agents of the changes are urbanization and natural
calamities. This dynamic phenomenon necessitates landscape monitoring and
assessment of changes in spatial pattern over time. Hence, there is a need to identify
driving forces for landscape changes for ensuring the sustainability of natural
resources. Understanding the pattern of landscape ecology in the context of
increasing human dominance in the biosphere enables the land managers to make
decisions about sustainable land management. Thus ecological, economic and
social patterns and processes in landscape change with scale are central to project
sustainable landscapes.
The Geoecology has been effectively applied to deal with various types of
problems of geo-ecosystem such as natural resource management, ecosystem and
landscape characterization, landscape degradation, soil, environment, climate
change and vegetation modelling, providing new insights to identify the influence
of the changes on biodiversity, ecological stability and land use and land cover,
generally on the course of landscape processes and characteristics.
The book aims to identify the ecological indicators of the quality of functioning
and the structure of the formation mechanism for geographical landscape integra-
tion and put forth the application related to natural resources management in var-
ious environments such as mountain, plains, river basin, island, coastal, etc. The
book highlights the indicators which can be used for quantifying sustainability in a
geospatially explicit manner.
v
vi Preface
The book discusses land inventory mapping concept for green building to curb
the global warming in cities, morphometric analysis of soil resources and inventory
for meeting the challenges of land degradation. The book highlights the recent
application areas of spatial information techniques in the field of land use, land
cover dynamics, monitoring and modelling of urban sprawl, hydrological mod-
elling, sustainable land management options, sustainable energy development and
sustainable economic growth.
The book includes the research work by professors, planners’ scientists and
research scholars from various universities and institutions of India as well as from
other countries of world, such as Lomonosov Moscow State University, University
of Delhi, Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, Friendship University of Russia,
University of Jammu, Indian Institute of Technology, Indian Meteorological
Department, National Institute of Hydrology, Kumaun University, Uttarakhand
Space Application Centre, Kamla Nehru Institute of Physical and Social Science,
National Institute of Technology, University of Calcutta, Galgotias University,
Banaras Hindu University, Gorakhpur University, Indian Institute of Science,
Jawaharlal Nehru University, G.B Pant National Institute of Himalayan
Environmental and Sustainable Development, Jamia Millia Islamia, and Punjab
University.
New Delhi, India Seema Sahdev

R. B. Singh
Manish Kumar
Contents
1 Role of Data Indices for UN Sustainable Development Goals

Implementation in Russia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Elena Milanova, Nikolay Dronin and Aleksandra Nikanorova
2 Seismic Vulnerability Assessment of NCT of Delhi
Using GIS-Based Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Seema Sahdev, Manish Kumar and R. B. Singh
3 Human Capital Impact for Sustainable Economic Growth . . . . . . . 21
Vladimir M. Matyushok, Nina M. Baranova and Leonid V. Sorokin
4 Land Use Land Cover Dynamics Using Remote Sensing
and GIS Techniques in Western Doon Valley,
Uttarakhand, India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Ajay Kumar Taloor, Vaibhav Kumar, Vivek Kumar Singh,
Anil Kumar Singh, Ravindra V. Kale, Rahul Sharma, Varun Khajuria,
Girish Raina, Beena Kouser and Naveed Hassan Chowdhary
5 Dying and Dwindling of Non-glacial Fed Rivers Under
Climate Change (A Case Study from the Upper Kosi Watershed,
Central Himalaya, India) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
J. S. Rawat and Geeta Rawat
6 Robust and Reliable Technique of Automatic Building Extraction
from High Resolution Imagery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Arvind Pandey, Mriganka Shekhar Sarkar, Gajendra Singh,
Sarita Palni, Nisha Chand and Manish Kumar
7 Soil Resource Inventory for Meeting Challenges of Land
Degradation: A Remote Sensing Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Dinesh Kumar Tripathi
vii
viii Contents
8 Temporal Variation in Glacier’s Area and Identification

of Glacial Lakes in Sikkim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Mahfooz Alam and Sandeep Bhardwaj
9 Quantitative Morphometric Analysis of the Yerla River
Basin, Deccan Trap Region, India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Namdev V. Telore
10 Analysing the Capability of NCI Technique in Change Detection
Using High- and Medium-Resolution Multispectral Data . . . . . . . . 133
Subhanil Guha, Himanshu Govil, Anindita Dey and Neetu Gill
11 Comparative Analysis of Multi-temporal Drought Indices
Using Monthly Precipitation Data: A Study in the Southwestern
Part of West Bengal, India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Pradip Patra
12 Use of Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System
on Agroforestry Ecosystem in Himalayan Region
of Uttarakhand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Ganesh Datt Bhatt and Rajendra Singh Parihaar
13 UN SDGs and Context of Holy-Heritage Cities in India:
A Study of Ayodhya and Varanasi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Rana P. B. Singh, Sarvesh Kumar and Pravin S. Rana
14 Spatial Analysis and Mapping of Malaria Risk in Dehradun City
India: A Geospatial Technology-Based Decision-Making Tool
for Planning and Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Ankita Sarkar, Vaibhav Kumar, Avtar Singh Jasrotia,
Ajay Kumar Taloor, Rajesh Kumar, Rahul Sharma, Varun Khajuria,
Girish Raina, Beena Kouser and Sagarika Roy
15 Green Buildings: Building a Greener City, a Greener
Future—An Indian Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Kriti Kanaujia
16 Conceptualising and Measuring Social Capital as a Sustainable
Development Strategy in Mewat Region, Haryana . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
Naresh Kumar and B. S. Butola
17 Monitoring and Modelling of Urban Sprawl Using Geospatial
Techniques—A Case Study of Shimla City, India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
Pawan Kumar Thakur, Manish Kumar and Vaibhav E. Gosavi
18 Impact of Corridor Development on Rural Settlements Along
Delhi–Jaipur Axis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
Awadh Narayan Choubey and Taruna Bansal
Contents ix
19 Analysis of Land Use/Land Cover Change Detection Using

Remote Sensing and GIS of Fatehgarh Nau Abad Village,
Bathinda, Punjab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
Balwinder Singh and Chander Gagandeep Singh
20 Sustainable Energy Development and Participatory Management
Scenario in the Sundarban: A Case Study in the Sagar Island,
West Bengal, India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
Anwesha Haldar and Ajanta Bhattacharya
21 Lake Sustainability and Role of Houseboats: Impact of Solid
Waste and Sewage of Houseboats on the Ecology of Dal Lake . . . . 341
Tariq Ahmad Ganaie and Haseena Hashia
22 Ecological Challenges and Vulnerability Assessment
for Exploring the Adaptation-Development Nexus
for Sustainability in Alaknanda River Basin,
Uttarakhand, India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
Bindhy Wasini Pandey, Subhash Anand, V. S. Negi, Usha Pathak
and Abhay Shankar Prasad
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
Chapter 1
Role of Data Indices for UN Sustainable
Development Goals Implementation
in Russia
Elena Milanova, Nikolay Dronin and Aleksandra Nikanorova
Abstract In 2015, the UN adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

and 169 corresponding targets. To reach these goals, it is needed to use different
quantitative and qualitative indicators based on global, national, and country data.
One of the useful indicators is the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) that grades
countries’ performance in relation to two principal environmental policy objectives:
the Protection of Ecosystem Vitality and the Environmental Health. With regard to
these principal objectives, the EPI covers nine problems’ areas: Climate and Power
production sector, Agriculture, Biodiversity Loss, Fisheries, Forestry, Water quality,
Health Impacts, Air pollution, and Water sanitation. According to the 2016 EPI,
Russia occupies the 32nd position in this rating. 40% of population in Russia is living
at the territory occupying 15% of total country area with unfavorable environmental
conditions because of air and water pollution, deforestation, biodiversity worsening
and forests’ cover loss, poor waste management. The World Wildlife Fund estimates
annual loses of the country reached about 1 billion dollars from the illegal export of
wood. The measures to improve energy efficiency policy, to decrease air pollution
were studied for Baikal model region. It is expected that the SDG indicators will
become a common reference point for national and subnational monitoring in the
Russian Federation.
Keywords Sustainable development goals · Global indices · Indicators · Russia ·

Baikal lake
E. Milanova (B) · N. Dronin · A. Nikanorova

Faculty of Geography, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia
e-mail: elena.v.milanova@gmail.com
N. Dronin
e-mail: ndronin@gmail.com
A. Nikanorova
e-mail: Alexandra.nikanorova@gmail.com
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 1

S. Sahdev et al. (eds.), Geoecology of Landscape Dynamics,
Advances in Geographical and Environmental Sciences,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2097-6_1
2 E. Milanova et al.
1.1 Section
In 2015, the UN adopted historical Document “Transforming our world: the 2030
Agenda for Sustainable Development” with 17 Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) and 169 corresponding targets. The SDGs comprise an integrated balance
of all three domains of sustainable development: economy, society, and natural envi-
ronment. The use of different quantitative and qualitative indicators based on global,
national, and country data indices is presumed to be needed to reach the SDGs.
Many global (the World Bank, OECD, SCOPE, etc.) and some regional (the
European Commission) organizations are actively working and promoting their own
sets of indicators for sustainable development. The organizations have proposed the
indicators for systems at different scales: global, regional, national, local, industry
as well as at the level of individual settlements and enterprises.
The multiscale approach (country and municipal) with the use of global indices is
implemented to analyze the ranking of Russia as well as to assess the ecological indi-
cators influencing the measuring and planning of ecological activities at municipal
level for a model region—Baikal region.
1.2 Study Area
The research was held for Russia to evaluate the rating in accordance with scores
of global indices at country level and at municipal level for the Baikal region as a
model study area located in the east part of Russia around the famous Baikal Lake
and characterized by enormous potential for ecological wealth and resources with
the huge world natural significance (UNESCO World Heritage site).
1.3 Data and Methodology
1.3.1 The Role of Global Indices and Indicators
The indicators displayed from the primary data allow the evaluation of efforts of gov-
ernments, ministries, and other bodies taken to improve the situation and to change
the economic, social, or environmental variables to reach sustainable development.
During the last years in addition to the thematic indicators, the system of integral
indices has been developed and applied in practice. Index is the aggregate or weighted
indicators’ system, based on several other thematic simple indicators or data. The
use of indices is acceptable if its causal connection is well understood.
Indicators and indices are used as the basis to justify the decision through the
quantification and simplification; to help to interpret the changes; to allow identifying
weaknesses in ecological management; to facilitate access to information for different
1 Role of Data Indices for UN Sustainable Development Goals … 3
categories of users; to facilitate the exchange of scientific and technical information.

The indicators of sustainable development serve as the tool to support decision-
making and planning in nature resources usage, to perform important functions to
support the development plans, and to make easier communications. Therefore, the
status of environmental indicators shall inform and attract public attention to certain
environmental threats. This often mobilizes people for self-adoption of the necessary
measures or treatment to authorities or private companies representatives.
One of the world-known ecological complex indexes is the Environmental Perfor-
mance Index 2016 (EPI). It was elaborated with international efforts and presented
in two manuscripts published by Yale University (Hsu et al. 2013, 2016). The 2016
EPI suggests a new paradigm to imply to nations’ environmental policy. The state
of a nation’s environment is no longer an autonomous issue as it inevitably impacts
its neighbors. Pollution does not recognize national borders—moreover, it could
be even higher beyond state borders. This is also true for global dimension. Local
activities could be superposed leading to stronger adverse effects at the global level.
Implementation of the 2016 EPI serves for the purpose to portrait global environment
through the prism of nations’ environmental health. The index reflects these realities
revealing global synergies of regional and local environmental impacts. It also shows
areas where minor progress or even some deterioration is taking place.
The Environmental Performance Index (EPI) is based on more than 20 indicators
referring to national and global environmental statistics (Hsu et al. 2016). The index
presents aggregation of these parameters. The EPI ranks countries’ performance in
two areas of high-priority environmental policy objectives: the Protection of Ecosys-
tem Vitality and the Environmental Health. The list of indicators used for the EPI is
represented in Table 1.1. Within the two objectives, the EPI scores national perfor-
mance in nine problematic areas: Climate and Power production, Biodiversity loss,
Fisheries, Forestry, Agriculture, Water quality, Health Impacts, Air pollution, and
Table 1.1 The list of indicators of Environmental Performance Index (EPI) (data source Hsu et al.
2016)
Ecosystem vitality (divided into 9 issues) Environmental health
(divided into 3 issues)
Issues
Climate Biodiversity Fisheries Forests Agriculture Water Health Air Water
and and habitat resources impact quality sanitation
energy
Indicators (see the list below)
1, 2 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 8 9 10, 11 12 13 14, 15, 18, 19
16, 17
List of indicators: 1. Carbon Intensity, per kWh; 2. Trend in Carbon Intensity; 3. Species Protection (National); 4.
Species Protection (Global); 5. Terrestrial Biome Protection (National); 6. Terrestrial Biome Protection (Global);
7. Marine Protected Areas; 8. Fish Stocks; 9. Tree Cover Loss; 10. Nitrogen Balance; 11. Nitrogen Use Efficiency;
12. Wastewater Treatment; 13. Environmental Risk Exposure; 14. Household Air Quality; 15. Air Pollution Avg.
Exposure to Fine Particulate Matter; 16. Air Pollution Fine Particulate Matter Exceedance; 17. Air Pollution,
Avg. Exposure to NO2 ; 18. Unsafe Drinking Water; 19. Unsafe Sanitation
Water sanitation. For each of the problems, the indicator is calculated on the base of
global and national data to measure countries’ progress toward the SDGs.
In 2016, 180 countries were evaluated and the new scoring altered the Index’s pre-
vious application. Finland now took the top position, followed by Iceland, Sweden,
Denmark, and Slovenia.
The other important index is the Global Innovation Index (GII), which has been
elaborated by the business School for the World (INSEAD) since 2007, then with the
support of Cornell University and World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
(Dutta et al. 2016).
In modern economic environment, a major driving force of growth is innovation,
especially in the technological sphere. In 2016, 128 countries were evaluated by GII’s
82 indicators. Assessment included several blocks important for innovation develop-
ment: Human capital and research; Ecological sustainability; Market sophistication;
Business sophistication, Innovation linkages, Knowledge and Technology output,
Creative output. Each of the blocks was ranked by different indicators, which were
calculated in percentages (Dutta et al. 2016).
The indicators of GII can be used for environmental evaluation of countries regard-
less of their specific circumstances. They present important statistics on the state of
environment so far. A spatial and temporal coverage by datasets is a crucial charac-
teristic for their applicability for the purpose of GII. The main ecological indicators
assess country energy efficiency and energy consumption, greenhouse emissions and
effect, waste management, access to clean drink water and other issues.
1.3.2 Country and Municipal Levels of Ecological Problems’

Evaluation
As it was evaluated by the indices for country level, one of the main ecological
problems is the increasing energy efficient use as well as preventing the green gase
emissions. Russia is still characterized by very high energy intensity of its economy
(exceeded the average world index by 2–3 times) and huge direct losses of energy
due to outdate energy infrastructure (estimated at 15% for electric power and up
to 50% for heat). Russia has to accept more serious obligations to deal with global
climate change due to its high industrial emissions and huge potential to convert
environmental issues into political, economic, and social problems, especially, at the
local level.
The multiscale approach (at country and municipal levels) is implemented to rank
Russian position in accordance with global indices as well as to assess the influence of
ecological indicators on measuring and planning of ecological activities at municipal
level for a model region.
According to the country’s statistics, municipal sector consumes over 30% of the
total energy produced in the Russian Federation. Therefore, this sector is responsible
for the large portion of GHG emissions in the country. On the other hand, this provides
a great opportunity for a radical reduction of the emissions by modernizing of energy

distribution and consumption systems and introducing relatively cheap and simple
means for energy saving at individual consumer’s level.
Energy efficiency (EE) and green energy policies should be introduced at munic-
ipal level countrywide. There is a long list of proved measures for modernization of
energy distribution system in municipal sector such as the utilization of wood waste
in municipal heating systems, deployment of solar batteries, applying new standards
of buildings insulation, introduction of heat regulating devices and others.
The EE policies should be elaborated for each Russian region depending on its
natural (primary climate) conditions, social–economic development, and available
energy resources. There could be indeed very different energy efficiency programs
as well as prospects for reduction of energy consumption in Russian regions.
1.4 Results and Discussion
1.4.1 Ecological Indices and Indicators for Russia Score

Evaluation
To evaluate the ecological situation, the multilevel approach was used for country and
municipal scales. According to the two discussed indices (EPI and GII), Russia has
the potential to build up the level of energy efficiency and decrease carbon emissions,
which will have positive effect on its economy. The reduction of greenhouse gas
emissions, primarily CO2 , is the most important task. Different measures can be
used to reduce the emissions, especially in industry and transport sector as well as
in fuel and energy consumption. Countries adopted measures to reduce greenhouse
gases perform further efficiency improvements.
In the EPI rating 2016, Russia occupied the 32nd place with score 83, 52, it had
improved its rating for 24% for 2 years from the previous investigation and the EPI
publication. The main Russian ecological problems assessed in the framework of
the investigation of ecological efficiency indices and collection data were the air
pollution with CO2 and NO2 , carbon intensity, wastewater treatment, forest cover
losses, problems of protected areas, biodiversity and terrestrial habitat conservation
and water species protection, etc.
By general GII assessment, Russia occupied the 43rd place with score 38.5. During
calculation, GII was divided into Innovation Input Sub-Index (Russia was on 44th
place) and Innovation Output Sub-Index (Russia—47th place). In the framework of
the general ecological sustainability, Russia has 94th rank for GDP/unit of energy
use, PPP$/kg oil eq—114th place, Environmental performance—32nd place, ISO
14001 environmental certificates/bn PPP$ GDP—91st place.
1.4.2 Multiscale Evaluation of Ecological Problems

for Sustainable Development Planning
At country scale, one of the ways to improve Russian rating of EPI and GII is the
adoption of the Government Act of the best available technology (BAT) implemen-
tation to decrease negative impact from environmentally hazardous enterprises. BAT
is the new approach to sustainable development, which facilitates the implemen-
tation of green economy (green growth) approach based on the comprehension of
significant role of environmental factors for future human well-being.
In Russia, the best available technology has been emerging in recent years, thus
its realization in practice was complicated and slowed due to gaps in legislation and
some contradictions in legal system. Notwithstanding, the new tendency of active
adoption and implementation of BAT is widely observed in Russia today. First of
all, the Federal Law “On the protection of the environment” (from 07.21.2014, no.
219-FZ) was modified: the legal definition of BAT and its principles, categories
of environmentally dangerous enterprises, requirements for obligatory execution of
programs for environmental efficiency improvement, rates of negative impact on
the environment were legally defined by the adjustments of the law. At the same
time, Rosstandard signed the Order No. 1920 on the 3 December 2014 to establish
the BAT Bureau with the status of governmental regulation body. Its objectives are
to remove administrative barriers and reduce excessive regulation as the important
recommendations for BAT Reference Books creation. These documents mention the
importance of the enterprises division in the categories, and the application to them
adequate different measures.
Particularly important is the BAT incorporation in the sphere of energy effi-
ciency policy development. Improvements of the energy saving and the air pollution
reduction systems are the essential elements for resource preservation.
It is expected that from 2015 to 2017, the BAT implementation in Russia facilitates
the carrying out of the public record of all the enterprises, their division in categories,
publishing the Reference Guides on BAT, and adoption of all BAT regulations. In the
coming time, around 300 Russian enterprises will be determined as the key pollutants
and from 2019, the use of BAT will be obligatory for them. The same year, the BAT
must be employed for designing of new businesses. Until 2025, all enterprises of the
first category will get comprehensive environmental permits. As a result, during the
1st period (2015–2021), it is expected to decrease negative impact in the country for
not less than 15%, during the 2nd (2021–2026)—for 45–50%, for the 3rd (2026–
2031)—for 75–80%, in the 2033–2040s, around 15 000 enterprises shall correspond
the BAT requests.
The system of environmental law will be based on motivation principles: the
benefits for the payments; set-off cost for the enterprise if it takes measures to decrease
the negative impact; the provision of tax privileges for businesses obeyed the BAT
and others. Listed approaches for the BAT development will facilitate the growth of
enterprises’ efficiency as well as have a positive effect on ecological conditions in
Russia.
The other way to improve energy efficiency policy and to decrease air pollution
was studied at municipal scale (Milanova 2012) for the Baikal region, including the
Irkutsk region and the Republic of Buryatia. This region was considered as the model
study area due to the fact that it is treated as the region of the world natural heritage
and the necessity to improve the municipal energy usage avoiding the risks to nature
and people’s well-being.
Baikal region is located in the east part of Russia near the famous Baikal Lake
and characterized by uniqueness of biodiversity, possesses an enormous potential
of ecological wealth and resources for tourism and recreation development, medi-
cal healthy sources and sites. 20% of the planet’s freshwater is accumulated in the
Baikal Lake. Under the conditions of ecological crisis, the value of virgin nature
will be continuously growing; therefore, the conservation of the Baikal region bio-
diversity is the most important factor of the world community sustainable ecological
development. Nowadays, the Baikal region has a well-developed network of nature
conservation areas (more than 20 sites, which occupy 3 mln ha). They include state
nature reserves (part of them are biosphere reserves with status of UNESCO World
Heritage sites), national parks, specially protected sites, nature monuments, healthy
sources and sites.
Several ecologically orientated energy efficiency (EE) projects were implemented
in the region, with support of the government and different ecological funds. The
aims were to set up the system of rational energy use and to improve the quality of
people’s life. In the framework of the projects, the priority was given to the wider
use of biomass (wood waste), gas, and electricity for heating instead of using coal.
The projects helped for the better ecological situation in the region because the
level of local high-ash coal consumption and the volume of GHG emissions were
decreased at the same as the problem of wood waste was resolved.
One another approach which was used during the projects is the installations
of solar batteries. The Republic of Buryatia and the Irkutsk region have the same
number of sunshine hours as the South Europe regions, it accounts for 2200–2500 h
annually and the solar energy can be widely utilized. Additionally, some projects were
devoted to the minimization of irrational resource consumption what was reached
by the means of heat and energy metering facilities installation. These measures
enabled to reduce the volume of energy and hot water use up to 20%, which gave
the expenditure savings for local people and set up optimal thermal regime in their
houses.
Reached energy efficiency savings can re-invest into social infrastructure and
facilitate the better profitable municipal budget, which all together would lead to a
further building-up of capacity for sustainable development at local level (Milanova
and Zaitsev 2013). The additional benefits are the reduction of GHG emissions and
positive effects on the environment and socio-economic conditions.
Therefore the general strategy of EE at municipal level should include approaches
to attract investors, to conduct political reforms at different levels, to form conditions
that legally allow re-investments of energy efficiency savings into municipal devel-
opment projects as the innovation of technical facilities and municipal management
systems.
The local sustainable community development indicators were used to evaluate the
EE project results. In compliance with ecologically oriented approach, the sustainable
communities’ success formulas are defined by two parameters:
(1) community improvements (better environment, ecologically responsible busi-
ness, optimized energy and resources consumption, improved life quality),
and
(2) enhancing positive community processes (widening of ecological resources
management, expanding multi-stakeholders cooperation, growing of people
awareness on nature status, increasing transparency of local ecological policy
and public involvement in its implementation and decision-making).
The system of monitoring and indicators for evaluation of projects’ influence
on community sustainable development and people’s well-being is elaborated. It
includes different aspects of healthy community:
– environment improvement: pollution/waste reduction, creation of recreation
areas/nature parks, development of ecotourism and ecologically responsible
business;
– energy and other nature resources efficient usage: usage of ecologically safe fuel
(wood waste, alternative sources), reinvestment of energy savings into decision of
community socio-ecological problems and introduction of new technologies;
– ecological education: altered ecologically responsible behavior models, wide
public involvement into ecological activities;
– people health improvement: better environment conditions, better drinking;
– water quality, public recreation facilities;
– people well-being improvement: reduction of energy rates and people expenses,
new jobs creation and lower unemployment level, youth involvement into com-
munity activity and reduction of youth outflow, common growth of economic
well-being in the municipal communities.
1.5 Conclusion
The global indices and indicators are the tools to evaluate sustainable development
goals implementation at all levels (from local community to the country and the
whole world). The rating of Russia was assessed on the base of Environmental Perfor-
mance Index and Global Innovation Index to assist the indication of appropriate way
to solve such important ecological problems as energy efficiency and air pollution by
GHG reducing. At municipal level, the influence of energy efficiency projects was
evaluated for the model Baikal region (UNESCO heritage site) on the base of elab-
orated indicators, which show the projects’ influence on sustainable communities’
development and improvement of people’s life quality.
The BAD is considered as a new approach to sustainable development in Russia.
Based on the principles of minimum environmental impact, it enables the formation
of ecological sustainability. The only condition to support the strategy of ecologically

sustainable development according to the SDGs at country and municipal level is
the efficient assistance for country and regional development from authorities (gov-
ernments, business and social organizations partnerships and cooperation) and the
world community.
References
Dutta S, Lanvin B, Wunsch-Vincent S (eds) (2016) The global innovation index 2016: winning
with global innovation. 2016. Johnson Cornell University, INSEAD The Business School for the
World, World Intellectual Property Organization, Ithaca, Fontainebleau, and Geneva
Hsu A, Esty D, Levy M, de Sherbinin A et al (2016) The 2016 environmental performance index
report. Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy, New Haven, CT. http://dx.doi.org/10.
13140/RG.2.2.19868.90249
Milanova E (2012) Sustainable development: global challenges–local solution. Probl Reg Ecol
2012(3):166–169 (in Russian)
Milanova E, Zaitsev A (2013) Energy efficiency municipal policy in Russia. In: Abstracts of
Internationaler Kongress Fachmesse “Okologische, Technologische und Rechtliche Aspekte der
Lebensversorgung”, Hannover, November 2013, pp 26–29
Chapter 2
Seismic Vulnerability Assessment of NCT
of Delhi Using GIS-Based Multiple
Criteria Decision Analysis
Seema Sahdev, Manish Kumar and R. B. Singh
Abstract Seismic vulnerability mapping is one of the crucial issues of planning.

The study demonstrates the use of geographic information system (GIS)-based mul-
tiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA) for the identification of areas of seismic
vulnerability. For this purpose, various thematic maps have been prepared and with
the help of the weighting criteria final seismic vulnerability assessment map was
prepared using ArcGIS software. Six parameters: Seismic Micro Zonation, Linea-
ment, Bedrock Depth, Depth of Water Level, built up density and Population Density
have been taken for assessment. According to their importance weights have been
generated for each criterion by comparing them with each other. Final seismic vulner-
ability assessment map was prepared by using these weights and criteria. To estimate
the collective effects of causal factors stepwise multivariate regression analysis was
also carried out. The analysis of causal factors of Seismic vulnerability such as Seis-
mic Micro Zonation, Lineament, Bedrock Depth, Depth of Water Level, built up
density and Population Density collectively explains 78% variations in it. Seismic
vulnerability mapping helps planner to provide proper plan for prevention, mitigation
and preparedness (PMP), where funds and efforts are used to solve the fundamental
causes of vulnerability.
Keywords Seismic vulnerability · GIS · Multiple criteria decision analysis ·

Multivariate regression analysis
2.1 Introduction
In simple terms, vulnerability is one of the defining components of disaster risk. The
characteristics of vulnerability may determined by physical, social, economic and
S. Sahdev (B) · M. Kumar

Department of Geography, Kalindi College, University of Delhi, Delhi 110008, India
e-mail: seemasahdev@yahoo.com
R. B. Singh
Department of Geography, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, Delhi 110007, India
e-mail: rbsgeo@hotmail.com

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2097-6_2
12 S. Sahdev et al.
environmental factors or processes which increase the susceptibility of an individual,

a community, assets or systems to the impacts of hazards. Different natural hazards
such as drought, storm, landslide, food scarcity and earthquake cause severe damage
of life and property. In order to cope up these hazards effectively, some positive
factors are needed to enhance the ability of the people and the society to increase their
resilience and reduce their susceptibility. It generally originates some miles beneath
the earth surface and forms the origin of seismic focus from where vibration spread in
all directions. Epicentre is a point on the earth’s surface where the vibration reaches
immediately. This point is just above the origin or seismic focus. In fact, epicentre
is a point where the shock of the earthquake is experienced first and thereafter it
spreads in all directions in the form of waves as seen in still water where a stone is
thrown into it and water surface forms circular waves round the point of impact. With
the invention of geospatial technologies the vulnerability and hazard assessment has
become more precise and reliable. It has paved the wave for mapping, zoning and
risk scoring.
In the present study, geospatial techniques have been used to access spatio-
temporal nature of geophysical risk. However, it is important to note that the use
of geospatial technologies alone is not sufficient to sort out the complexities associ-
ated with the earthquake risk management and final decision cannot be taken based
on that.
Multiple criteria decision analysis is the process of evaluating a finite set of con-
flicting and incommensurable criteria and alternatives on the basis of quantitative,
qualitative or both. As the problem of earthquake is multidimensional involving mul-
tiple criteria and conflicting objectives, its assessment is taken as multiple criteria
decision analysis problem and specialized tools and techniques are used to evaluate
the complexities involved.
Overall preference values are measured by the preferences values of the alter-
natives on permissible scale (Malczewski 1999; Jankowski et al. 2001). MCDA
techniques have been used in many researches on risk assessment, hazard and vul-
nerability. Flood vulnerability areas in Turkey were analyzed with the help of MCDA
(Yalcin 2002). MCDA was also applied to access the effectiveness of alternative
retrofit options in seismic risk mitigation (Giovinazzi et al. 2006), vulnerability of
volcanic risk (Aceves-Quesada et al. 2007), evaluation of fire risk (Vadrevu et al.
2009), seismic hazard for a city in India, Bangalore (Anbazhagan et al. 2011), land-
slide vulnerability in Romania (Armas 2011). Earthquake parameters were also stud-
ied and analyzed by Erden and Karaman (2011). They prepared hazard maps for
Kucukcekmece region by incorporating GIS and MCE. To access social vulnera-
bility two seismic risks for the municipality of Vila Franca do Campo in Portugal,
Martins et al. (2012) present a GIS-based MCDA. It shows that there has been a
substantial use of GIS-based MCDA techniques for disaster risk assessment at vari-
ous places. Articles are being published focusing this topic with source trend in risk
assessment studies based on MCDA. Saaty’s (1980) Analytical hierarchy process
(AHP) is the MCDA technique integrated into GIS for earthquake risk assessment.
Spatial multi-criteria analysis and ranking tool (SMART) based on the concept of
AHP is employed for developing seismic hazard and vulnerability maps. Thereafter
2 Seismic Vulnerability Assessment of NCT … 13
these maps are combining to develop seismic map as done in the linear multiplica-
tive combination methods. NCT of Delhi is one of the probable earthquake hazard
prone areas of India. So, in this study attempt is being made to access the seismic
vulnerability mapping of NCT of Delhi.
2.2 Study Area
National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi lies in Seismic Zone IV of the Seismic
Zoning Map of India (Fig. 2.1). It spreads between Lat 28° 24 01 and 28° 53 00 N
and Long 76° 50 24 and 77° 20 37 E occupying an area of 1482 km2 . In geograph-
ical terms, NCT of Delhi region is located on folded crustal ramp represented by
basement rocks of Delhi Super Group which is bounded by two regional faults, viz,
Mahendragarh–Dehradun Subsurface Fault (MDSSF) in the west and Great Bound-
ary Fault (GBF) in the East Delhi. The ramp across the ‘fore deep’ trending NNE–
SSW is placed side by side to Himalayan thrust belt. The other structural element
of the belt is NW–SE trending Delhi–Sargodha Ridge (DSR) which passes through
Delhi surrounded by basins on both sides. These are Bikaner Basin in southwest and
Sahaspur Basin in the north.
Since Delhi city is in a seismically active region, it is imperative to study and
analyze the probable earthquake hazard to the city on a scientific basis. Though
records are not available to show the earthquake pattern for the decades back, in
history the first earthquake in Delhi city took place on 17 July 1720 as recorded.
In his Urdu poem ‘bhûcâl-nâma’ Nazir Akbarabadi (1740–1830) described about
high-intensity earthquake felt in the Agra–Mathura region on 25 August 1803. This
earthquake caused some damage in the Qutub Minar, which is located in Delhi. On
Fig. 2.1 Location map of study area

14 S. Sahdev et al.
27 August 1960, an earthquake of magnitude 6 occurred having its epicentral tract

in the Delhi–Gurgaon region. An earthquake of magnitude of 4 took place on 28th
July 1994 around Delhi causing minor damage to a few old structures. Generally, all
these earthquakes have their sources in the Indo-Gangetic plains near Delhi city. It
has also been observed that even earthquake occurring at distant places in Himalayan
plate boundary Uttarakhand are felt in Delhi though no severe effect is noted.
2.3 Materials and Methods
2.3.1 Data Collection and Integration
In order to develop seismic vulnerability assessment map, various thematic lay-

ers were generated using ArcGIS Software. Seismic Micro Zonation, Lineament,
Bedrock Depth, Depth of Water Level, Built up density and population density were
obtained from Indian Metrological Organisation (IMD), Census of India, Geological
Society of India(GSI).
2.3.2 Selection and Preparation of Criteria Maps
In the present study, six criteria were selected. The main criteria which are used for
analysis are Seismic Micro Zonation, Lineament, Bedrock Depth, Depth of Water
Level, Built up density and Population Density (Fig. 2.2). These criteria were used
in the preparation of criteria maps.
2.3.3 Suitability Scoring/Ranking and Development

of Pairwise Comparison Matrix
A score has been given to each criteria as per their appropriateness. For this pur-
pose, Saaty’s 9 point weighing scale-based pairwise comparison matrix was prepared
(Table 2.1) (Saaty 1980). For developing a ration matrix different criteria are used.
These ratio matrices were used to create relative weights.
2.3.4 Computation of the Criterion Weights
After preparation of ratio matrix, the computations of the criteria weights were done
(Malczewski 1999).
Fig. 2.2 Criteria maps (Source IMD, Census of India and GSI)
Table 2.1 Nine point

Intensity of importance Description
weighting scale for pairwise
comparison 1 Equal importance
2 Equal to moderate importance
3 Moderate importance
4 Moderate to strong importance
5 Strong importance
6 Strong to very strong importance
7 Very strong importance
8 Very to extremely strong importance
9 Extremely importance
Source Saaty (1980), ESRI (1996)
2.3.5 Rasterization of Criteria Maps
Computation is less complex in vector data format as compared to raster data format
therefore criteria maps were created in raster data format (Chang 2006).
16 S. Sahdev et al.
2.3.6 Integration of Maps
After rasterization in ArcGIS software, these raster maps were combined in raster
calculator and by multiplying its weight, and final vulnerability assessment map was
prepared.
2.3.7 Preparation of Vulnerability Assessment Map
A pairwise comparison matrix was developed with the help of the existing criteria
(Table 2.2). All criteria were normalized by using the ratio matrix, and by using
pairwise comparison method weights were computed for each criterion (Tables 2.3
and 2.4).
λ = 6.18
λ should be equal or greater than the number of criteria under consideration and
satisfies this condition.
CI = 0.036
Table 2.2 Pairwise comparison matrix

Criteria Seismic Lineament Bedrock Depth of Built up Population
Micro (b) Depth (c) Water density (e) density (f)
Zonation Level (d)
(a)
Seismic 1 2 4 5 7 8
Micro
Zonation
Lineament 0.5 1 2 4 5 7
Bedrock 0.25 0.5 1 2 4 5
Depth
Depth of 0.2 0.25 0.5 1 2 4
Water
Level
Built up 0.14 0.2 0.25 0.5 1 2
density
population
density
Aspect 0.13 0.14 0.2 0.25 0.5 1
Total 2.22 4.09 7.95 12.75 19.5 27
Source Prepared by the authors
Table 2.3 Normalized pairwise comparison matrix and computation of criterion weights
Criteria Seismic Lineament Bedrock Depth Built Population Weights
Micro (b) Depth of up density (f) (a + b +
Zonation (c) Water density c+d+
(a) Level (e) e + f)/6
(d)
Seismic 0.45 0.49 0.50 0.39 0.36 0.30 0.42
Micro
Zonation
Lineament 0.23 0.24 0.25 0.31 0.26 0.26 0.26
Bedrock 0.11 0.12 0.13 0.16 0.21 0.18 0.15
Depth
Depth of 0.09 0.06 0.06 0.08 0.10 0.15 0.09
Water
Level
Built up 0.06 0.05 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.07 0.05
density
Population 0.06 0.03 0.03 0.02 0.02 0.04 0.03
density
Total 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00
Table 2.4 Computation of consistency vector

Criterion Weighted sum vector Consistency vector
Seismic Micro Zonation [(1)(0.42) + (2)(0.26) + (4)(0.15) + (5)(0.09) 2.58/0.42 = 6.14
+ (7)(0.05) + (8)(0.03)] = 2.58
Lineament [(0.5)(0.42) + (1)(0.26) + (2)(0.15) + 1.59/0.26 = 6.12
(4)(0.09) + (5)(0.05) + (7)(0.03)] = 1.59
Bedrock Depth [(0.25)(0.42) + (0.5)(0.26) + (1)(0.15) + 0.92/0.15 = 6.13
(2)(0.09) + (4)(0.05) + (5)(0.03)] = 0.92
Depth of Water Level [(0.2)(0.42) + (0.25)(0.26) + (0.5)(0.15) + 0.54/0.09 = 6.00
(1)(0.09) + (2)(0.05) + (4)(0.03)] = 0.54
Built up density [(0.14)(0.42) + (0.2)(0.26) + (0.25)(0.15) + 0.31/0.05 = 6.20
(0.5)(0.09) + (1)(0.05) + (2)(0.03)] = 0.31
Population density [(0.13)(0.42) + (0.14)(0.26) + (0.2)(0.15) + 0.195/0.03 = 6.50
(0.25)(0.09) + (0.5)(0.05) + (1)(0.03)] =
0.195
and CR = 0.03.
CR (= 0.03) < 0.10 indicates a reasonable level of consistency in the pairwise

comparisons.
The final seismic vulnerability assessment map (Fig. 2.3) was prepared by
18 S. Sahdev et al.
Fig. 2.3 Vulnerability assessment map
applying the following formula:
V ul ner abi l i t y i ndex = ([seismic Micro Zones] ∗ 0.42) + ([Lineament] ∗ 0.26)

+ bedrock depth ∗ 0.15 + depth of water level ∗ 0.09

+ built up density ∗ 0.05 + pop density ∗ 0.03
The final seismic vulnerability assessment map reveals that the study area was
divided into five different seismic zones. The area under very high, high, moderate,
low, very low stands at 101.30 km2 , 285.77 km2 , 369.79 km2 , 520.19 km2 and
602.26 km2, respectively, (Table 2.5). Approximately large area falls under low and
very low suitable category medium, area under moderate suitability and other area
under very high and high suitable categories.
Table 2.5 Area under

Vulnerability assessment zones Area (in km2 )
different suitability categories
Very high 101.30
High 285.77
Moderate 369.79
Low 520.19
Very low 602.26
Table 2.6 Model summary of stepwise regression

Model R R square Adjusted R square Std. error of the estimate Significant
1 0.785a 0.617 0.562 7.94687 0.012
2 0.819b 0.670 0.560 7.96231 0.362
3 0.831c 0.691 0.505 8.44636 0.589
4 0.843d 0.711 0.421 9.13158 0.626
5 0.843e 0.711 0.537 8.16755 0.997
6 0.877f 0.769 0.538 8.15889 0.372
Note Significance at 0.05 Level
a Predictors: (Constant), Seismic Micro Zonation
b Predictors: (Constant), Seismic Micro Zonation, Lineament
c Predictors: (Constant), Seismic Micro Zonation, Lineament, Bedrock Depth
d Predictors: (Constant), Seismic Micro Zonation, Lineament, Bedrock Depth, Depth of Water Level
e Predictors: (Constant), Seismic Micro Zonation, Lineament, Bedrock Depth, Depth of Water Level,
Built up density
f Predictors: (Constant), Seismic Micro Zonation, Lineament, Bedrock Depth, Depth of Water Level,
Built up density, Population Density
2.4 Modelling of Seismic Vulnerability Assessment
Stepwise multivariate regression analysis was also carried out to estimate the collec-
tive effects of causal factors, (Table 2.6). It is assumed that the relationships between
variables are linear in the stepwise multivariate regression. The r2 = 0.893 shows
highest correlation coefficient which collectively explains the 87.7% of seismic vul-
nerability considering all the causal factors in the stepwise regression. The Seismic
Micro Zonation explains the highest proportion (78.5%) and the only significant
causal factor.
2.5 Conclusion
In this study, an integrated approach of GIS-based multiple criteria decision analysis

was employed in order to identify seismic vulnerability zones. This method not only
20 S. Sahdev et al.
offers a scientific way to find the vulnerable zones but also provides a methodology
for assessing the vulnerability zones as well as cost-benefit analysis for the same. It
provides comprehensive and satisfactory database for vulnerability mapping and in
turn will help in solving any specific problem. We all know if a country gets hit by any
natural calamity it is very difficult for the country to overcome it, so it is necessary
to get prepared for any natural calamity so that we can save our people, property and
the resources. This vulnerability assessment map can encourage public participation
in the mitigation plan and a better decision can be taken against any kind of hazards
happening in the area of NCT, Delhi. Primarily the areas which are more susceptible
to vulnerability can be cured with a help of this vulnerability assessment map.
References
Aceves-Quesada JF, Díaz-Salgado J, López-Blanco J (2007) Vulnerability assessment in a volcanic

risk evaluation in Central Mexico through a multicriteria-GIS approach. Nat Hazards 40:339–356.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-006-0018-6
Anbazhagan P, Gajawada P, Parihar A (2011) Seismic hazard map of Coimbatore using subsurface
fault rupture. Nat Hazards 60:1325–1345
Armas I (2011) An analytic multicriteria hierarchical approach to assess landslide vulnerability.
Case study: Cornu Village, Subcarpathian Prahova Valley/Romania. Z Geomorphol 55:209–229
Chang KT (2006) Raster data analysis. Introduction to geographic information system. Tata McGraw
Hill, New Delhi
Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) Inc. (1996) Working with the ArcView spatial
analyst. Redlands, California, USA
Erden T, Karaman H (2011) Analysis of earthquake parameters to generate hazard maps by
integrating AHP and GIS for Kucukcekmece region. Nat Haz Earth Syst Sci 12:475–483
Giovinazzi S, Lagomarsino S, Pampanin S (2006) Vulnerability methods and damage scenario for
seismic risk analysis as support to retrofit strategies: an European perspective. In: Proceedings of
the New Zealand society for earthquake engineering conference, Napier. http://ir.canterbury.ac.
nz/handle/10092/439
Jankowski P, Andrienko N, Andrienko G (2001) Map-centered exploratory approach to multiple
criteria spatial decision making. Int J Geogr Inf Sci 15:101–127
Malczewski J (1999) GIS and multicriteria decision analysis. Wiley, New York, p 392
Martins VN, Silva DS, Cabral P (2012) Social vulnerability assessment to seismic risk using multi-
criteria analysis: the case study of Vila Franca does Campo (São Miguel Island, Azores, Portugal).
Nat Hazard 3:26–45
Saaty TL (1980) The analytic hierarchy process. McGraw-Hill, New York
Vadrevu KP, Eaturu A, Badarinath KVS (2009) Fire risk evaluation using multicriteria analy-
sis a case study. Environ Monit Assess. http://www.colorado.edu/geography/leyk/geog_5113/
readings/vadrevu_etal_2009_EnvMonAss.pdf
Yalcin G (2002) Analyzing flood vulnerable areas with multicriteria evaluation [dissertation]. Mid-
dle East Technical University, Ankara. http://www.isprs.org/istanbul2004/comm2/papers/154.
pdf
Chapter 3
Human Capital Impact for Sustainable
Economic Growth
Vladimir M. Matyushok, Nina M. Baranova and Leonid V. Sorokin
Abstract Sustainable economic growth is one of three essential components of the

United Nations sustainable development concept together with the society and envi-
ronment. The up going urbanization force human and economic development. The
human capital is one of the important components for growing industrialization,
innovations, scientific research, education and formation of the higher skilled work-
ers. The main aim of the study is to provide an analysis of the human capital impact
on sustainable economic growth. We used the methods of econometric modelling and
cluster analysis on the base of data collections: United Nations Development Pro-
gramme and the World Bank World Development Indicators (WDI). Cluster analysis
was done for the Human Development Index (HDI) and WDI for countries with dif-
ferent levels of social and economic development together with ecological situations.
With the help of spatial data analysis of population density and urbanization for the
studied countries, we can separate them into different groups. As a result of the anal-
ysis, the countries with high HDI and Gross national income (GNI) per capita has a
clusterization in different groups due to the role of scientific research and industrial-
ization as in the case with a high volume of trade (exports and imports) per capita and
high urbanization. The main difference between them is that the role of innovation
in economic growth can generate the same or higher HDI as in the case of a high
volume of trade (exports and imports) per capita. But it is possible to separate them
with the help of population density and urbanization. It looks like countries with
a high volume of trade (exports and imports) per capita have the highest level of
urbanization. Based on this approach it is possible to separate the countries with the
same HDI value and different income or similar income and different HDI values.
V. M. Matyushok · N. M. Baranova · L. V. Sorokin (B)

Department of Economic and Mathematical Modelling, Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia
(RUDN University), Moscow, Russia
e-mail: sorokin_lv@rudn.univesity
V. M. Matyushok
e-mail: matyushok_vm@rudn.univesity
N. M. Baranova
e-mail: baranova_nm@rudn.univesity

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2097-6_3
22 V. M. Matyushok et al.
Keywords Human development · Economic growth · Urbanization · Inequality ·

Research and development
3.1 Introduction
The Economic Growth was one of the central research topics of the twentieth century.
The economic model of long-run economic growth was developed independently by
Robert Solow (1956) and Trevor Swan (1956) in 1956. Robert Solow and Trevor
Swan considered capital accumulation, labour or population growth, and increase in
productivity, commonly referred to as technological progress and the main factors of
the long-run economic growth (Acemoglu 2009; Swan 1956; Solow 1956, 1957). In
1987 Solow was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics. Economists use the Solow–
Swan model to estimate the independent effects on economic growth of technological
change, capital, and labour (Haines and Sharif 2006).
The main reason for the economy slowing down in the present time can be a
deficit of investment resources and modern technologies, scarcity of professional
staff, insufficient development of competition and business environment weaknesses.
The President of the Russian Federation charged the government and the leading
business associations up to May of the next year to develop a substantive road map
for 2025. Its implementation should enable already in the 2019–2020’s changed to
economic growth.
Sustainable economic growth is one of the third essential components of the
United Nations sustainable development concept together with society (Dodds et al.
2017) and the environment. In the present time, more than half of the world’s popu-
lation lives in cities, generating more than 80 percent of global GDP (Human Devel-
opment Report 2015, p. 5). The up going urbanization force the human and eco-
nomic development (World Rankings 2016). The human capital (Human Develop-
ment Report 2015) is one of the important components for growing industrialization
(Kiely 1998), innovations (Cornell University 2016), scientific research (Research
and development expenditure 2016), education and formation of the highly skilled
workers (Knowledge Economy Index 2016).
3.2 Factors that Can Slow Down Sustainable Economic

Development
The constantly growing human capital is one of the main conditions for the country’s
sustainable economic development. According to the World Bank (2016) estimation,
only 16% of economic growth is provided by physical capital, about 20%—by natural
capital, and 64% is driven by human capital. In the Russian Federation in 2015, we
can see just the opposite conditions: 63%—by natural capital; all others in equal
3 Human Capital Impact for Sustainable Economic Growth 23
parts by physical capital and by human capital. So, for the Russian Federation, the
human capital is the main source of innovation economic growing.
In the present time, not only new technologies and investments are required to
ensure sustainable development of the country but first of all the high-tech sector,
social innovations, a change in the priorities and goals of the development of civi-
lization, and most importantly, a readiness to avoid immediate benefits for the sake
of future generations.
To study the problems that can hamper human development, it is necessary to
study the different groups of countries and establish its relationship with the main
indicators of economic development.
3.3 Methods and Data
We used the methods of econometric modelling and cluster analysis on the base of
data collections: United Nations Development Programme (Human Development
Report 2015, 2016) and the World Development Indicators (WDI) of World Bank
(2016).
Cluster analysis was done for the Human Development Index (HDI) and WDI
for countries with different levels of social and economic development together with
ecological situations.
For the 3D data visualization and data plot, the OriginPro 8.6 programme was
used. With the help of spatial data analysis of population density (Earthdata SEDAC
2016) and urbanization for the studied countries, we can separate them in the different
groups.
The World Development Indicators (World Bank WDI XL 2016) was completed
for 2016 and was included in the Human Development Report 2016 with data set
(Human Development Data 2016). The analysis of the Human Capital Impact for
Sustainable Economic Development was done on the basis of 2015–2016 data sets.
In this paper, we make an attempt to provide analyse of the paradoxes mentioned
above and consider their role in the development of Human Capital.
3.4 Main Paradoxes
In the Human Development Report 2015 by United Nations Development Pro-

gramme (Human Development Report 2015) three main paradoxes were underlined:
• Rising inequality between global wealth and the world’s population distribution;
• The growing urbanization is one of the forcing factors of global GDP growth but
this does not automatically mean the higher income;
• There is no automatic link between income and human development.
In this research, we focus on the relationship of these paradoxes with the Human
Development and their joint contribution to Sustainable Economic Development.
3.4.1 Paradox 1. Rising Inequality
Inequality can be observed in many countries. We can refer to Goal 10 of the UN

Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDG Goal 10 2016) the well-known relation
exists then income inequality between countries may have been reduced at the same
time the inequality within countries has risen. This means that “…economic growth
is not sufficient to reduce poverty if it is not inclusive and if it does not involve the
three dimensions of sustainable development—economic, social and environmental”
(UN SDG Goal 10 2016).
UN Human Development Report 2015 shows that the level of income of the
world’s population is unevenly distributed: 1% of the population has 48% global
wealth and can pass the midway of 50 percent in 2016 (Oxfam 2015), 19% of the
population has 46% of the global wealth, while the remaining 80% of the population
account for only 6% of the global wealth (Human Development Report 2015, p. 65).
This discrepancy can be observed in all countries with a high or low population
density, as well as with a high or low level of development of human capital. The
reducing income inequalities between countries can even rise inequality within a
single chosen country.
This can affect poor countries more than rich ones due to their huge population and
cause a huge migration in the cities. In the world scale, this inequality will provide
a huge contribution to global urbanization.
On the current date, almost 80% of the world’s population is concentrated in devel-
oping countries, producing 40% of world GDP. The most populated areas are Asian
countries—4.463 billion people; Africa—more than 1.216 billion people; China—
1.384 billion people; India—1.284 billion people. Where according to projections in
the near future, a significant increase in urbanization is expected. Growing inequal-
ity in the global distribution of wealth will force the migration process (Earthdata
SEDAC 2016).
The highly developed countries have 16% of the world’s population and produce
more than 50% of world GDP.
The analysis is aimed at the World wealth distribution among different groups
of countries and among the population within the exact country. The focus of the
research was paid to what extent the development of human capital can have an
impact on economic growth.
Different groups of countries (G7, highly developed countries, oil and gas rich
countries, etc.) have significantly different GDP and GNI per capita.
Among the significant factors with high impact on the HDI are Gross national
income (GNI) per capita, PPP and Trade (Exports and imports) per capita. We can
make a 3D analysis of these parameters with the help of the 3D plot (Fig. 3.1).
Fig. 3.1 The relation between indicators: Merchandise (Exports and imports) % GDP—OX axis;
GNI per capita, PPP—OY axis; Human Development Index (HDI)—OZ axis. Data source Human
Development Report (2016), World Bank World Development Indicators (2016)
On the 3D Plot (Fig. 3.1), GNI per capita, PPP is significantly dependent on
exports and imports of a particular country. We can separate the countries into
several groups with significantly different levels of Trade Merchandise (Exports
and imports) % GDP and GNI per capita, PPP.
There is a large group of oil-producing countries: Qatar, Kuwait, Brunei Darus-
salam, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Russia and Bahrain (Production of Crude Oil
including Lease Condensate 2016), with high levels of income from trade and GNI
per capita, PPP (Fig. 3.1) and they have high values of HDI (0.8 < HDI < 0.9).
From Fig. 3.2 we can see that Qatar is the leader of oil and gas rich countries
so the reserves are more than $ 6 million for each citizen. These huge reserves in
a short period provided Qatar with significant economic growth and the top rank
between the oil and gas rich countries in terms of GNI per capita, PPP. The second
one is Kuwait where for each citizen there are oil and gas reserves for more than
$ 4 million. The oil and gas reserves in United Arab Emirates, Turkmenistan, Saudi
Arabia are 1.6, 1.5 and 1.1 million USD per capita, respectively (Fig. 3.2).
According to the UN report (Human Development Data 2015) and World Bank
(2015, 2016), the percentage of income from the export of oil and gas from the
total exports of goods of countries for 2015 is distributed as follows: Brunei—
92.98%; Kuwait—89.11%; Qatar—82.77%; Saudi Arabia—78.4%; Russia—63%;
Oman—62%; Bahrain—50.35%; United Arab Emirates—42.5%. At the same time
for these countries GNI per capita, PPP has a huge difference: Qatar—138480 USD;
Kuwait—83150 USD; Brunei—83010 USD; United Arab Emirates—72830 USD;
Fig. 3.2 The relation between indicators: GNI per capita, PPP (current international $)—OX
axis; Oil Production per capita (bbl/day/million people)—OY axis; Human Development Index
(HDI)—OZ axis. Data source Human Development Report (2016), World Bank World Development
Indicators (2016), Production of Crude Oil including Lease Condensate (2016)
Saudi Arabia—55750 USD; Oman—38650 USD; Russia—24120 USD; Bahrain

22579 USD; Tajikistan—3500 USD. One can see the huge variance in HDI values
(Human Development Report 2016) from 0,865 (Brunei) to 0,624 (Tajikistan).
Forcing of natural resources can be a privilege to gain income and export revenue.
It looks like that exports of primary commodities in general of oil and gas these
countries prefer to invest in the primary sector of the economy and public services
within the economy. In order to get some privilege to the future generations they
increase the revenue. But if they do not invest in the High-Technology exports and
Research & Development (Ravi et al. 2010) then in the nearest future the natural
resources (Jain et al. 2010), and obtained capital will run out and these countries will
be impoverished.
Another group of countries, for example, Sudan, Nigeria, Eritrea with low income
from trade (19% GDP, 30.9% GDP, 37.2% GDP) have both low value of GNI per
capita, PPP (4290 USD, 5740 UDS, 1130 USD) and HDI (0.467, 0.514, 0.391). This
is an example of poor countries with fewer opportunities (Fig. 3.1).
G7 group of countries has the highest HDI > 0.9 (Fig. 3.1), but a lower GNI per
capita, PPP (World Bank 2016) income compared to commodity-dependent countries
(oil rich countries): USA—58700 USD; Canada—44020 USD; Germany—49690
USD; United Kingdom—41640 USD; France—42000 USD; Japan—43540 USD;
Italy—38460 USD. The high quality of life with the high cost of education, healthcare
together with high environmental standards (Global Metrics for the Environment
2016) can explain the reduction of GNI per capita income for this group of countries.
As a result of analysis the countries with high HDI and GNI per capita has a
clusterization in different groups due to the role of scientific research and industri-
alization as in the case with a high volume of trade (exports and imports) per capita
(Fig. 3.1) and high urbanization.
Thus, as a result of the study of different groups of countries in terms of their
income from trade and the distribution of income among the population, it is estab-
lished that the division of society is seriously intensifying in the world, the problem
of inequality in the distribution of income both between countries and within the
country (an example of Tajikistan).
Over the past 50 years, the gap between the richest and poorest countries has
doubled. In addition, it was noted that even in developed countries the rich layers of
the population are more rich, and the poor—poorest.
That is, the country’s economic growth does not automatically ensure the welfare
of its people. It was mentioned in the UN report on sustainable development goals,
which stated that economic growth is not sufficient to reduce poverty if it is not
comprehensive and does not include three aspects of sustainable development—
economic, social and environmental.
The UN report for 2015 argues that growing urbanization is also one of the main
factors of the country’s economic growth, but will the uniform distribution of the
good among the population and its development follow from this growth?
The paradox of the Growing Urbanization is the outstanding one and we’ll discuss
it in the next part.
3.4.2 Paradox 2. The Growing Urbanization
Since the end of the nineteenth century, the process of global urbanization was
intensified. Faster growth of the urban population became more evident in the middle
of the twentieth century.
According to the UN statistical data (World Urbanization Prospects 2014) in 1950
a third of the world’s population lived in cities (746 million), in 2000, nearly half were
city dwellers (2.9 billion), and in 2050 more than two-thirds (66%) of the world’s
population (6.3 billion) is projected to be living in urban areas. This rapid increase
will take place mainly in developing countries (Human Development Report 2015,
p. 67).
“Urbanization has the potential to improve the economic well-being of societies.
More than half of the world’s people live in cities, but they generate more than 80%
of global GDP” (World Bank 2015).
The source for this rapid urbanization is the rural population of China (Hazelhurst
2015), India and developing countries mostly Africa and Asia (UNDP 2013). China
has a leading position in urbanization where migrant workers from the countryside
are the third of the labour force (Hazelhurst 2015). In Africa the urban population
will increase from 40 % to 56 % by 2050, a similar tendency is observed in Asia
Fig. 3.3 The relation between indicators: HDI from GNI per capita, PPP and the Population Urban
(%). Data source Human Development Report (2016), World Bank World Development Indicators
(2016)
from 48 % to 64 % (UNDP 2013). This trend is observed in the background of the

exponential growth of the world population.
From Fig. 3.3 we can see that the level of the urban population has a significant
impact on the distribution of GNI per capita for countries with different economic
development.
The oil rich countries such as Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Brunei
Darussalam and Oman with a large urban population and huge GNI per capita, PPP,
have a rather big HDI value (0.8 < HDI < 0.9).
The percentage of the urban population in these countries is the follow-
ing: Qatar—99.24%; Kuwait—98.34%; United Arab Emirates—85.54%; Saudi
Arabia—83.13%; Brunei—77.2%, Bahrain—88.78%; Oman—77.64%; Russia –
74.014%. Tajikistan, which has a low urban population level (26.78%) and a low
HDI, stands out especially from this group of countries.
The group of highly developed countries has a higher level of HDI (HDI > 0.9)
and a more evenly population distribution. The high ecological level countries have
better transport infrastructure and separate industrial plants from cities that make
them more comfortable for the population. This is due to the population distribution
all over the country including city, towns, industrial regions, agricultural plants and
transport infrastructure (Global Metrics for the Environment 2016).
The highly developed countries rely on a highly developed high-tech sector,
which contributes to their economic growth, thereby determining the high level of
development of the human capital.
However, high per capita income does not mean the high level of development of
the human capital; this is the main difference between these groups of countries.
Thus, in highly developed countries, the urban population actively participates in
the economic life of the country and creates material wealth, while in the commodity
countries the urban population is the main consumer of income from resources trade.
Countries with low income from trade (export and import) and low HDI have a
low level of the urban population.
The group of countries (China, India, Pakistan Bangladesh, etc.) with a huge
population (1 393.8; 1 267.4; 185.1; 158.5 million people, accordingly) and growing
urbanization has a low level of GNI per capita, PPP (15470 UDS; 6490 UDS; 5560
USD; 3790 USD) and medium levels of HDI (0,727; 0,609; 0,538; 0,57).
This fact illustrates the different roles of growing urbanization in generating the
benefits (World Bank 2016) of this particular group of countries and the development
of human capital (Human Development Report 2016).
According to the World Bank (2016), growing urbanization can improve society
well-being. However, this does not mean the automatic growth of human well-being
in a particular country (Paradox 1).
The same factors will influence the development of the country’s human capital,
economy and society. It is obvious that a knowledge-based economy will manage
sustainable development.
A high level of human development and significant expenditure on research and
development are necessary, but not sufficient conditions for generation income level
by country. We study this fact by considering the following paradox.
3.4.3 Paradox 3. There is no Automatic Link Between

Income and Human Development
According to Nelson and Romer (1996) investments add value to technology, and
technology to investment, and this vicious circle contributes to economic growth.
In modern conditions, scientific knowledge and information technology are the
main sources of economic growth and increasing human welfare (UNESCO 2018).
We could not imagine this without scientists and scientific research.
The quality of human capital influence on economic growth; hence, investments
in human capital will also contribute to economic growth.
Human development enriches people’s lives but unfortunately not every human
life (Human Development Report 2016). Let us consider this fact in more detail.
We can refer to the GDP structure, it is a composite statistic of life expectancy,
education, and per capita income indicators.
However, in different countries the income structure is specified by different
sources. So, the main income of commodity-dependent countries (Qatar, Kuwait
and others) formed by resources export. High developed countries (USA, Norway,
Japan, etc.) are creating the high-technology markets and increase the human capital.
Thus, the US share in the country’s exports of high-tech products is 19.96% of

total exports and is 153.187 billion USD at current prices for 2016; Norway—19.49%
(3.913 billion USD); Japan—16.22% (92.88 billion USD) (IMF 2016).
China getting privilege from the use of cheap labour force, low environmental
standards (Global Metrics for the Environment 2016; Policymakers Summary 2016)
and the deployment of foreign enterprises. As well as a large group of countries with
the direction of economic development on agriculture, tourism, the banking sector
and others.
Among these groups, the level of income may differ significantly, for example,
Saudi Arabia and Turkmenistan are oil and gas rich countries but with a significantly
different standard of living. For comparison, Turkmenistan and Saudi Arabia rank the
4th and 6th places, respectively, for oil and gas reserves per capita, with huge export
of these resources, but the quality of life of these countries differ from each other
almost in 15.9 times GNI per capita, PPP (Turkmenistan—3500 USD and Saudi
Arabia—55750 USD). At the same time, these group of countries have different
possibilities for investment in health, education and science.
Based on this approach it is possible to separate these countries using different
groups: with the same HDI value and different income or similar income and different
HDI values.
For example, the HDI level of Gabon is 0.684 and GNI per capita, PPP is 7179.34
USD; the level of HDI in Indonesia is 0.684 and GNI per capita, PPP—3570.29
USD. So these countries have just equal HDI levels (Human Development Report
2016) and at the same time almost 2 times difference in GNI per capita, PPP (World
Bank 2016).
There are groups of countries with the same GNI per capita, PPP, but different
values HDI.
The HDI level of the Russian Federation is 0.804, and the GNI per capita, PPP
is 8748.37 USD. The HDI level of Equatorial Guinea is 0.587 and GNI per capita,
PPP is 8747.35 USD. One can see that these countries have equal GNI per capita,
PPP (World Bank 2016) but HDI levels (Human Development Report 2016) have a
significant difference of almost 1.4 times.
This paradox has a good definition in the UN Human Development Report (2015,
p. 56): “… there is no automatic link between income and human development.
Income enters into the HDI but is just one of its four indicators. Economic growth
does not automatically translate into higher human development”.
From Fig. 3.4 one can see that the low Research and Development (R&D) expen-
diture (% of GDP) corresponds to sluggish growth of GDP per capita while increas-
ing investment in R&D the GDP per capita increases substantially. If the R&D
expenditure reaches 3–4% of GDP, then GDP per capita increase to 50–70 thousand
USD.
This process is accompanied by the growth of human capital. The low HDI (0.5–
0.6) corresponds to the very low level of the GDP per capita and with HDI growth
from 0.8 to 0.95 the GDP per capita reached the maximum value.
A similar relationship exists between the HDI and R&D expenditure (% of GDP).
The growth of the HDI is accompanied by a significant increase in the cost of R&D
Fig. 3.4 The relation between indicators: Human Development Index (HDI); Research and Devel-
opment expenditure, % of GDP; GDP per capita (current US$, 2016). Data source Human Devel-
opment Report (2016), World Bank World Development Indicators (2016), IMF GDP data (IMF
GDP 2016)
(% of GDP), especially for highly developed countries and countries with innovative
economies (Fig. 3.4).
Small investments in R&D do not give growth in GDP per capita (current US$).
Significant investments in R&D 4% are possible in countries with high levels of HDI,
which can generate high GDP per capita.
However, there are exceptions. Luxembourg GNI per capita is 100738.68 USD
with HDI level—0.892, however, it spends only 1.29% of GDP (World Bank 2016)
for R&D. The Republic of Korea and Israel are top leaders of high-tech sector, their
expenditures were 4.23% and 4.27% of GDP, respectively (World Bank 2016). GNI
per the capital of Israel was 37180.53 USD; for Korea—27538.81 USD (World Bank
2016).
We can see the opposite situation with oil and gas rich countries, except Rus-
sia. They have low internal R&D expenditures: Qatar—0.46%; Kuwait—0.3%; the
United Arab Emirates—0.87%; Saudi Arabia—0.08%; Bahrain—0.1%; Brunei—
0,03%, Tajikistan—0,09%, but rather high GNI per capita excluding Tajikistan.
The investment of science should be dependent on the country’s aims. A number
of countries may not conduct their own research and development, but buying ready-
made high technologies. These countries can get into technological dependence from
industrially developed countries (USA, Canada, Japan, Germany, France, etc.).
In the case of political disagreements or territorial conflicts, the industrially

developed countries can impose their political conditions and implement economic
sanctions.
We can refer to the international relations of USA and European Union with Russia
and China. India is searching for investments and technologies, including from the
USA, but under the risks of losing its technological independence. Consequently,
this means a threat to the economic security of India.
3.4.3.1 Research and Development Export
Innovation is the main source of long-term economic growth (Jain et al. 2010), the
basis of competitiveness and the solution to many social problems. Human capital
becomes one of the determining factors in the effective development of the econ-
omy and the achievement of competitive advantages (Martin et al. 2001). Economic
growth depends on the technological changes that happen due to the human capital
rise.
We can focus on the relations between HDI, high-tech exports and R&D costs
(Fig. 3.5).
Fig. 3.5 HDI from High-Technology exports (Current US$) and R&D expenditure (% of GDP).
Data source Human Development Report (2016), World Bank World Development Indicators
(2016)
One can see (Fig. 3.5) a big gap between highly developed countries, G7 and
countries with high income from the high-tech export (China, the Republic of Korea,
etc.).
Figure 3.5 can illustrate the huge difference between the countries with high level
HDI as Norway and the countries with huge High-Technology exports as China.
Highly developed countries and G7 with a high level of human capital have a
good investment in the development of a high-tech sector, but at the same time have
an average level of income from the high-tech products because of their high cost.
Fast-growing economy countries (China, Republic of Korea), but with a lower
level of human capital also have high R&D expenditures, but also provide high
income from the high-tech production.
We can illustrate this with the example of the above mentioned countries. China:
R&D expenditure, 2.07% of GDP; High-technology exports (current US$) 4.96E +
11; 0.727 HDI level. Republic of Korea: R&D expenditure, 4.23% of GDP; High-
technology exports (current US$) 1.18E + 11; 0.898 HDI level. Norway: R&D
expenditure, 1.93% of GDP; High-technology exports (current US$) 3.93E + 9;
0.944 HDI level.
Norway has the highest HDI and the medium R&D, China is the leader of the High-
Technology exports and the Republic of Korea is the leader of R&D expenditure.
The high-technology exports of countries members of G7 (6.6E + 11 USD) or
European Union (6.13E + 11 USD) can be compared with China (4.96E + 11 USD).
China declared “from the traditional to the innovative”, and became the leader in the
export of high-tech goods. The G7 countries and the European Union are close to
the Chinese economy and should continue to develop high-technology markets and
provide cost optimization. Otherwise, it will be very difficult for them to make a
competition with the growing Chinese economy.
It is very important for China to improve environmental standards (Policymakers
Summary 2016) and conduct its own high-technology research.
For sustainable development, new technologies and investments in education,
fundamental science and the high-tech sector are required. It is very important to
make investments in social innovations and the digital economy. For the sake of
future generations, it is necessary to abandon the short-term benefits and change the
priorities and goals of civilization development.
3.5 Conclusion
The economic growth and sustainable development are on the different sides of the
swing.
The highly developed countries with higher human development are slowing down
their economic growth due to the high level of environmental standards and research
& development expenditure.
For some countries, the high rate of economic growth can be explained by a cheap
workforce, work discrimination, low-level environmental standards, which can be
bad for future generations.
It is possible to maintain the economic growth on the high level providing the
innovation economy, knowledge economy, digital revolution, renewable energy and
low emission technologies.
As a result of analysis, the countries with high HDI and GNI per capita have a
clusterization in different groups due to the role of scientific research and industri-
alization as in the case with a high volume of trade (exports and imports) per capita
and high urbanization.
The process of fast economic growth can lead to serious problems. We can under-
line two main consequences of economic development: the first one—economic
development will increase the human capital; the second—forcing of economic
development will inevitably lead to the environmental disaster, the depletion of
natural resources and the struggle for their ownership.
During the International Conference on “Spatial Decision Support System For UN
Sustainable Development Goals” held in India (Department of Geography, Kalindi
College, University of Delhi) in 2017, Dr. Shri Murli Manohar Joshi Member of
Parliament and Former HRD Minister of Government of India expressed concern
about the rapid economic development, which cannot continue indefinitely. This will
inevitably lead to the depletion of all possible resources: raw, human, natural etc.
According to Dr. Shri Murli Manohar Joshi, there is no need to aim for fast economic
growth, it can be replaced by sustainable consumption and reducing inequalities
together with improving quality of life.
The heterogeneity of economic development can lead to serious problems
(1) changes in the structure of the world’s population (rapid global urbanization);
(2) polarization of society (the rapid growth of innovative economy and quality of
life of some countries and slowing down the economy of poor countries;
(3) enhancement of mutual influence of some countries on the economic situation
and quality of life of other Countries;
(4) depletion of natural resources;
(5) the struggle for gaining natural resources.
These can lead to social instability, environmental disasters, depletion of natural
resources, to the global crisis and as a consequence the war for gaining the world’s
resources.
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Chapter 4
Land Use Land Cover Dynamics Using
Remote Sensing and GIS Techniques
in Western Doon Valley, Uttarakhand,
India
Ajay Kumar Taloor, Vaibhav Kumar, Vivek Kumar Singh,

Anil Kumar Singh, Ravindra V. Kale, Rahul Sharma, Varun Khajuria,
Girish Raina, Beena Kouser and Naveed Hassan Chowdhary
Abstract Land use land cover (LULC) change analysis emerged as one of the most
significant factors which assist decision makers to ensure sustainable development
and to understand the dynamics of our changing environment. An integrated approach
of remote sensing and GIS has been used to study the land use land cover dynamics
of the Western Doon Valley, Uttarakhand. Landsat satellite imageries of two different
time periods, i.e., Landsat ETM + data of 2001 and 2010 were acquired and used
A. K. Taloor (B) · R. Sharma · V. Khajuria · G. Raina

Department of Remote Sensing and GIS, University of Jammu, Jammu
180006, India
e-mail: ajaytaloor@gmail.com
R. Sharma
e-mail: rahul29453@gmail.com
V. Khajuria
e-mail: varunkhajuria8182@gmail.com
G. Raina
e-mail: girishrainaraina@gmail.com
V. Kumar
Centre for Urban Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology,
Bombay, India
e-mail: vaibhav.iirs@gmail.com
V. K. Singh
Centre for Atmospheric Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India
e-mail: december.keviv@gmail.com
A. K. Singh · R. V. Kale · B. Kouser · N. H. Chowdhary
Department of Geology, University of Jammu, Jammu 180006, India
e-mail: singhanil854@gmail.com
R. V. Kale
e-mail: ravikale2610@gmail.com
B. Kouser
e-mail: beenajucryosphere@gmail.com
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2097-6_4
38 A. K. Taloor et al.
to quantify the land use land cover changes in the study area from 2001 to 2010
over a period of one decade. ERDAS Imagine 10 software has been used to carry
out the supervised classification using a maximum likelihood technique. The images
of the study area were categorized into five different classes, viz., agricultural land
area, settlement area, forest cover area, wasteland area, and water body area. The
result indicates that during the decadal period, the agriculture forest and settlement
area have increased about 6.22% (i.e., 25.19 km2 ), 0.30% (i.e., 2.66 km2 ), 2.17%
(20.47 km2 ), respectively, while area under other land categories such as wasteland
and water bodies have decreased about 6.16% (i.e., 22.67 km2 ) and 2.52% (i.e.,
0.22 km2 ), respectively. The Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM), digital
elevation model (DEM) data have been used for determination of slope analysis and
it is found that most of the LULC changes have occurred in the area where slope
percentage was in nearly level to gentle categories. The accuracy assessment and
Kappa coefficient of both data sets have also been determined and found that in
the 2001 accuracy assessment was 85.35% and in 2010 accuracy assessment was
89.59%. The technique used in the study shows the importance of digital data-based
change detection techniques for the nature and location of a change in the study area.
Keywords Land use land cover · Change detection · Landsat data · Kappa
coefficient · Accuracy assessment
4.1 Introduction
Human beings are one of the most destructive agents of nature who continuously
changes and modifying the landscape depends upon its suitability for survival and
wellbeing. Since the history of human being the land surface have witnessed the
many changes in the form of national boundary barrier, great walls, embankments,
urban planning, industrialization, settlement agricultural practice etc. Human
alteration of a landscape from natural vegetation to any other use typically results
in habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation, all of which can have a devastating
effect on biodiversity. The changes in land use/land cover represent an important part
of the global change affecting the environment. These changes occurred by altering
(increasing or decreasing) the number, structure, or conditions of the elements
in the satellite image over various spatial and temporal scales (Stow et al. 1990;
Sreenivasulu and Bhaskar 2010). Although, quantifying, monitoring, and evaluating
the spatial and temporal dynamics of the land use land cover is quite critical for
better understanding many of the Earth’s land surface processes (Midekisa et al.
2017). Besides this, to understand these changes allow us to quantify and monitor
trends in agriculture (Ramankutty and Foley 2011), freshwater resources (Costa
et al. 2003), forest cover (Hansen et al. 2014), and disease transmission (Patz and
Norris 2004; Midekisa et al. 2014). Moreover, we are aware that land conversion is
N. H. Chowdhary
e-mail: hassannavid4@gmail.com
4 Land Use Land Cover Dynamics Using Remote Sensing … 39
the greatest cause of extinction of terrestrial species, of which particular concerns

are deforestation, expansion of urban centers, industrial expansions, major roads,
and railways network corridors have really created a great impact on the ecology
and survival of many species that previously existed (Tripathy et al. 1996).
Large number of researchers around the world are monitoring these changes of
land use which is a product of interactions between a society’s cultural background,
state, and its physical needs on the one hand and the natural potential of land on
the other, so that better understanding can be made among man, nature, and natural
resources (Balak and Kolarkar 1993; Chaurasia et al. 1996; Agarwal et al. 2002;
Jasrotia et al. 2012; Jasrotia et al. 2013; Taloor et al. 2018). Researchers around the
world have started to monitor land use land cover changes by involving traditional
surveys and inventories from the nineteenth century. With the passage of time and an
enhancement in the technology, remote sensing and GIS are quite advantageous as
it is economically billable and time saving for micro to macro scale LULC changes
with geographic spatial information (William et al. 1994; Yuan et al. 2005; Xiao
et al. 2006; Shalaby and Tateishi 2007; Noor et al. 2008; Prakasam 2010; Friedl et al.
2010; Dong et al. 2012; Giri et al. 2013; Yan and Roy 2015; Xiong et al. 2017).
The classification of the image is not completed until its accuracy assessment is not
assessed although, the applications of LULC classification is increasing day by day
with the enhancement in remote sensing technology (Congalton and Green 2008;
Martellozzo and Clarke 2011).
In recent years, there has been tremendous increase in the availability of high
performance cloud computing such as the NASA Earth Exchange (NEX) platform
which allows the processing and analysis of NASA earth observation data (Nemani
2011), Amazon Web Service (AWS) also now provides access to the Landsat data
archive, enabling analysis of this dataset on the cloud. In the recent times, Google
Earth Engine (GEE) has enhanced the scientific capability to explore and analyze as
it is a new high performance computing platform which gives access to a vast and
growing amount of earth observation data. In the recent times, Google Earth Engine
(GEE) has enhanced the scientific ability to explore and analyses of the earth surface,
as it is a new high-performance computing platform which gives access to a vast and
growing amount of earth observation data and also the processing power to analyze
these data at planetary as well as micro-scale (Midekisa et al. 2017).
The main objectives of the present study are to examine the land use/land cover
temporal changes during 2001–2010, determination of accuracy assessment, kappa
coefficient, and role of slope in land use land cover change dynamics. The study also
highlights the importance of digital change detection techniques for the nature and
location of change in the Western Doon valley.
4.2 Study Area
The Western Doon valley lies between latitude 30° 14 1 to 30° 30 51 and longitude
77° 38 05 to 78° 05 50 covers the total area of 898.33 km2 (Fig. 4.1). The Western
Fig. 4.1 Location map of the study area (Source Landsat-7, ETM+)
Doon valley is an intermountain valley that lies between two intermittent ranges of
the Himalayas. It is bounded on all sides by mountains, with one range running from
the west to the east in a semi-circular arc; and one running at the south from Paonta
Sahib to Haridwar. The valley also forms a watershed between the Yamuna and Bindal
River in the systems. Doon or Dun is a local word for valley, particularly an open
valley in between the Siwaliks and higher Himalayan foothills. The average annual
rainfall is 2200 mm out of which 1700 mm is monsoonal. Geologically, Western
Doon valley is an asymmetrically, longitudinal structurally synclinal valley formed
of Siwalik rocks of sedimentary origin having the trend of the northwest to southeast
of Upper Tertiary Age (Jasrotia et al. 2018).
The present study was carried out using the various primary and secondary data.
These include Survey of India (SoI) topographic sheet of 1:50000 scale. Landsat
ETM + satellite images of Western Doon Valley were acquired for 2001 and 2010,
respectively, with the spatial resolution of 30 m. These datasets were obtained from
the Global Land Cover Facility (GLCF) an earth science data interface. To find out
the changes, Landsat ETM + data of 2001 and 2010 were geo-referenced and super-
vised classification was used to determine the change detection analysis by using
the maximum likelihood algorithm in ERDAS Imagine 10 software. The supervised
classification depends on the accuracy of the user, techniques, experience, and accu-
racy of his optical capability to define and detect the different signatures among the
various patterns in the satellite images. Spectral information represented by the one
spectral band is used to classify each individual pixel. The Arc GIS 10 software
was used for the integration of spatial data and the preparation of thematic maps.
Adequate field checks have been made before finalizing of thematic maps. Slope
map was prepared from SRTM, DEM data to envisage the role of slope in landscape
change dynamics. The approach used in the present study is shown in Fig. 4.2.
Fig. 4.2 Methodology Satellite data

adopted in the present study
Landsat ETM+ (2001) Landsat ETM + (2010)
Geometric and radiometric correction
Supervised classification using

maximum likelihood classification
(MLC)
Field work (Ground Truth Collection)
Land use/land cover (2001) Land use/land cover (2010)
Change detection analysis

4.4 Results and Discussions
4.4.1 Slope Map
The slope is a measure of the steepness of a line, or a section of a line, connecting two
points and is also one of the indicators of human development in many cases. Level
and gentle slope areas are mostly developed with agricultural activities or human
settlements compared to moderate and steep slopes. The Shuttle Radar Topographic
Mission (SRTM), Digital elevation model (DEM) data were used to prepare the slope
map of the study area. The derived slope map was classified into seven categories
(Taloor et al. 2017;) such as nearly level (0–1%), very gentle (1–3%), gentle (3–5%),
moderate (5–10%), steep (10–15%), moderately steep (15–35%), and very steep
(>35%) (Fig. 4.3). It is found in the study by comparing the slope map with change
detection map that most of the changes were made in the area which has a level to
gentle slope due to human activities which suggest that anthropogenic activities play
a vital role in changing the landscape surface in the Western Doon Valley.
4.4.2 Land Use/Cover Status
The study area is classified into five major classes from Landsat TM satellite images of
2001 and 2010 are shown in Fig. 4.4 and Fig. 4.5, respectively. The different classes
analyzed from the satellite data are shown in Table 4.1. The land use land cover
study depicts that there is a positive growth in agriculture, settlement, forest cover;
negative growth in water bodies and wasteland (Fig. 4.6). The detail description of
the different classes is given in the following subheading.
Settlement area: Settlement included the area under residential, commercial,
industrial, parking and transportation facilities. In the satellite imagery, the class
was identified by blocky appearance, light bluish colored, fine to medium texture
with regular shape and varying size. An increase in the settlement area means the
expansion of mankind which has positive, as well as negative impact on the land it
surges. In the 2001 thematic layer, the area covered by settlement class is 175.07 km2
(19.49%) and increased 2.17% of the total area in 2010 as 194.54 km2 (21.66%). In
the study area, it is found that most of the expansion in the settlement is in the fringes
of the earlier built up area and generally in the area with level to the gentle slope.
Agriculture land area: Agriculture appears light pink in the FCC image character-
ized by the shades of red color and textural variability including the areas cultivated
with various cultures of corn, wheat, barley, oat, potatoes, tea plantation etc. In the
land use classes of 2001, the agriculture land covers area covers 131.31 km2 (14.62%)
of the total area whereas in 2010 this agricultural land covers 187.19 km2 (20.84%)
of total area with an increase of 6.22%. The increase in agriculture due to popula-
tion pressure and availability of a large amount of fallow land in the Western Doon
Fig. 4.3 Slope map of the study area (Source SRTM, DEM)
Valley. A certain portion of the forest land is also converted into the agricultural land
by making the reckless cutting of the trees in the area adjoining to the water bodies.
Forest cover area: Forest cover includes the evergreen forests, deciduous forests,
mixed forests, shrubs (hazelnuts, willow trees) open forest in the study area Open
forest is identified by dull red-greenish color in false color composite (FCC), the
dense forest bright red color, deciduous forest shows light gray color in the image. A
complete stretch from southwest to southeast covered by the forest cover and there
major patches of forest are lying in the central parts of the study area. In 2001, LULC
the area covered by the forest cover was 89.56 km2 (9.97%) and in 2010 it increases
Fig. 4.4 Land use land cover map 2001 (Source Landsat-7, ETM+)
to 92.22 km2 . It is also a well-established fact that despite the increase in population
pressure and an increase in the agriculture growth in the Western Doon Valley forest
cover has a positive growth.
Wasteland area: The wasteland appears light white in FCC and fine to medium
texture covers including the uncultivated agricultural lands, fallow land, pasture,
arid land with short vegetations, stony and rocky land with no vegetation cover. The
wasteland in the study area has been decreased over the period of 2001 to 2010 by
6.6% which is a positive trend in human development. In the Western Doon valley,
Fig. 4.5 Land use land cover map 2010 (Source Landsat-7, ETM+)
the wasteland area was mixed with agriculture and settlement and it maybe further
reduced with temporal changes in the future course of time. In the study area, the
wasteland has been converted into agriculture land, settlement, and forest covers. In
2001 the area cover by this class was 169.03 (18.82) which decreases in 2010 as
113.67 (12.65%) of the total study area with a negative growth of 6.16%.
Water bodies area: The water bodies appear cyan in color and light dark in deep
water conditions. The Yamuna and the Bindal are the two major rivers fallows in the
Western Doon Valley with a large number of seasonal tributaries that joins them from
Table 4.1 Statistical information of land use land cover of the study area
Classes Description Area (2001) Area (2010) Growth rate (%)
Km2 % Km2 %
Settlement Residential, 175.07 19.49 194.54 21.66 2.17
commercial,
industrial,
parking,
transportation,
and facilities
Agricultural land Areas cultivated 131.31 14.62 187.19 20.84 6.22
with various
cultures of corn,
wheat, barley,
oat, potatoes, tea
plantation
Forest cover Evergreen 89.56 9.97 92.22 10.27 0.30
forests,
deciduous
forests, mixed
forests, shrubs
(hazelnuts,
willow trees)
Wasteland Uncultivated 169.03 18.82 113.67 12.65 −6.16
agricultural lands
pasture and
consisting of arid
land with short
vegetations or no
vegetation cover
Water bodies Rivers, lakes and 333.37 37.11 310.70 34.59 −2.52
other water
bodies
Total 898.33 100 898.33 100
Source Landsat-7, ETM+
all over the study area. The Yamuna flows in the western side of the study area as
northeast to the southwest whereas Bindal flows from northeast to west. In the land
use land cover maps, the area covered by water bodies was 333.37 km2 (37.11%) in
2001 and 310.70 km2 (34.59%) in 2010 showing a negative growth of 2.52% over
the period of 2001 to 2010.
4.4.3 Accuracy Assessment
Accuracy assessment has become vital with the passage of time as remote sensing
techniques emerged as one of the most powerful tools in the classification of land
Fig. 4.6 Growth rate between the periods of 2001–2010 (Source Landsat-7, ETM+)
use land cover. This process defines the degree of coherence of the classified image
with the ground truth of an image classification of samples reference images used
for analysis. The accuracy assessment usually evaluates the effectiveness of classi-
fiers with the help of statistical significance computation of overall accuracies. A
considerable number of references (pixels) are taken from the classified image and
made a field check visit to evaluate the correctness of the classification process. The
kappa coefficient ranges from 0 to 1; values higher than 0.7 is considered acceptable,
while those equal to or lower than 0.4 identify a very low correlation between the
classified image and the ground truth as a reference available images and maps of the
respective time period. This process was supplemented with previous knowledge and
ground checks. In the present study, the overall accuracy of the different classes was
achieved 85.35% and kappa coefficient 0.88 for 2001 dataset whereas for the data
set of 2010 the accuracy was 89.59% and Kappa coefficient was 0.91 (Table 5.2).
Table 4.2 Accuracy assessment and kappa coefficient

Time period (2001 data) (2010 data)
Classes Total accuracy Kappa Total accuracy Kappa
(%) coefficient (%) coefficient
Settlement 85.96 0.93 88.22 0.95
Agricultural 89.95 0.94 93.45 0.92
land
Forest cover 88.12 0.88 93.56 0.93
Wasteland 82.76 0.83 84.76 0.89
Water bodies 79.98 0.81 87.98 0.87
Total 85.35 0.88 89.59 0.91
4.4.4 Change Detection
Based on the post-classification comparison (PCC) method was applied to change

detection analysis, which is recognized as the most accurate change detection tech-
nique, detects LULC changes by comparing independently produced classifications
of images from different data sets. In PCC each date of rectified imagery is inde-
pendently classified to fit a common land type schema (equal number and type of
land cover classes). The resulting land cover maps are then overlaid and compared
on a pixel-by-pixel basis. The change detection analysis was performed by using a
simple pixel-by-pixel mathematical combination of images for two different time
periods. The change map produced by overlaying the two classified images assisted
in locating the changes occurring in LULC classes (Fig. 4.7).
The formula used for the caluclation of rate of change has been derived from the
formula (Puyravaud et al. 2003)
1 At2
r= × In
t2 − t1 At1
where, r is the rate of land cover change, and At1 and At2 are the forest cover at time
t1 and t2 respectively, In is the logarithm.
Fig. 4.7 Change detection map (Source Landsat-7, ETM+)

Table 4.3 Change detection

Classes Change detection (%)
percentages
Settlement 11.12
Agricultural land 42.56
Forest cover 2.96
Barren land −32.75
Water bodies −6.80
4.5 Conclusion
The study conducted in one of the most important and vital regions of India located
in the Lesser Himalayas of the Uttarakhand State. The study reveals that the major
land use in Western Doon Valley is the built-up area. During one decade, the area
under built-up land has been increased by 2.17% (19.47 km2 ) due to the construction
of new buildings on fallow land and wasteland and in the area adjoining to the river
beds which was earlier a part of water bodies. The agricultural and vegetation land
have been increased by 6.22% (55.88 km2 ) tremendously due to population pressure
and high inflation rate during the period of (2001–2010) in the Western Doon Valley
and it is also observed that most of these changes have occurred in the area which is
flat wasteland and having slope very level to gentle. Another significant fact of the
study is that the water bodies have been decreased by 2.52% (2.67 km2 ) which is
one of the major concerns for ecology and environment of the Western Doon Valley
where more than 2 lakhs migratory birds visit annually. Although, the forest cover
has been also increased by 2.62 km2 due to the effective and efficient policies of the
administration, which is a positive sign for the growth of ecology and habitat. The
results of the present study clearly demonstrated the potential of remote sensing and
remote sensing techniques in deciphering the changing pattern of land use/cover in
a study area.
Acknowledgements The authors are grateful to NASA for making the Landsat and SRTM, DEM
datasets freely available under the umbrella of USGS web server. The authors are highly thankful
to the Head, Department of Remote Sensing and GIS, University of Jammu, Jammu for providing
the facility to carry out the research work timely.
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Chapter 5
Dying and Dwindling of Non-glacial Fed
Rivers Under Climate Change (A Case
Study from the Upper Kosi Watershed,
Central Himalaya, India)
J. S. Rawat and Geeta Rawat
Abstract A large number of the Himalayan watersheds which are densely popu-
lated are drained by the network of non-glacial fed rivers. Due to anthropogenically
accelerated climate change, the tributary rivers of these non-glacial watersheds are
dying and their master rivers are dwindling steadily causing socio-economic and
environmental disruption in the region imposing a threat on the sustenance of moun-
tain biodiversity, ecosystems and human civilization. The present paper demonstrates
this fact by presenting results of historical geohydrometeorological records (1992–
2016) of one of the non-glacial fed representative watersheds of the Central Lesser
Himalayan region, viz., the Upper Kosi watershed in Uttarakhand state. Study reveals
that despite of increase in annual rainfall and vegetation cover during the last two and
half decades, about 82% network of the tributary streams of the major non-glacial
fed rivers have been transformed from their perennial to non-perennial nature, there-
fore, the lean flow of their master river has been dropped down about sixteen times
low during the last two and half decades, hence, the non-glacial master rivers are
dwindling and dying steadily struggling for their existence and the inhabitants are
threatened due to crises of water for drinking (both for people and cattle) and irriga-
tion. The study suggests that there is an urgent need to develop a new water policy
for rejuvenation of the non-glacial fed rivers by the Federal and concerned State
Governments by fixing accountability of river rejuvenation works through consti-
tuting River Rejuvenation Authority, because it is so important that in near future,
there may be need of a separate Department/Ministry of River Rejuvenation to save
human civilization in the Himalaya.
J. S. Rawat (B)
Uttarakhand Centre on Climate Change, Department of Geography, Kumaun University, SSJ
Campus Almora, Uttarakhand 263601, India
e-mail: jsrawat1955@gmail.com
G. Rawat
Centre of Excellence for NRDMS in Uttarakhand, Department of Geography, Kumaun University,
SSJ Campus, Almora 263601, Uttarakhand, India
e-mail: drgeeta2406@gmail.com

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2097-6_5
54 J. S. Rawat and G. Rawat
Keywords Climate change · Perturbation in hydrological cycle ·

Hydrometeorology · Kosi river rejuvenation · Dying non-glacial fed rivers · River
rejuvenation
5.1 Introduction
A change in the state of the climate that can be identified by changes in the mean
and/or variability of its properties, and that persists for an extended period typically
decades or longer is known as climate change. It refers to any change in climate over
time, whether due to natural variability or as a result of human activities (IPCC 2007).
Studies reveal that mountains are among the most fragile ecosystems on the earth.
These are highly sensitive to climate change and are being affected at a faster rate than
the terrestrial ecosystem (Beniston 2003; Xu et al. 2009; Thakur et al. 2016, Beniston
and Rebetez 1996; Messerli and Ives 1997; Diaz and Bradley 1997; Ceppi et al. 2010;
Rangwala and Miller 2012). Several studies have revealed that mountainous systems
warm at a faster pace in comparison of low lying areas, often with a greater increase
in daily minimum temperatures than daily maximum temperatures (Beniston and
Rebetez 1996; Diaz and Bradley 1997; Rangwala et al. 2009; Pederson et al. 2010).
The Himalayan watersheds are among the most vulnerable regions to climate
change owing to their higher altitudes and abundance of freshwater resources in the
form of lakes, rivers, snow and glaciers, similar to other mountainous ecosystems
(Negi 2012; Zomer et al. 2014; Hwang et al. 2014; Rocca et al. 2014; Kalaninova et al.
2014). Studies reveal that climate change in mountainous regions affects many of the
ecosystem services such as regional hydrology (Rawat 2007; Rawat et al. 2012, 2016;
Rawat and Rawat 2017), carbon cycle (Pandey 2011; Semwal et al. 2013), agriculture
(Shweta et al. 2013; Rawat 2014; Tiwari and Joshi 2012), animal husbandry (Bardhan
et al. 2010) and biodiversity (Rana et al. 2011). The Himalayan regions are also
subjected to higher anthropogenic pressures (Tiwari and Joshi 2012), as this mountain
system houses one of the most densely populated regions. However, research on the
impact of climate change on hydrometeorological and ecohydrological processes
in the Himalayan regions is still in its infancy, compared to other ecosystems of
the world. Studies have shown that many climate change induced ecohydrological
phenomena in the northwestern Himalaya are already active (Tambe et al. 2012;
Pandey et al. 2014). Most of these phenomena are directly or indirectly related
to perturbations in the local hydrological cycle (Tambe et al. 2012; Rawat et al.
2012). Recent studies include increasing monsoon rainfall (Srivastava et al. 2013),
increasing temperature (Murty et al. 2008; Singh et al. 2013; Liuy and Chen 2000),
changes in rainfall pattern (Basistha et al. 2009), increased frequency of extreme
events (Tambe et al. 2012; Rao et al. 2014; Ghosh et al. 2012), steady recession of
glaciers (Raj et al. 2014; Bahuguna et al. 2014; Nainwal et al. 2008), rapid depletion
of tributary glaciers (Mehta et al. 2013), shrinking of snow cover (Srivastava et al.
2013), decreased contribution of glacier-melt water to river discharge (Mehta et al.
2013), shifting of natural vegetation and fruit belts to higher elevation (Kumar 2014),
5 Dying and Dwindling of Non-glacial Fed Rivers … 55
Fig. 5.1 Location map of the experimental Upper Kosi watershed (District Almora, Uttarakhand,
India)
changes in agricultural patterns (Rawat 2013, 2014; Chauhan et al. 2014), emergence
of new pests (Priyanka and Joshi 2013), decrease in the length of perennial river
network and summer runoff due to depletion of groundwater (Malik and Umesh
2011), etc.
The objectives of this paper are to demonstrate that how non-glacial fed tributary
streams are dying by the transformation of their perennial nature to non-perennial
nature and their major rivers are dwindling steadily due to climate change in the
non-glacial fed rivers in the Lesser Himalayan domain which is densely populated
and to draw an attention of the local (Himalayan) and global leadership towards the
fate of the water resources and sustenance of human civilization in the lofty, young,
dynamically active, ecologically fragile, environmentally very sensitive domain of
the earth, viz., the Himalaya. To achieve above objectives, a non-glacial fed represen-
tative experimental watershed, viz., the Upper Kosi river watershed from the Central
Himalayan domain has been employed as a natural laboratory (Fig. 5.1) which is
being hydrometeorologically monitored since the last two and half decades, i.e.,
1992 onwards (Valdiya et al. 1993; Rai 1993; Rawat and Geeta 1999, 2017; Rawat
2005, 2012, 2017; Rawat et al. 2016).
5.2 About the Representative Watershed
The Upper Kosi Watershed lies in district Almora of the Uttarakhand State, India
(Fig. 5.1). Encompassing an area of 462.61 km2 , the watershed extends in between
29° 33 47 N to 29° 52 20 N Latitudes and 79° 33 12 E to 79° 48 11 E Longitudes
in the Lesser Himalayan terrain in Central Himalaya. Topographically (Fig. 5.2), the
watershed has mature hill topography predominantly of convex hill crest, wide mul-
titier terraced valleys composed of alluvium and the mid-crest are characterized by
concave slopes with pluvial cones and fans. Attitudinally, the height of the watershed
varies between 1000 and 2676 m. Climatically, the watershed is complex. A large part
Fig. 5.2 Topographic map of the Upper Kosi watershed depicting relief pattern and geographical
distribution of villages and road networks. Source Based on Cartosat-1 data
of the watershed in between 1200–1800 m enjoys cool temperate climatic conditions

while a small part near the mouth of the watershed having elevation <1200 m falls
under sub-tropical climatic condition. The remaining part of the watershed having
elevation >1800 m has cold climatic conditions.
Geologically, the rocks of the Kosi watershed are composed of four tectonic units
and seven different lithological units of the Lesser Himalayan region. These are (i)
Almora Nappe constituted of the rocks of Saryu Formation (quartzites and mica
schists), Almora Group (gneisses) and Gumalikhet Formation (schist, slate/phyllite)
and (ii) Ramgarh Nappe constituted of rock of Devguru Formation (quart porphyry)
and Sedimentary Belt made up of the rocks of Berinag Quartzitess (Valdiya 1980).
The rocks are dipping towards north-east mainly 15 to 20° but upstream the Kosi
river near Takula, the rock dip is south-west. As per Strahler’s (1964) stream orders,
the Kosi is a seventh order river having a network of as many as 9969 streams of
different orders, i.e., 7805 first order (total length 3588.63 km), 1750 s order (total
length 729.83 km), 315 third order (total length 254.77 km), 76 fourth order (total
length 119.64 km), 16 fifth order (total length 65.32 km), 6 sixth order (length
39.73 km) and 1 seventh order (length 35.75 km). The total length of non-perennial
and perennial stream network in the watershed is about 4833.49 km having a density
of 10.43 km/km2 .
Out of the total watershed, about 52.22% area is under forest land, 30.24% area
under barren land, 13.74% is under agricultural land and the remaining 0.08% area is
under urban area. The Kosi is one of the thickly populated non-glacial watersheds of
the Himalaya. Within this watershed, there 343 villages (Fig. 5.2) having a density of
1.34 village/km2 . Besides are 343 villages and the Almora Town, there are as many as
12 rapidly growing sub-urban centres, viz., Someshwer, Majkhali, Hawalbagh, Kosi,
Chanoda, Kathpuria, Sitlakhet, Daulaghat, Takula,Kathpuria, Kosi and Gewapani
which are located in different parts of the watershed. For drinking and irrigation
purposes, there are more than 100 gravity flow drinking water schemes, 5 drinking
water lift schemes, 181 hand pumps, 15 irrigation lift schemes, 22 hydrum schemes
and 50 irrigation canals in the Kosi watershed.
5.3 Database and Methodology
5.3.1 Hydrometeorological Database
For studying hydrometeorological processes under climate change, the first monitor-
ing station was set up in the Central Himalayan region in 1987 (Haigh et al. 1988).
In 1991, a network of six other micro-watersheds having diverse ecohydrological
characteristics was identified and hydrometeorologically instrumented in 1991 to
monitor a set of hydrometeorological variables (Valdiya et al. 1993). The operational
monitoring of these watersheds was carried out under different sponsored research
projects (Rai 1993; Rawat and Geeta, 1999, 2017; Rawat 2005, 2012; Rawat et al.
2016). Presently, these instrumented micro-watersheds are being monitored on a
daily basis under a research project funded by the Uttarakhand Science and Edu-
cation Centre, Dehradun (Rawat 2017). For present study, the long-term historical
(1992–2016) meteorological data of 5 stations of the Upper Kosi watershed, viz.,
Kausani, Sitlakhet, Salla Rautela, Khunt and Deolikhan were used to find the aver-
age annual rainfall and evaporation loss; and the water discharge records recorded
near the mouth of the Kosi watershed at Kosi were used to define the lean water
discharge flow and runoff (Chow 1964) pattern and trend of the Kosi River. Using
rainfall, runoff and evaporation records of the watershed, the pattern and trend of
water balance (Schendel 1975) was computed to examine the status of water balance
for groundwater recharge.
The mean monthly data of two and half decades (i.e., 1992–2016) have been used
to define the monthly pattern while the annual data have been subjected to trend anal-
ysis of the hydrometeorologic parameters. The main objective of the trend analysis is
to assess whether values of hydrometeorological parameters are increasing, decreas-
ing or trendless over time. To define the relationship between hydrometeorological
parameters, i.e., rainfall, evaporation, runoff, water balance with time, correlation
Table 5.1 Statistics of the hydrometeological parameters of the Upper Kosi Watershed
Parameters Annual mean “r” value Regression equation
Rainfall 1012 mm 0.481a Y = 829.5893 + 11.8036x
Rainy days 99 days −0.514b Y = 102.6619 − 0.554x
Rainfall intensity 7.88 mm/day 0.605b Y = 5.2102 + 0.1698x
Discharge 3.64 m3 /s 0.56b Y = 0.938 + 0.0656x
Runoff 502 mm 0.52b Y = 94.0618 + 8.1107x
Evaporation 772 mm 0.192 Y = 736.3553 − 0.3155x
Water balance −19 mm −0.41a Y = −138.293 + 0.3101x
Lean flow 295.96 l/s −0.82a Y = 662.5 − 28.19x
a Significant at 99% confidence level
b Significant at 95% confidence level
Source Collected in the field by the authors
analysis and to define the trend of these parameters, regression analysis was con-
ducted using log term (1992–2016) hydrometeorological data. The statistical results
of the hydrometeorological parameters are presented in Table 5.1.
5.3.2 Land Use/Land Cover Data
The LANDSAT is a scientific program which is operated by NASA and USGS, which
offers the longest global record of Earth’s surface. The LANDSAT-5 imagery is of
February, 1990 and LANDSAT imagery is of February, 2016 with the resolution of
30 m nominal and panchromatic resolution 15 m. Besides these, land use pattern
based on Survey of India Topographic sheets was also computed for the year 1965.
The LANDSAT images were processed in the ERDAS Imagine 9.3 software The
results of land use/land cover of three different years are presented in Table 5.2.
5.4 Geohydrometeorological Results
5.4.1 Land Use/Land Cover Dynamics
Land use/land cover study of the study area was carried out for three different years,
i.e., 1965 based on Survey of India Topographic sheets, and 1990 and 2016 based
on LANDSAT satellite images. The results are presented in Table 5.2. and Fig. 5.3
depicts a spatial distribution of land use/land cover pattern in the Upper Kosi water-
shed in 1965 and 2016. The results of land use/land cover dynamics reveal that
the forest cover, barren land and urban area have been increased about 4.41% (in
Table 5.2 Area under different land use categories in the Upper Kosi watershed in district Almora,
Uttarakhand
Land use 1965a 1990b 2016b
land cover Area (km2 ) Area (%) Area (km2 ) Area (%) Area (km2 ) Area (%)
categories
Forest 235.165 50.81 255.6295 55.23 255.6011 55.22
Barren land 104.595 22.59 130.2653 28.14 139.9678 30.24
Agriculture 120.984 26.14 74.6176 16.12 63.7404 13.74
land
Urban area 2.066 0.46 2.2996 0.51 3.5027 0.80
Total 462.81 100 462.812 100 462.812 100
Source Based on Survey of India Toposheets and LANDSAT Data
Fig. 5.3 Spatial distribution of land use/land cover in the Upper Kosi watershed during 1990 and
2016. Source based on LANDSAT data
20.42 km2 area), 7.67% (in 35.10 km2 area) and 0.34% (in 1.44 km2 area), respec-
tively; while the agricultural land has decreased about 12.4% (or 57.24 km2 ) area
during the last five decades in the study area (Table 5.2).
Fig. 5.4 Mean monthly rainfall pattern (1992–2016) (above) and annual rainfall trend (below) in
Upper Kosi Watershed
5.4.2 Pattern and Trend of Rainfall
The long-term monthly pattern and annual rainfall trend are presented in Fig. 5.4
which reveal that the mean annual rainfall in the representative watershed stands at
~1012 mm. August is the month of maximum rainfall (~236 mm) and November
is the month of minimum rainfall (~8.2 mm) (Fig. 5.4). Approximately 65% of the
total annual rainfall is contributed by the south-western monsoon and ~8% occurs
during the post-monsoon season. The remaining ~15% and ~12% of the influxes are
contributed by winter and summer rainfall, respectively. The rainfall time series data
(Fig. 5.4) depicts the amount of rainfall in different years and its trend by the linear
regression line. During the study period, the maximum rainfall occurred in the year
2010 (~1507 mm) while the minimum rainfall was recorded in 1999 (~628 mm).
The regression analysis of long-term (1992–2016) data shows that annual rainfall
has rising trend (r = 0.481, p-value 0.05) significant at the 95% confidence level
(Fig. 5.4).
5.4.3 Pattern and Trend of Rainy Days
The rainy days’ records reveal that on an average during a year, the watershed receives
rainfall in ~99 days only. July is the month of maximum rainy days (~21 days) while
Fig. 5.5 Mean monthly rainy days (1992–2016) (above), and annual rainy days trend (below) in
the Upper Kosi Watershed. Source Rawat and Geeta Rawat (2016)
November is the month of minimum rainy days (~0.8 days) (Fig. 5.5). Approximately
59% of the total annual rainy days is contributed by the south-western monsoon and
~21% rainy days occurs during the summer season. The remaining ~13% and ~7%
of the rainy days are contributed by winter and post-monsoon seasons, respectively.
The rainy days time series data (Fig. 5.5) depicts the distribution of rainy days in
different years and its trend by the linear regression line. The long-term analysis of
total annual rainy days shows a decreasing trend (r = −514, p-value 0.01) significant
at the 99% confidence level (Fig. 5.5).
5.4.4 Pattern and Trend of Rainfall Intensity
The long-term mean annual rainfall intensity stands at ~7.88 mm/day. August is the
month of maximum rainfall intensity (~14 mm/day) and November is the month of
minimum rainfall intensity (~3 mm/day) (Fig. 5.6). In the monsoon season, mean
rainfall intensity stands at ~12.38 mm/day while in the post-monsoon season, mean
rainfall intensity stands at ~3.54 mm/day. The mean rainfall intensity during summer
and winter seasons stands at ~6.10 mm/day and ~6.54 mm/day, respectively. The time
Fig. 5.6 Mean monthly (1992–2016) rainfall intensity (above) and annual rainfall intensity trend
(below) in the Upper Kosi Watershed. Source Rawat and Geeta Rawat (2016)
series data (Fig. 5.6) depicts the mean rainfall intensity in different years and its trend
by the linear regression line. The long-term linear trend line of the rainfall intensity
has high increasing trend (r = 0.605, p-value 0.01) significant at the 99% confidence
level (Fig. 5.6).
5.4.5 Pattern and Trend of Water Discharge
The long-term monthly pattern and annual water discharge trend of the Kosi water-
shed are presented in Fig. 5.7 which reveals that the mean annual water discharge
of the Kosi river stands at ~3.64 m3 /s. August is the month of maximum discharge
(~10.60 m3 /s) and May is the month of minimum discharge (~0.80 m3 /s) (Fig. 5.7).
Approximately 53% of the total annual water discharge is contributed by the south-
western monsoon and ~6% occurs during the summer season. The remaining ~27%
and ~14% of the influxes are contributed by post-monsoon and winter discharge,
respectively. The water discharge time series data (Fig. 5.7) depicts the rate of water
discharge in different years and its trend by the linear regression line. During the study
period, the maximum water discharge occurred in the year of 2010 (~8 m3 /s) while
the minimum water discharge was recorded in 1999 (~1.88 m3 /s). The regression
analysis of long-term (1992–2016) water discharge data shows that annual discharge
of the Kosi river has increasing trend (r = 0.56, p-value 0.01) significant at the 99%
confidence level (Fig. 5.7).
Fig. 5.7 Mean monthly (1992–2016) water discharge (above) and annual water discharge trend
5.4.6 Pattern and Trend of Runoff
The monthly pattern and trend of annual runoff depth in the Kosi watershed are
presented in Fig. 5.8 which reveals that the mean annual runoff depth in the of the
Kosi river stands at ~502 mm. August is the month of maximum runoff (~135 mm)
and May is the month of minimum runoff (~9 mm) (Fig. 5.8). The runoff depth
time series data (Fig. 5.8) depicts the magnitude of runoff depth in different years
and its trend by the linear regression line. During the study period the maximum
runoff depth occurred in the year 2010 (~820 mm) while the minimum runoff was
recorded in 1999 (~250 mm). The regression analysis of long-term data shows that
annual runoff depth in the Kosi river has increasing trend (r = 0.52, p-value 0.01)
significant at the 99% confidence level (Fig. 5.8).
5.4.7 Pattern and Trend of Evaporation
The monthly pattern and trend of annual evaporation in the Kosi watershed are
presented in Fig. 5.9 which reveals that the mean annual evaporation in the of the
Kosi watershed stands at ~772 mm. May is the month of maximum evaporation
(~108 mm) and August is the month of minimum evaporation (~42 mm) (Fig. 5.9).
Fig. 5.8 Mean monthly (1992–2016) runoff depth (above), and annual runoff trend (below) in the
Upper Kosi Watershed. Source Rawat and Geeta Rawat (2016)
Fig. 5.9 Mean monthly(1992–2016) evaporation loss (above) and annual evaporation trend (below)
in the Upper Kosi Watershed. Source Rawat and Geeta Rawat (2016)
The evaporation time series data depicts the regression line of long-term data which
shows that annual evaporation has a slightly increasing trend (r = 0.195, p-value
0.09) which is insignificant (Fig. 5.9).
5.4.8 Pattern and Trend of Water BalancePattern and Trend

of Water Balance
The annual water balance (Schendel 1975) of the watershed is deficit which stands
at −19 mm. August is the month of maximum water balance (+91 mm) and May is
the month of minimum water balance (−74 mm) (Fig. 5.10). During south-western
monsoon months of July, August and September, the water balance is surplus while in
all other 9 months of the year, the water balance was found always deficit (Fig. 5.10).
Fig. 5.10 Mean monthly (1992–2016) water balance (above) and annual water balance trend
The water balance time series data (Fig. 5.10) depicts the amount of water balance in
different years and its trend by the linear regression line. The long-term linear trend
line indicates that water balance has decreasing trend (r = −0.41, p-value 0.05)
significant at the 95% confidence level (Fig. 5.10).
5.4.9 Dying of Tributary Streams
In mountains, the non-glacial fed streams originate from perched aquifers which
are recharged each year by rainfall. In hills, normally there is no continuous water
table and the stream flow is maintained by draining such areas of gravity water
in the perched layers (viz., aquifer) or in rock interstices (Chow 1964). If there is
no recharge of aquifers during rains, the rocks of aquifer become dry and there is
no water flow for streams. The study reveals that on an average, the annual water
balance of the Kosi watershed is negative which suggests that the perched aquifers of
the watersheds are not being recharged by rainwater, therefore, during non-monsoon
days, there is no water supply for these streams from their aquifers. In this way,
the minor and major tributary streams are dying from the headwater region by their
transformation from perennial to non-perennial nature (Fig. 5.11). The total length of
perennial rivers in the Kosi watershed was about 225.86 km during about five decade
back which is only 41.49 km only at present (Fig. 5.12 and Table 5.3) and remaining
Fig. 5.11 Dying of tributary streams/rivers the headwater regions due to their transformations
from perennial system to non-perennial system: Kosi river upstream Chaunoda, at Chaunoda, at
Someshwar and Kosi. Source Rawat and Geeta Rawat (2016)
Fig. 5.12 Distribution of perennial streams in the Kosi watershed during 1965 (a) Source Based
on SoI toposheet and at present (b) Source Based on field survey (Rawat 2007)
Table 5.3 Length of major tributary rivers and their Master River, viz., Upper Kosi During 1965
and at present
Name of tributary streams Length in km
1965a At presentb Dead during summer
1. Koshalya Ganga 13.785 2.737 11.138
2. Dev Gad 5.47 0 5.47
3. Menal Gad 1.73 0 1.73
4. Ben Gad 3.028 0 3.028
5. Janeli Gad 5.967 0 5.967
6. Rengad 2.231 0 2.231
7. Kurali Gad 2.73 0 2.73
8. Sim Gad 19.761 8.123 11.638
9. Nani Kosi 29.031 9.450 19.581
10. Bagania Gad 17.971 0 17.971
11. Jamthara Gad 4.131 0 4.131
12. Khul Gad 14.043 4.759 9.284
13. Other 34.88 0 34.88
14. Kosi Master River 52.889 16.43 36.459
Total length 225.850 (100%) 41.49 (18%) 184.8 (82%)
184.87 km which constitutes about 82% of the total perennial river networks of
the Upper Kosi watershed has been transformed from perennial to non-perennial
(intermittent/ephemeral) in nature. During this last 5 decades, the major tributary
rivers of the Kosi such as Koshlya Ganga, Dev gad, Menal Gad, Ben Gad, Jaineli Gad
Ren Gad, Kurali Gad, Bagania Gad, Jamthara Gad and many other minor tributary
streams have been transformed from perennial to non-perennial streams.
5.4.10 Dwindling of the Master Kosi River
Due to dying of minor and major tributary rivers, the Upper Kosi river is dwindling
steadily during summer season due to decreasing annual lean flow. About two and
half decade back, the annual lean flow of the Upper Kosi river was about 792 l/s
(Fig. 5.13) which was found 180 l/s in 2010 (Fig. 5.14a) and at present, it has been
dropped down to 50 l/s only (Fig. 5.13 and Fig. 5.14b). The long-term (1992–2016)
Fig. 5.13 Hydrograph of the Kosi river showing lean annual flow magnitude and its trend recorded
near Almora Pumping House at Kosi. Source Rawat and Geeta Rawat (2016)
Fig. 5.14 Dwindling of the so-called mighty Kosi river at Kosi, i.e., 200 m upstream of the Almora
Drinking water Pump House: capacity of ground water flow 180 l/s in 2010 (a) and 50 l/s in 2016
(b). Source Photographs taken by the authors
lean annual flow or the annual minimum discharge of the Kosi river is presented in
Fig. 5.13 which illustrates that the lean flow of the Kosi river has a decreasing trend
(r = −0.82, p-Value 0.01) significant at 99% confidence level. These lean flow
records reveal that during the last two and half decade, the lean flow of the Upper
Kosi river has been dropped down about 16 times low, i.e., 50 l/s in 2016 compared
to 1992 when it was about 792 l/s.
5.5 Discussion
The above results of historical geohydrometeorological records reveal that during

the last two and half decade, there has been no marked decrease in the amount of
annual rainfall in the region, rather it has slightly increasing trend, on the one hand;
and there has been an increase of 4.41% (in 20.43 km2 ) area in vegetation cover in
the experimental watershed. Despite the increase in annual amount of rainfall and
in vegetation cover, the study reveals that minor and major tributary rivers are dying
and the Master Upper Kosi river is dwindling steadily. It seems ironical. But the fact
behind is that there is a drastic reduction in the total number of annual rainy days and
alarmingly increasing significant trend of rainfall intensity due to anthropogenically
accelerated climate change. In addition to these, during the last five decades, about
57.2 km2 agricultural land (which controls overland flow and increases rainwater
infiltration due to frequent tillage practices), has been converted mainly into barren
land due to migration of local inhabitants.
The study suggests that due to (i) decreasing trend of rainy days, (ii) very high
increasing trend of rainfall intensity and (iii) increasing area under barren land, the
magnitude of the overland flow on the hill slopes is being accelerated alarmingly
hence the runoff is increasing which results in drastic reduction in the hydrologic
processes, i.e., infiltration and percolation of rainwater into the perched aquifers. In
this way, the perched aquifers which give rise to the perennial streams are drying
from the headwater region and dwindling the major rivers in the downstream valley
region.
Examining the water balance, it was found that due to evaporation and very high
loss of rainfall water through runoff, the average annual water balance of the exper-
imental watershed is deficit (i.e., −19 mm). Month wise status of water balance
reveals that only during the south-western monsoon months of July, August and
September, the water budget is in surplus while in remaining all the nine months, the
water budget is in deficit state in this non-glacial fed experimental watershed causing
acute drinking/irrigation water crises. We are monitoring the lean flow of the Upper
Kosi river since the last 25 years. Due to deficit water balance of the watershed,
the groundwater storage in the form of perched aquifers are depleting and the Kosi
River is dwindling steadily. The lean flow records of the Kosi river reveals that it has
significant decreasing trend which has been dropped down 16 times low, i.e., 50 l/s
in 2016 compared to 1992 when the lean flow was about 792 l/s. Thus, just like slow
poisoning, the Kosi river is dwindling or dying steadily due to climate change.
Fig. 5.15 Very low flow during summer (50 l/s in May 2016) (a); and very high monsoon flow
(capacity 618.10 m3 /s on 18th September 2010) (b) in the Kosi river at Kosi. Source Photographs
taken by the authors
A large part of the Himalayan watersheds are drained by the non-glacial fed rivers
like the Upper Kosi river. In the Central Himalayan State, viz., the Uttarakhand, about
40% geographical area is drained by the non-glacial fed rivers. The condition of all
the non-glacial fed rivers in the Himalaya is similar to the Kosi river. The spot surveys
reveal that the lean flow of the Western Ranganga river at Marchula has been dropped
down from 2282 l/s in 2005 to 1384 l/s in 2016; of Saryu river at its confluence with
Panar River has been dropped down from 3324 l/s in 2005 to 1580 l/s in 2016; and
of Panar river at confluence of Panar and Saryu, the lean flow has been dropped
down from 251 l/s in 2005 to 158 l/s in 2016. Similarly, the other non-glacial fed
Himalayan rivers are dwindling and dying steadily. In all these rivers, now the flow
pattern has become too low during summer and too high during monsoon rain (e.g.
see Fig. 5.15 in case of the Upper Kosi river).
5.6 Conclusions
Under the anthropogenically accelerated climate change, the water resources are
under deep stress in the non-glacial Himalayan regime; consequently, the hydrologic
cycle has been perturbed alarmingly leading towards the process of desertification.
The sharp hydrologic indicators of the beginning of desertification in non-glacial fed
river watersheds in Himalaya as advocated through this study are rapid transformation
of perennial tributary rivers into non-perennial (ephemeral/intermittent) rivers and
steady dwindling of Major Rivers. The representative watershed study presented in
this paper demonstrates that during the last two and half decade, about 82% network
of the tributary streams of the major non-glacial fed rivers have been transformed from
their perennial to non-perennial nature, therefore, the lean flow of their Master Rivers
has been dropped down about sixteen times low particularly during the last two and
half decade (i.e., 1992–2016), hence, all the Master Rivers of the non-glacial fed river
watersheds of the Central Himalaya are dwindling steadily and struggling for their
existence. These hydrologic characteristics are sharp indicators that the processes of
desertification in Himalaya have been started and at present, the desertification in this
young mountain chain is in incipient stage. If no river rejuvenation measures were

taken, consequences would be very adverse in the near future on water availability
for both out-of-stream and in-stream uses (Rawat et al. 2012).
In view of this serious problem, there is an urgent need to start river rejuvenation
mechanical and biological measures massively to save the dwindling and dying rivers
of the Non-glacial fed river of the Himalaya. Although it is a herculean task but not
impossible, if there is a will like “Bhagirath Prayas”. But this Bhagirat Prayas cannot
be done alone by one or two departments/NGOs or local people. To save the dying
and dwindling rivers, there is an urgent need to develop new water policy and to
constitute “River Rejuvenation Authority” (RRA) by which all stakeholders could
launch and monitor regularly a massive river rejuvenation program throughout the
year continuously under one umbrella, viz., RRA. Water is life and it is depleting
very fast in Himalaya, therefore, it is so important that to cope with this problem in
near future, there may be need of a separate “Department of River Rejuvenation” or
even may be a separate “Ministry of River Regeneration”.
Acknowledgements This work is based on field data collected through a number of sponsored
research projects, viz., (i) Response of hydrologic cycle to environmental degradation, funded by
the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India; (ii) Environmental hydrology of the
Almora region; (iii) Watershed monitoring and modeling in Central Himalaya; (iv) Geohydromete-
orological data at micro and macro scale watersheds; (v) Application of geohydrological database
in groundwater augmentation, funded by the Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi
and (vi) Impact of climate change in hydrology under varied ecological conditions in the Kumaun
region, funded by the Uttarakhand State Council for Science and Technology, and Impact of Cli-
mate Change in Hydrometreorology; A case study from the Upper Kosi Watershed, Uttarakhand,
funded by the Uttarakhand Science, Education and Research Centre, Dehradun.We thank Prof. K.
S. Valdiya and Prof. Martin Haigh for their encouragement since the inception of this work in 1992.
Thanks are due to Mr. Bhupal Singh (Khunt) and Mr. David (Laxmi Ashram Kausani) with their
Team of 11 Data Recorders for monitoring hydrometeorological data since 1992 from different
hydrometeorological stations of the Upper Kosi watershed.
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Chapter 6
Robust and Reliable Technique
of Automatic Building Extraction
from High Resolution Imagery
Arvind Pandey, Mriganka Shekhar Sarkar, Gajendra Singh, Sarita Palni,

Nisha Chand and Manish Kumar
Abstract The automation in man-made object extraction such as building habitation

from urban area imagery has become a challenging task for photogrammetry, com-
puter vision, and remote sensing. This study aims to automatically extract building
of an urban area using high resolution intensity data and fuzzy membership logic to
classify the image object by using e-Cognition software. The object oriented method
was implemented and high resolution Quick-Bird imagery was used for automatic
building extraction in Dehradun city of Uttarakhand district, India. We have fur-
ther evaluated the performance of this automated extracted building feature by using
accuracy completeness (89.74%), correctness (94.50%), and the quality (85.29%).
The study however, clearly shows that the segmentation-based classification is much
superior to the traditional per-pixel methods mainly used on high resolution images.
It also shows that high spatial resolution satellite data and appropriate data process-
ing play not only an important role in modern urban planning but also reduce the
cost of manpower and saves time.
Keywords e-cognition · Automatic building extraction · Fuzzy logic ·

Photogrammetry
A. Pandey (B) · M. S. Sarkar · G. Singh

Uttarakhand Space Application Center, 131/2 Vasant Vihar, Dehradun 248006, Uttarakhand, India
e-mail: pandeyarvind02@gmail.com
M. S. Sarkar
e-mail: mriganka.bio@gmail.com
G. Singh
e-mail: gajendrawat@yahoo.com
S. Palni · N. Chand
Kumaun University, Nainital, Uttarakhand, India
e-mail: saritapalni206@gmail.com
N. Chand
e-mail: chandnisha72@gmail.com
M. Kumar
Department of Geography, Kalindi College, University of Delhi, New Delhi, India
e-mail: manish.ks1@gmail.com

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2097-6_6
76 A. Pandey et al.
6.1 Introduction
The automatic delineation of man-made objects such as buildings from high res-
olution imagery taken in human habitation areas has become a challenging task
for photogrammetry, computer vision, and remote sensing. Studies on this area have
been initiated during the late 1980s where several sources of remotely sensed imagery
were used such as “color images”, “single intensity images”, “stereo”, “laser range
images”, and “multi band images” (Peng et al. 2005). Some important applications
of this method involve automatic extraction of information from imagery and appris-
ing geographic information system (GIS) databases. Especially in the research field
of urban planning, the method has been utilized intensively, wherein the manual
interpretation is very hectic and time taking process. Several research attempts have
been recently made to automate or semi-automate the procedure (Zhang et al. 2005;
Hu et al. 2004; Eidenbenz et al. 2000). A vast range of methods such as mathe-
matical and statistical algorithms have been implemented to automatically construct
two dimensional (2D) or three dimensional (3D) building models using satellite and
aerial borne imagery. However, Dash et al. (2004) have developed a method relying
on the standard deviation of the data to separate woody tree structures and building
structures by considering the height variation at the edge of an object. Samadzadegan
et al. (2005) have proposed a novel viewpoint for object re-Cognition by implying
fuzzy reasoning algorithm that distinguishes structural, textural, and spectral infor-
mation. After extracting and connecting the edge pixels of an object, Hongjian and
Shiqiang (2006) has delineated the height of buildings from a sparse laser-based
data and reconstructed the 3D structure for each building. Sohn and Dowman (2002)
have delineated the building structures automatically from a hybrid image of the
IKONOS having pan-sharpened multispectral bands and the low-sampled airborne
laser scanning image. Lafarge et al. (2010) have proposed an object oriented approach
that automatically extracts buildings from digital elevation models. In this method,
rough approximations of the building footprints are first recognized by a technique
based on marked point processes. Further, these polygons are regularized by the
connection between the neighboring rectangles and finally, find the roof height dis-
continuities between them. Another very new method namely the snake model has
brought recent attention to building extraction. The model was implemented by Kass
et al. (1988). Without any prior information about the remotely sensed image, the
technique considers global information about the image contour to receive a closed
or open curve like structures. Due to its robustness, the model is intensively used in
several fields of image-processing, such as “image segmentation”, “image tracking”,
and “3D modeling” (Lam and Yan 1994). The model is an “energy-minimizing spline”
guided by outer constraint forces and affected by image forces that pull toward the
lines and edges features (Shih and Zhang 2004).
Recent advancements in remote sensing techniques can produce very high res-
olution images such as WorldView, Quick-Bird, GeoEye-1, IKONOS, and Pléi-
ades. Research on extracting information from those imagery is still in the infantry
stage. Some mathematical and statistical algorithm exists to extract information from
6 Robust and Reliable Technique of Automatic Building Extraction … 77
those high resolution imagery that take minimum computational time and perhaps
more accurate than others. High resolution satellite images are gaining popularity in
extracting information features. Automatic feature extraction using such images has
become the main objective to save time in updating data and reduces 20–90% labor
cost, as a result of this people are changing progressively to new procedures.
Therefore, the main aim of this research is to automatically extract building infor-
mation of human habitation area using high resolution intensity data range and imply-
ing fuzzy membership logic for classifying the image object by using e-Cognition
software. In this research work, object oriented approach and high resolution Quick-
Bird data are used for automatic building extraction. In this project, three categories
of sites are used for extraction buildings. Further, accuracy for each site is calculated
and compared with visually interpreted features or references.
6.2 Study Area
Dehradun is situated in the northwest part of India and it is the capital city of the
Uttarakhand district (Fig. 6.1). The image of the study area falls between latitude
30.32°N and longitude 78.04°E. The city is situated in the “Doon Valley” on the
foothills of the Himalayas, fall between two of India’s prominent rivers—the Ganges
on the eastern side and the Yamuna on the western side. The city is famous for its
picturesque landscape and pleasant climate and this provides a gateway to all pil-
grimage and tourist intense regions. The city is well connected by road networks and
its geographical location situated within the proximity of popular Himalayan tourist
destinations such as the prominent Hindu holy cities of Haridwar and Rishikesh. The
city is also connected to Nainital, Mussoorie, Auli, and the Himalayan pilgrimage
of “Char Dham”.
6.3.1 Spatial Data
The Quick-Bird scene was procured from Space Imaging LLC that covers the full
extent of the Doon valley, Uttarakhand. This image was acquired on September 1st,
2010 at 3:44 pm. The entire scene includes a negligible cloud cover. Quick-Bird
image encompasses 11 bit radiometric resolution and 4 multispectral bands (blue,
green, red, and near-infrared bands) each band have 2.4 m spatial resolution. In
addition, it also contains a panchromatic band of 0.6 m spatial resolution. False color
composite (FCC) map was prepared for the purposes of discriminating buildings
from other features of the scene by combining bands four, three, and two. This was
further sharpened by merging the 0.6 m resolution separate panchromatic band.
78 A. Pandey et al.
Fig. 6.1 Map showing the geographical location of the study area—Dehradun city, Uttarakhand,
India
6.3.2 Unsupervised Classification Method
An unsupervised classification was carried out on the Quick-Bird FCC image spec-
ifying initial 50 classes with 20 iterations, a 0.99 confidence interval, using the
principal axis, and 2 standard deviations (Long and Srihann 2004). This classifica-
tion was aimed to identify possible building features from other land cover classes
in Dehradun City (Fig. 6.1). The Kappa Coefficient method was used to assess the
accuracy of the final classified map (Congalton 1991).
6.3.3 Object Based Classification Method
Usually, in human habitation areas, building structures are often characterized by

heterogeneity and different feature classes. The intensity values of building struc-
tures are not constant values because cars, trees, shadows, and roads produce noise
and rapidly change the image intensity. Therefore, the efficient segmentation sta-
tistical algorithms are necessary to detect building features before imposing any
feature extraction algorithm. We use two-step method to get the result of building
structure extraction, first one is to use multi-resolution image and spectral difference
segmentation for getting the shape and sharpness of object then the second one is
the image classification technique using object oriented approach and fuzzy logic by
using e-Cognition professional 9.0 software. The entire methodological flow chart
is displayed in Fig. 6.2.
6.4 Results
Automatic feature extraction method has provided the approximate area of feature
in 0.12 km2 , using the e-Cognition automatic feature extraction method (algorithm).
The feature output was created on shape file. The total boundary area of 0.12 km2
was extracted whereas the ward area is 0.33 km2 (Fig. 6.3).
On the contrary, the unsupervised classification is hectic and time-consuming and
gives 6% low accuracy in comparison to the e-Cognition (Table 6.1). While analyzing
the unsupervised classification, approximate building area was 0.11 km2 . While
comparing the both results, we obtain the difference of 0.01 km2 area. This confirmes
that e-Cognition gives 100% accuracy where as, ERDAS gives 94% accuracy.
Fig. 6.2 Flow chart of building extraction process by two parallel methods
80 A. Pandey et al.
Fig. 6.3 a Area showing study area and false color composite map of Dehradun city, b unsupervised
classified map showing building features, and c Automated extracted building using segmentation
method implemented in e-Cognition software. Source Quick-Bird satellite data
Table 6.1 Extracted building area statistics of two different methods and their accuracy using
kappa statistics
Methods Building area Others area Total area (Km2 ) Kappa (overall)
(km2 ) (km2 )
Unsupervised 0.11 0.22 0.33 0.72
classification
method
Automatic 0.12 0.21 0.33 0.81
classification
method
Source Quick-Bird satellite data
When the results of both softwares were compared the accuracy of Automatic feature
extraction of the e-Cognition was 94.01% in area of intrest.
6.4.1 Discussion and Conclusion
Automatic information extraction of urban features like buildings by using object

based approach and fuzzy logic on high resolution Quick-bird imagery has proven
to be a very useful and robust method for urban planning. This is also very helpful
for e-Cognition to detect building features in urban areas, due to the availability of
high resolution informative features. Even though the variety of the type of building
shape, structure, and building roofs together influence the building extraction process
much complicated, but the required acceptable level of accuracy for the extracted
buildings was generated by the automated building extraction method. The major
advantage of this new technique is independent of any other additional information,
such as building height information that had been usually used for former building
extraction methods. Moreover, our method provides GIS-ready data. We conclude
that our approach generates acceptable results. Automated building extraction pro-
cess has also proven to be better than conventional unsupervised image classification
method for building extraction. However, the output image obtained through the
automated process may not produce the exact shape of the building structures. Some
motorable roads and pavements had created noise, which is also sensed by the algo-
rithm as building features. Further, more research is still required to improve the
algorithms to reduce these errors to eliminate linear features such as motorable roads
and pavements.
Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank Dr. Durgesh Panth, Director of Uttarakhand
Space Application Center (USAC), Uttarakhand for providing funds to carry out this short-term
research. We thank Mr. Shashank Lingwal, Scientist, USAC for providing support during this study.
References
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objects from aerial images using vectorized map information. Int Arch Photogr Remote Sens
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using a piecewise parabolic model and least square template matching. Photogr Eng Remote Sens
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sample data. Opt Lasers Eng 44(6):555–566
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331
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classification using ERDAS imagine. In: IEEE international proceedings of geosci and remote
sensor symposium, 2004. IGARSS’04, vol 4. IEEE, pp 2707–2712
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Chapter 7
Soil Resource Inventory for Meeting
Challenges of Land Degradation:
A Remote Sensing Approach
Dinesh Kumar Tripathi
Abstract In this study an attempt has been made to delineate, map out, and generate
database on soil resources for meeting challenges of land degradation in irrigated
agro-ecosystem using geospatial tools of remote sensing (RS) and geographic infor-
mation system (GIS). Gauriganj block, Amethi district (lies between 26° 7 5 N to
26° 19 5 N latitudes and 81° 36 45 E to 81° 45 18 E longitudes), Uttar Pradesh
was selected for study. The space born multispectral Landsat 7 ETM+data of year,
2014 and corresponding survey of India Topographical sheets numbered 63 F/11, 63
F/12, and 63 F/16 were applied for soil survey. The satellite image of the study area
was processed using standard visual image interpretation approach incorporating
field check and attribute data in ERDAS imagine 9.1 and ARC view 3.2a software.
Digital image processing techniques were also applied for generation ad-on-data for
visual image interpretation. On the basis of satellite image analysis and information
regarding soil surveys conducted earlier under Sharda Sahayak C.A.D project (1988)
Lucknow (U.P.), entire study area was classified into 83 soil interpretation units. The
database on both units was generated in GIS environment considering USDA soils
classification system. The soils of the study area were grouped into two orders, four
sub-orders, five great groups, six subgroups, five families, and seven series. The study
reveals that the RS and GIS techniques can be used in an effective manner in soil
resource investigation and mapping. This study may prove a better input in proper
management of degraded lands in the study area.
Keywords Remote sensing · Geographic information system · Landsat 7

ETM+data · ERDAS imagine 9.1 · Arc view 3.2a · Field check · Soil
interpretation units
D. K. Tripathi (B)
Department of Geography, Kamla Nehru Institute of Physical and Social Sciences,
Sultanpur, UP, India
e-mail: tripathidk.geoinformatics@gmail.com

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2097-6_7
84 D. K. Tripathi
7.1 Introduction
Soils are fundamental to the well-being and productivity of agricultural and nat-
ural ecosystems (Singer and Ewing 2000). It is finite, fragile, and nonrenewable
natural resource (Lal 1995). The continuous deterioration of their quality due to
land degradation processes in agro-ecosystem has been an issue of global concern
because it poses a serious threat to human well-being. In agriculture-based countries
like India, it is a great challenge before scientists, researchers, and decision-makers.
Over exploitation of soil resources without understanding its sustainable limit has
caused extensive soil degradation and causing serious threat to present and future
agricultural growth and sustainability. In a developing country like India where agri-
culture is a main stay of the economy, soil degradation has emerged as a serious
threat. As per the reports of the Department of Agriculture and Co-operation (DAC
1994), all the various categories of degraded land were spread over about 107 mil-
lion hectares area. It is estimated that six billion tons of soils are eroded from crop
land each year (Narayan and Babu 1983). In some studies, it is accounted that about
sixty percent cropped soil in India is affected from degradation problems (Sehgal
and Abrol 1994; Mandal and Mandal 1996; Biswas et al. 1999) and has become inca-
pable to produce the adequate food for sustainable livelihood of people distributed
on it. About 40% of the total degraded soils of the country are still under cultivation
which is an indication of environmental ignorance as well as farming compulsion
of the peoples who are engaged in a perpetual war of friction with land resources.
On the other hand today the population has exceeded one billion and by 2025 at the
current growth rate of 1.6%, it would be 1.37 billion. Four hundred million tons of
food grain would be needed to feed this population (Patil 2003). It would therefore
be necessary to plan the proper management of land resource considering sustain-
ability measures. The reliable and up-to-date information on spatial extent, property,
and limitations of soil resources is a prerequisite for soil resource conservation and
land degradation management in any region. Proper inventory and mapping of soils
serve to gain spatial information on the soil resources and primarily help in solving
agro-ecological and land resource management problems for any region.
The conventional soil survey and mapping techniques are expensive, tedious,
and time-consuming task. It needs a number of in situ measurements to locate soil
boundaries. In the recent years, as both RS and GIS are cost effective and techno-
logically sound geospatial tools, they have emerged as popular viable substitutes.
Rawashdeh and Saleh (2006) offer permanent and authentic record of spatial pat-
terns (Prakash and Gupta 1998). These techniques have been proved to be most
efficient, economical, and reliable for comprehensive inventory of soil resourses and
land use pattern. RS data helps detection of soil boundaries admirably because of
variations in spectral response of the different soils, attributable to their varied phys-
ical make-up and chemical composition (Karale 1992). The spectral reflectance of
soil is governed by its properties such as color, texture, organic matter, and minerals.
The collection of information on these characteristics differences by remote sensing
7 Soil Resource Inventory for Meeting Challenges of Land … 85
techniques reduces fieldwork, overcomes errors associated with subjectivity and is

able to generate soil map of inaccessible areas.
In India, several studies were carried out on soil survey in deferent regions using
aerial photographs (Karale et al. 1970). During early 1980s satellite RS techniques
which were used in soil mapping, attracted the attention of scholars and researchers.
Initially, works on soil resource mapping using satellite data were carried out by
Mirajkar and Srinivasan (1975), NRSA (1976, 1978, 1979, 1981) Venkataratnam and
Rao (1977) and Venkataratnam (1980). Several scholars used digital image process-
ing techniques in soil surveys and demonstrated its potential (Venkatratnam 1980),
Kudrat et al. (1990), Karale (1992), Ravisankar and Thamappa (2004), Rao et al.
(2004) and Milind et al. (2011). Simultaneously, several GIS modeling techniques
were also used by scholars to draw reliable and useful informations from soil maps
(Kudrat et al. 1990; Saha et al. 1991; Kudrat et al. 1995, 1997). Keeping these in
view, a micro level soil inventory was carried out in the Gauriganj block, Amethi
district, Uttar Pradesh (India), to generate database on soil resources using modern
geospatial tools of RS and GIS. Present study is aimed to identify and delineate
the soil units using Landsat 7 ETM+image (2014) and collateral data, map out the
soil resources in ERDAS Imagine 9.1, and Arc GIS 9.3 software adopting USDA
soils classification system, generate village level database on soil types for land
degradation management and analyze spatial pattern of soil types in the study area.
7.2 Study Area
The study area has been undertaken in Gauriganj block (falls between latitude
26° 7 5 to 26° 10 5 N and longitude 81° 36 45 to 81° 45 18 E) of Amethi dis-
trict, Uttar Pradesh, India (Fig. 7.1) which lies in the middle Ganga plain. It covers
an area of 207.56 km2 , characterized by an even and featureless plain, composed
of deep and fertile alluvial deposits. The area falls under typical tropical, semiarid,
monsoonal type of climate. The hot and dry summer, hot rainy season, warm autumn
and cool winter is its characteristics (Mishra and Sharma 2003). The area receives
977 mm average annual rainfall mainly in rainy season between the months of July
and September (Sharma et al. 2001) whereas the winter receives irregular and scanty
rainfall. The average annual minimum and maximum temperature in the study area
is recorded as 4.10 °C and 47.5 °C, respectively. Soil Survey Staff (1994) has clas-
sified soils of this area as “Aquic Petrocalcic Natrustalf” and accumulation of salts
above the soil surface is the main feature in a large area. The block is economically
underprivileged and majority of the population (about 80%) earns livelihood through
agricultural and allied activities. Land degradation is a major environmental issue in
this area.
86 D. K. Tripathi
Fig. 7.1 Study area map

Table 7.1 Characteristics of the Lansat-7 ETM+data

Sl. no. Parameters Characteristics
1 Spectral range (mm) 0.4–2.4
2 Spatial resolution (m) 30
3 Swath width (km) 185
4 Spectral resolution Variable
5 Spectral coverage Discrete
6 Number of bands 7
7 Spectral bands used in this analysis WL (nm) Band-1:450–520 (nm)
Band-2:530–610 (nm)
Band-3:630–690 (nm)
Band-4:780–900 (nm)
Band-5:1550–1750 (nm)
Band-7:2090–2350 (nm)
Source Landsat 7 science data users handbook (2004)
7.3.1 Data Used
In this study data used and their sources are: (i) Landsat-7 ETM+multi-spectral
images (30 m resolution) acquired in the year 2014 (source: http://glcf.umiacs.
umd.edu). Table 7.1 depicts the Characteristics of the Lansat-7 ETM+data used in
this analysis, (ii) Google Earth Images (source: http://www.googleearth.com), (iii)
Village boundary map prepared by National Natural Resource Database Manage-
ment System (NNRDMS), Sultanpur (U.P.), (iv) Survey of India (SOI) Topograph-
ical sheets numbered 63 F (scale 1:250000), 63 F/11, 63 F/12, 63 F/16 at scale
1:50000, (v) Training/ground truth data collected through selective field survey with
GPS handset (Garmin GPS map 76 Cx) in the month of May, 2014, (vi) Soil Survey
Report (source Sharda Sahayak C.A.D. Project 1988, Lucknow), (vii) Information
regarding land use/land cover collected through the local people informal interview,
(viii) GIS/RS packages of Arc GIS 9.3 (ESRI) and ERDAS Imagine 9.1 (Leica
Geosystems, Atlana, U.S.A.).
7.3.2 Database Preparation
In order to investigate the soil resources Landsat 7, ETM+satellite image for the years
2014 was downloaded through Global Land Cover Facilities Network (GLCF). The
Landsat-7 ETM+image provided by GLCF Network was ortho-rectified (UTM/WGS
84 projection) and radiometrically corrected. The sub-setting of satellite image was
performed in Arc GIS 9.3 software to extract study area from the entire image using
88 D. K. Tripathi
geo-referenced out line boundary map of Gauriganj block. Subsequently, the data
normalization was performed for reducing spatial variation in reflectance caused by
sun elevation differences and radiometric gain setting. Primarily, radiance values
were calculated in ERDAS Imagine modeler using DN values of the image. The
formula given by Markham and Barker in 1986 (Landsat 7 Science Data Users
Handbook 2004) was used in this process.
L∗ = (Lmax − Lmin )/Qcalmax ∗ Qcal + Lmin
where L* = spectral radiance at the sensors aperture W/(m2 .sr.um), Qcal = Calibrated
Digital Number, Qcalmax = maximum possible DN value (255), Lmax & Lmin =
maximum/minimum scaled spectral radiance value for a given band (provided in
the header file). The radiance values further converted into reflectance using the
following formula-
ρ P = (π ∗ Lλ ∗ d2)/(ESUNλ ∗ cosθ s)
where ρP = effect of planetary reflectance, Lλ = band radiance (w/m2 /ster/μm), d =

distance of earth from Sun (in astronomical units, d = 0.997052 for this case), ESUNλ
= mean solar exo-atmospheric irradiances for given wavelength in watts/m2 /μm/ster,
θ s = solar zenith angle in degrees.
To know the condition of vegetation cover on the soil the most frequently used
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) was applied on reflectance image.
The NDVI, is the ratio, respects the absorption of photosynthetic active radiation and
hence it directly relates to the photosynthetic capacity of plants and energy absorption
(Sellers1985; Myneni et al. 1995). The band 3 (Red) and band 4 (Near Infrared) of
Landsat-7 ETM+data were used to obtain the NDVI using following formula:
NDVI = (DNIR − DNR/DNIR + DNR)
where DNIR = digital numbers of Infrared band, DNR = digital numbers of Red
band.
By design, the NDVI varies between −1.0 and +1.0, where NDVI ranging
between 0.1 and 0.7 typically represents vegetation cover. Higher levels of healthy
vegetation cover in any region are associated with higher NDVI values, while NDVI
values near zero indicate the less green vegetation. The prepared NDVI image was
used during image processing for soil mapping.
7.3.3 Visual Image Interpretation
The major outcome of this study is the mapping and evaluation of soil resources
of the study area. Various methods to delineate soil boundaries in remote sensing
image data are in vogue in which visual interpretation method was used in most of
the cases (Karale et al. 1981; Biswas 1987). However, computer-based digital image
processing methods have also been used in soil mapping (Epema 1986; Kudrat et al.
1990; Korolyuk and Sheherbenko 1994) and recommended as a potential tool (Lee
et al. 1988; Kudrat et al. 1992). In the present study, on-screen standard visual image
interpretation method was employed. Before the image interpretation, a preliminary
general traversing of study area was undertaken and some observations were recorded
at few places. A legend was formed to identify the tonal behavior of soils and land
use/land cover classes on the image. During this field visit, training data were also
collected for digital image analysis. Garmin GPS map 76 Cx handset was used to
locate training data collection sites. The visual interpretation of image was performed
in Arc GIS 9.3 considering image elements (such as tone, texture, shape, size, pattern,
site, and association), author’s background knowledge, and collateral data and terrain
conditions. Eighty-three soil interpretation units were identified and delineated on
False Color Composite (FCC) of the satellite data. To improve the image contrast for
better delineation of soil boundaries, spectral enhancement and band combination
techniques were used. NDVI and classified (maximum likelihood method) images
were used as add-on data set to supplement the existing onscreen interpretation on
False Color Composite of Landsat 7 ETM+imagery. The information pertaining to
soil profile and their physical, chemical, and biological properties collected earlier
in Sharda Sahayak C.A.D. Project 1988, Lucknow (U.P.) were incorporated during
the entire soil mapping process.
7.3.4 Ground Truth Collection
In order to correlate the image elements and existence of soil units, a field visit
was made again and ground truth was collected. After selecting sample sites, the
pockets of land which were mapped as specific soil units were precisely located on
the ground with the help of topographical sheets and observation was made regarding
geotechnical elements.
7.3.5 Post-field Interpretation
According to field observations during ground truth, the preliminary interpreted soil
units were finalized and soil maps were prepared. The units having similar soil
characteristics were merged and seven soil series were proposed. The soils’ series
were further classified up to family level following USDA Soil Taxonomy system.
Further, entire soil mapping and area estimation were performed in Arc GIS 9.3
software.
90 D. K. Tripathi
7.3.6 Accuracy Assessment
Accuracy assessment of soil maps was carried out through analyzing 250 randomly
selected sample points on the reference image. The analysis was performed in Accu-
racy Assessment Option of ERADAS IMAGINE software. The ground truth data
and Google earth high-resolution images were used for comparing mapped thematic
layers and an error matrix was generated. The quantitative assessment of maps accu-
racy was performed by computing overall accuracy and Kappa Coefficient (Biahop
et al. 1975).
7.4.1 Soil Mapping Units
The area under study was estimated to be 20,791 ha in Arc GIS 9.3 software. Visual
image interpretation method incorporating field check/training collection and digital
processing techniques like image enhancement, band combination, NDVI, maxi-
mum likelihood provide useful method for soil mapping. Delineation of soil bound-
aries on satellite image basically involves their characterization through on-screen
visual interpretation in terms of image elements like color/tone, texture, shape, size,
association, etc. In this study, visual interpretation of Landsat 7 ETM+data (2014)
was performed in Arc GIS 9.1 for soil mapping. On the image of the study area,
83 distinct mapping units were delineated on the basis of their spectral responses
(Fig. 7.2). Detailed information pertaining soil profiles and their physical, chemical,
and biological properties of each mapping unit were collected from soil survey report
of Gauriganj block, Sharda Sahayak Command Area Development Project, 1988,
Lucknow (U.P.). The information on soil composition in the interpreted sample strips
was extrapolated to unsampled area. The mapping units having similar soil compo-
sition were merged together and made as a single unit. In this mapping process seven
soil series were recognized. The soils’ units were further processed and mapped up
to family level following USDA Soil classification scheme (Soil Survey Staff 2004,
2009, 2010). The entire soil mapping and area estimation were performed in Arc
GIS 9.3 software.
7.4.2 Soil Orders and Suborders
The results of the soil mapping reveal that the study area has been classified into two
soil orders, viz., Alfisols and Inceptisols (Fig. 7.3a and Table 7.2). The differentiation
in orders is based on highly generalized criteria. It is generally based on soils’ genesis
related properties. Alfisols are the relatively high fertile soil which form in semiarid
Fig. 7.2 Soil mapping units based on visual interpretation Source Landsat 7 data, 2014
to humid conditions. It contains clay-enriched horizon and native fertility. It contains

aluminum and iron minerals but relatively low organic matter. It represents an area
of 13,663.84 ha (65.72% of the total area) and can be observed in cultivated and
low lying areas. The soils of Alfisole order were further classified into Aqualfs and
Ustalfs, at suborder level based on soil moisture and temperature.
Aqualfs form in aquic situations of fluctuating water table. During the considerable
part of the year, groundwater table is found near the surface. These soils cover about
47.22% area of the block (Fig. 7.3b). Ustalfs soils occur in subhumid to semiarid
conditions. These soils accumulate the carbonates in or below the subsoil. These
soils occur on 18.50% area of the block. Inceptisols are also mineral soils that have
developed over subhumid and semiarid environments characterized by accumulation
of clays, gypsum, and salt of translocated alluvium These soils represent an area
of 6908.85 ha (33.23%). This soil order was classified into Ochrepts and Ustepts
suborders. Ochrepts are characterized by an ochric epipedon (too little organic matter
in upper surface, light color), a warm soil temperature regime and an ustic soil
moisture regime found on about 3.78% of area. Ustepts (29.45%) are mainly drained
freely and have an ustic moisture regime.
92 D. K. Tripathi
Fig. 7.3 Distribution of soil orders and suborders Source Based on Landsat 7 data, 2014
Table 7.2 Soil orders and Suborders in Gauriganj block, Amethi District (U.P)
Sl. no. Soil order Suborder Area in ha Area in %
1 Alfisols Aqualfs 9817.51 47.22
Ustalfs 3846.33 18.50
2 Inceptisols Ustepts 6122.94 29.45
Ochrepts 785.89 3.78
3 Waterbody 218.30 1.05
Total 20,791 100
Source Derived from satellite data analysis in GIS
7.4.2.1 Soil Great Groups and Subgroups
On the basis of the kind and sequence of soil horizons, soil suborders of the study
area were further divided into great groups. Five great groups are recognized and
mapped in the study area, namely, Epiaqualfs, Haplustalfs, Haplustepts, Natraqualfs,
and Ustochrepts (Fig. 7.4a, and Table 7.3). Epiaqualfs are the Aqualfs that have an
epipedon that rests on an argillic horizon without an abrupt textural change if the
argillic horizon has low saturated hydraulic conductivity. These soils do not have a
kandic horizon, a natric horizon, a fragipan, or a duripan (Soil Survey Staff 1999).
Fig. 7.4 Distribution of soil great groups and subgroups Source Based on Landsat 7 data, 2014
Table 7.3 Soil great groups

Sl. no. Great groups Area in ha Area in %
in Gauriganj block, Amethi
District (U.P) 1 Epiaqualfs 1137.26 5.47
2 Haplustalfs 3846.33 18.50
3 Haplustepts 6122.94 29.45
4 Natraqualfs 8680.24 41.75
5 Ustochrepts 769.26 3.70
6 Water body 218.30 1.05
Total 20,791 100
These soils cover about 1137.26 ha (5.47%) area of the block. Haplustalfs are the
Ustalfs that have an argillic horizon. Horizons, do not have a duripan that has its
upper boundary within 100 cm of the surface, do not have a petrocalcic horizon
within 150 cm of the surface, and do not have much plinthite. (Soil Survey Staff
1999). These soils occupy about 3846.33 ha (18.50%) area in the block.
Haplustepts which is freely drained Ustepts are calcareous at some depth or hav-
ing high base status. These soils are found on 6122.94 ha (29.45%) area in Gaurig-
anj block. Natraqualfs (Aqualfs that have a natric horizon and warmer temperature
regime) and Ustochrepts cover 41.75 and 3.70% area of the block, respectively. On
the basis of basic system of Soil Classification System prepared by Soil Survey Staff
(1999), the soil great group is further a categorized into four subgroups, i.e., Aeric,
94 D. K. Tripathi
Table 7.4 Soil subgroups in

Sl. no. Great groups Area in ha Area in %
Gauriganj block, Amethi
District (U.P) 1 Aeric Epiaqualfs 1137.26 5.47
2 Fluventic Haplustepts 1505.26 7.24
3 Typic Haplustalfs 3846.33 18.50
4 Typic Haplustepts 4617.68 22.21
5 Typic Natraqualfs 8680.24 41.75
6 Udic Ustochrepts 785.89 3.78
7 Water Body 218.30 1.05
Total 20,791 100
Fluventic, Typic, and Udic. Aeric subgroups represent the drier conditions of soil
whereas the Fluvents soils distributed mainly on flood plain formed by recent water-
deposited sediments. It contains an appreciable amount of organic carbon. The soils
that do not have the characteristics defined for the other subgroups are kept into Typic
subgroups. Udic soil is common in humid regions where moisture is sufficiently high
throughout the year to meet plant requirements. In the study area, six subgroups are
identified and mapped namely Aeric Epiaqualfs, Fluventic Haplustepts, Typic Hap-
lustalfs, Typic Haplustepts, Typic Natraqualfs, and Udic Ustouchrepts. The spatial
extent and distribution are depicted by Fig. 7.4b and Table 7.4.
7.4.3 Soil Families and Soil Series
On the basis of mineralogy, texture, and temperature, the subgroups are further
classified into soil families which distinguish between clayey, loamy, and sandy soils.
The soils of the Gauriganj block have been classified into five soil texture families,
(Fig. 7.5a, Table 7.5) namely, Loamy, Coarse loamy, Fine, Fine loamy, and Fine silty.
Loamy soils are highly fertile in nature which consist mainly an equal mixture of
sand (30–50%) and clay (less than 30%) together with silt (30–50%) and humus.
It can retain some amount of moisture and plant food even under adverse weather
and climate conditions. It extends over a 22.21% (4617.68 ha) of the geographical
area. This soil is well exposed in southeastern and eastern part of the block. There
are some exposure around village Attanagar and Chandanpur and southwestern part
of the study area. The coarse loamy is the coarse-textured soil which contains sand
(50–70%) and silt (0–50%) with less than 20% clay. These are low water holding
capacity soil and good for horticulture, legumes, groundnut, and Bajra. About 7.24%
(1505.26 ha) of the total area is under course loamy soil. This soil is exposed in
northeast and southwest parts of the study area. Fine-textured soils (Clay) cover an
area 45.27% (9412.08 ha) of the total area of the block. These soils are found in
middle and eastern parts of the block. About 3.78% (785.89 ha) area is under fine
Fig. 7.5 Distribution of soil families and soil series Source Based on Landsat 7 data, 2014
Table 7.5 Soil families in

Sl. no. Great Groups Area in ha Area in %
Gauriganj block, Amethi
District (U.P) 1 Loamy 4617.68 22.21
2 Coarse loamy 1505.26 7.24
3 Fine 9412.08 45.27
4 Fine loamy 785.89 3.78
5 Fine silty 4251.75 20.45
6 Water body 218.30 1.05
Total 20,791 100
loamy soils exposed in Sarai Bhagmani, Jehmawai, Barna Tikar, Lugari, Pure Faizal
Dharupur, Jagmal Pur Madhupur, Sultanpur, Sogara, Basupur, Guwawan, Narauli,
Pandari, Mau, and Gopalipur villages. The fine silty soils containing sand (0–20%)
and silt (40–60%) with 40–60% clay exposed mostly in western and southern parts
of the Gauriganj block. It amounts to 20.45% (4251.75 ha) of the total area.
The narrowest category soil in soil taxonomy is called soil series (Soil Survey
Staff 1975). It consists of pedons (soil individual) that have similar pedogenesis, soil
chemistry, and physical properties. Each series consists of pedons that have hori-
zons similar in soil color, texture, structure, pH, consistence, mineral and chemical
96 D. K. Tripathi
composition, and arrangement in the soil. In the study area, seven soil series were
identified and mapped, viz., Ajhuri, Bhaderha, Kauhar, Kheri, Purepatti, Usrapur,
Kalyanpur (Fig. 7.5b, Table 7.6).
Ajhuri
Ajhuri soil series belongs to Alfisole order, Aqualfs suborder, Epiaqalfs great group,
and Aeric subgroup. It represents fine textured high fertile soil characterized by clay-
enriched horizon, aluminum and iron minerals, relatively low organic matter, thermic
or warmer temperature regime, and fluctuating water table. This soil is suitable for
wheat, paddy, pulses, gram, peas, and oil seeds crops like mustered linseed, etc. It
exposed in thirty villages covering an area of 1137.26 ha (5.47%) in Gauriganj block.
Mapping units numbered 7, 13, 17, 18, 23, 25, 26, 31, 32, 37, 41, 43, 44, 53, 54, 55,
66, 67, 71, 77 represent the Ajhuri series (Fig. 7.2 and Table 7.7).
Bhaderha
Bhaderha soil series belongs to Inceptisols order, Ustepts suborder, Haplustepts great
groups, Fluventic aplustepts subgroups, Coarse loamy family (mixed and Hyperther-
mic). It occupies on 1505.26 ha (7.24%) area over thirty-seven villages (Table 7.6)
in the study area. Mapping units numbered 2, 5, 15, 27, 49, 50, 51, 52, 59, 61, 79, 80,
and 81 represent the Bhaderha soil series. The soil of this series is coarse textured
and consists of sand (50–70%), silt (0–50%) and clay (less than 20%) and suitable
for horticulture, legumes, groundnut, and Bajra crops. The soil is characterized by
medium fertility and low water holding capacity.
Kauhar
Kauhar soil series belongs to Alfisols order, Aqualfs suborder, Natraqualfs great
group, Typic Natraqualfs subgroup and Fine textured soil family (mixed, Hyper-
thermic). Mapping units numbered 3, 9, 20, 28, 33, 38, 57, 60, 74, 78, 82, and 83
represent the Kauhar soil series. It covers an area of 8274.18 ha (39.80%) and occu-
pies in forty-seven villages. It accounts for 3846.33 ha (18.50%) and illustrated by
mapping units number of 6, 10, 14, 24, 29, 34, 47, 63, and 69.
Purepatti
Purepatti soil series is included under Inceptisols order, Ochrepts suborder,
Ustochrepts great group, Udic Ustochrepts subgroup and Fine loamy family (mixed,
Hyperthermic). This soil series occupies on 785.89 ha (3.78%) lands. Mapping units
numbered 4, 11, 36, 40, 42, 45, 46, 62, 64, 65, and 70 represent the Purepatti soil
series. This soil series was found in twenty-two villages.
Usrapur
Usrapur soil series belongs to Alfisols order, Aqualfs suborder, Natraqualfs great
group, Typic Natraqualfs subgroup, and Fine Silty (mixed, Hyperthermic) family. It
accounts for only 405.42 ha (1.95%) area. Mapping units numbered 8, 12, 21, 30, 35,
48, 58, 73, 75, and 76 represent the Usrapur soil series. This soil series is distributed
over fifteen villages.
Table 7.6 Spatial Distribution of Soil Series in Gauriganj Block, Amethi District (U.P)
Sl. no. Soil series Area in ha Area in % Villages
1 Ajhuri 1137.26 5.47 Sogara, Tikariya, Sarai Barwand Singh,
Sahbaj Pur, Mahimapur, Pure Fajil, Misrauli,
Asaidapur, Katra Lal Ganj, Amiya, Darpipur,
Saintha, Rauja, Benipur Baldeo, Gulalpur,
Bastidai, Majhwara, Bhatgawan, Paiga,
Guwawan, Sujapur, Narauli, Rampur Kurwa,
Rohshi Khurd, Chhitepur, Banwari Pur,
Pandari, Gundur, Belkhaur, Basupur,
Tulsipur, Kharnwan, Samhanwa, Basaikpur,
Dhanupur, Asaura, Dharupur and Manmatipur
2 Bhaderha 1505.26 7.24 Benipur Baldeo, Gulalpur, Bastidai,
Gopalipur, Hasrampur, Gauripur, Anapur,
Jagdishpur, Bishundaspur, Sarai Hirday Shah,
Barna Tikar, Harakh Pur, Gvjar Tol,
Dhanapur, Bhawan Shah Pur, Atta Nagar,
Saripur, Saintha, Aintha, Pathanpur, Pahar
Ganj. Pandari, Ismailpur, Bahanpur,
Sakrawan, Bahanpur, Shah Pur, Ronhsi
Buzurg, Chandaipur, Misrauli, Rajgarh,
Paiga, Guwawan, Rohsi Khurd, Bhatgawan
and Sujanpur
3 Kauhar 8274.18 39.80 Gulalpur, Bastidai, Manjhawara, Mautulsipur,
Oripur, Sarauli, Itaujapachhim, Narauli,
Sujanpur, Gauripur, Sarai Hirday Shah, Rohni
Khurd, Barna Tikar, Madhopur, Raj Garh,
Jethauna, Sarai Bagmani, Madhopur,
Pachehri, Bali Pur Khurdawan, Katralal Ganj,
Amiya, Argwan, Ramaipur, Anni Baijal,
Saripur, Sakarwara, Paharpur, Lugri,
Raghipur, Ronhsi Buzurg, Sogara, Garha
Mafi, Darpipur, Saintha, Pathanpur, Aintha,
Attanagar, Bahanpur, Paharganj, Palia,
Chauhanpur, Rampur Kurwa, Bishundaspur,
Mahimapur, Bhehta, Tikariya and Khajuri
4 Kheri 3846.33 18.50 Gulalpur, Bastidai, Bhatgawan, Manmatipur,
Manjhwara, Rauja, Mau, Basupur, Sujanpur,
Guwawan, Rohni Khurd, Kajipatti, Sembhue,
Paiga, Gvjar Tol, Sogara, Biswan, Dhanapur,
Chandaipur, Atta Nagar, Saintha, Bahanpur,
Paharpur, Pandari, Samhanwa, Lal Shahpur,
Raja Patti, Babupur, Anni Baijal, Gundaur,
Basaikpur, Belkhaur, Medan Mawi, Raj Garh,
Madhopur, Narauli, Pure Fajil, Senipur,
Jagmalpur, Dharupur, Asura, Bhawan Shah
Pur, Tikaria, Itaujapachhim, Tulsipur, Benipur
Baldeo and Mahanpur
(continued)
98 D. K. Tripathi
Table 7.6 (continued)

Sl. no. Soil series Area in ha Area in % Villages
5 Purepatti 785.89 3.78 Mau, Gopalipur, Sujanpur, Guwawan,
Narauli, Rohshi Khurd, Basupur, Pure Faijal,
Paiga, Sembhue, Dharupur, Jagmalpur,
Sultanpur, Barna Tikar, Sogara, Lugari,
Saintha, Pandari. Jehumawi, Sarai Bhagmani,
Madhu Pur and Senipur
6 Usrapur 405.42 1.95 Manjhwara, Bhatgawan, Manmattipur,
Guwawan, Lugari, Jethauna, Argawan,
Tikaria, Ramaipur, Lal Shah Pur, Saintha,
Babupur, Anni Baijal, Barna Tikar and Sarai
Bhagmani
7 Kalyanpur 4617.68 22.21 Garhamafi, Mahimapur, Sahbaj Pur, Sarai
Barwand Singh, Baburitola, Behta, Sujapur,
Lila Tikar, Khajuri, Belkhaur, Gundur, Basaik
Pur, Samhanwa, Gudunpur, Anni Baijal,
Saripur, Kharanwan, Chhitepur, Paharganj,
Pathanpur, Aintha, Atta Nagar, Chandal Pur
and Sakarwan
Table 7.7 Soil series and their association with soil constraints in Gauriganj block, Amethi District
(U.P)
Sl. no. Mapping units Soil series Soil classification Texture
1 7, 13, 17, 18,23, 25, 26,31, Ajhuri Alfisols, Aqualfs, Fine
32, 37,41, 43, 44,53, 54, Epiaqalfs, Aeric Epiaqualf
55,66, 67, 71, 77
2 2, 5, 15, 27, 49,50, 51, Bhaderha Inceptisols, Ustepts, Coarse loamy
52,59, 61, 79,80, 81 Haplustepts, Fluventic
Haplustepts
3 3, 9, 20, 28, 33,38, 57, Kauhar Alfisols, Aqualfs, Fine
60,74, 78, 82, 83 Natraqualfs, Typic
Natraqualfs
4 6, 10, 14, 24, 29,34, 47, Kheri Alfisols, Ustepts, Fine silty
63, 69 Haplustalfs, Typic
Haplustalf
5 4, 11, 36, 40, 42,45, 46, Purepatti Inceptisols, Ochrepts, Fine loamy
62,64, 65, 70 Ustochrepts, Udic
Ustochrepts
6 8, 12, 21, 30, 35,48, 58, Usrapur Alfisols, Aqualfs, Fine silty
73, 75,76 Natraqualfs, Typic
Natraqualfs
7 1,16, 19, 22, 56, 68 Kalyanpur Inceptisols, Ustepts, Loamy
Haplustepts, Typic
Haplustepts
Kalyanpur
Kalyanpur soil series is classified under Inceptisols order, Ustepts suborder, Haplus-
tepts great group, Typic Haplustepts subgroup, and Loamy (mixed, Hyperthermic)
soil family. Mapping units numbered 1, 16, 19, 22, 56, and 68 represent the Kalyan-
pur soil series. It is distributed on 4617.68 ha (22.21%) and found in twenty-four
villages.
7.5 Conclusion
In this study, Landsat 7 ETM+image of the year 2014 was processed for soil mapping
and database generation. Visual image processing technique incorporating selected
field check/training and collateral data was applied for this task. However, some dig-
ital image processing techniques such as spectral enhancement, band combination,
NDVI, and image classification (maximum likelihood method) were also used as
add-on data set to supplement the existing onscreen visual image processing. As
per USDA soil classification system, soils of the study area were grouped into two
orders, four suborders, five great groups, six subgroups, five families, and seven
series. The study clearly demonstrates the usefulness of RS and GIS techniques for
soil resource inventory, mapping, and database generation at micro level. During the
post-field interpretation field check, it was observed that the salt-affected soil, water-
logging, soil erosion, deficiency of soil nutrients, etc. are the major human-induced
soil related constraints in the study area that deteriorate the currying capacity of
soil to support human population. The village level reliable soil database on spatial
extent, types, and magnitude may prove a better input in micro level planning for
proper management of degraded lands in the study area.
Acknowledgements The Author thankfully acknowledged to Indian Council of Social Science

Research (ICSSR), New Delhi which provided financial assistance to conduct this study. The author
is also grateful to Scientist In-charge, NRDMS centre Sultanpur and teaching staff of the Agriculture
Science Faculty, Kamla Nehru Institute of Physical & Social Sciences, Sultanpur (UP) for constant
suggestions during the course of the study.
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Chapter 8
Temporal Variation in Glacier’s Area
and Identification of Glacial Lakes
in Sikkim
Mahfooz Alam and Sandeep Bhardwaj
Abstract Glacier’s ice cover is changing over time and subsequently topography of
the region and other factors result in the formation of glacial lakes. This paper aims
to identify the temporal changes in glacier’s area and glacial lakes with the help of
remote sensing satellite images of Landsat. For the measurement of area covering
glaciers, band rationing and filtering technique have been used with manual thresh-
olding and manual post-processing by visual interpretation, and also conversion of
raster to vector. For the identification of glacial lakes, NDWI technique is used with
manual thresholding with the help of ERDAS IMAGINE 9.3 and QGIS 2.12.3 soft-
ware. Results showing Glacier shrinkage about 22% ± 6% and the number of glacial
lakes increased from 169 in the year 1992 to 261 in the year 2015. Glacial lakes
can be seen as an indicator of glacial changes. The cause of shrinkage in these two
decades can be said as increase in the temperature over the region and anthropogenic
factors. Impact because of these changes could be a potential threat and may lead to
disaster in the region.
Keywords Glacial lakes · Glacial shrinkage · Remote sensing techniques
8.1 Introduction
The report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) stated that
‘glaciers are the best natural indicators of climate’. Many studies done by researchers,
suggested that glacier changes may vary widely within a region based on climatic and
topographical characteristics such as slope, aspects and elevation. Glacier changes
are observed worldwide within the framework of the Global Terrestrial Network on
Glaciers (GTN-G) of the Global Climate Observing Systems (Andreassen and Paul
2008).
M. Alam (B) · S. Bhardwaj

Department of Geography, Kumaun University, Uttarakhand, India
e-mail: mahfoozalam@yahoo.com
S. Bhardwaj
e-mail: sandy891995@gmail.com
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2097-6_8
104 M. Alam and S. Bhardwaj
Increase in the number of lakes by melting of glaciers may leads to glacial lakes
outburst floods that subsequently impact man as well as his environment. Such factors
make it an important issue to be studied which can be possible using remote sensing
and GIS techniques, for a larger region that may take more time and money if studied
on field survey and other measurements.
Availability of glacier-related data was very meagre before the introduction of
glacier study and analysis based on remotely sensed image. Remote sensing tech-
niques have considerably improved the estimation of glacier’s area change and also
for the identification of water bodies such as lakes.
The objective of this paper is twofold:
• To present the variation or changes in Glacier’s area from the year 1992 to 2015
of Sikkim (India), using satellite images of Landsat series.
• To identify the glacial lakes of Sikkim in the year 1992 and 2015 based on remote
sensing and GIS techniques and tools.
8.2 Study Area
Our study focuses on glaciers and glacial lakes of Sikkim, which is located at the
north-eastern part of India (Fig. 8.1). Sikkim covers a total geographical area of about
7096 km2 and is centered at about 27.5330° N, 88.5122°.
Sikkim state borders china in the north, Bhutan in its east, Nepal in its west and
Indian state west Bengal in its south. The terrain of the state is hilly and mountainous
Fig. 8.1 Location map of study area. The background is Google earth imagery. Source Image
©2018 DigitalGlobe
8 Temporal Variation in Glacier’s Area and Identification … 105
with an elevation ranging from 280 to 8586 m. It is extended about 114 km from
north to south and 64 km from east to west.
The average annual temperature of Sikkim is around 18 °C, minimum temperature
goes down to less than 0 °C and the maximum temperature rarely exceed to 28 °C.
The highest peak of the state is Kangchenjunga, which is the world’s third highest
peak situated on the border of Sikkim and Nepal. Mainly three major glaciers are
there namely Zemu glacier, Lohnak glacier and Rathong glacier. Total glacier area in
Sikkim cover an area of about 484 km2 , which is about 7% of the total geographical
area of Sikkim.
8.3 Methodology
8.3.1 Data Source
Satellite imagery that has been used in study is downloaded from USGS-Earth
Explorer that is of Landsat-TM5 scene from 23 September 1992 and Landsat-
8OLI/TIRS scene from 7 September 2015 with the spatial resolution of 30 m, all
these data sets used in the study are orthorectified; we selected the data of Septem-
ber month because there were no seasonal snow covers in this month that looked
appropriate for the study of Glacier’s area change. ASTER Global DEM Version2
Imagery of 17 October 2011 with spatial resolution of 1 arc second, for the full
coverage of study area, two ASTER Global DEM Version2 Imagery were needed to
download and acquisition date of both imagery were same. Other than that Google
Earth Imageries of study area were also taken and Geometric rectification of these
imageries were done in QGIS 2.12.3 with appropriate polynomial model and pro-
jection system for the study of both glacier cover as well as glacial lakes. All these
remote sensing data sets that are used in this study are summarized in Table 8.1.
Table 8.1 Data used in this study

Sensor Scene ID Date Spatial resolution
Landsat TM-5 LT51390411992267BKT00 23rd Sept. 1992 30 m
Landsat-8 OLI/TIRS LC81390412015250LGN00 07th Sept. 2015 30 m
ASTER ASTGTM2_N27E088 (DEM) 17th Oct. 2011 1 arc sec
ASTGTM2_N28E088 (DEM) 17th Oct. 2011 1 arc sec
8.3.2 Glaciers Delineation
For the delineation of glaciers of Sikkim for the year 1992 based on landsat-TM5
Imagery, clean glacier outlines were extracted; the outlines were extracted by apply-
ing some techniques that has been already suggested in other studies that are as fol-
lows: first area of interest, that is, Sikkim clipped for further use then band rationing
technique was applied TM3/TM5, that is, Red band/SWIR, these bands were used
because maximum reflectance of clean ice in Red band and minimum in SWIR band
(Dozier 1989), offers the possibility to discriminate clean ice from its surrounding
terrain with a threshold in a reproducible and consistent manner (Albert 2002; Paul
2002). Other than this some other band calculation are also there such as TM4/TM5
and NDSI (Normalized difference Snow Index) but TM3/TM5 looked appropriate
as compared to TM4/TM5 and NDSI. In resulting ratio image appropriate thresh-
old were applied based on pixel value information and observation of clean ice and
surrounded pixels.
After applying, threshold resulted image were showing some isolated pixel of
clean ice, to remove these isolated pixel a 3 × 3 median filter were applied. Then
we converted raster resulted image to vector layer. For the delineation of debris-
covered glaciers, manual post-processing has been done by visual interpretation,
this post-processing has been done using TM543 band composite as RGB, and this
combination clearly discriminated the glacier area from cloud cover (Fig. 8.2) as
compared to Natural colour composite, that is, TM321 as RGB (Fig. 8.3). In this
manual correction process, debris-covered glaciers were digitized and edited man-
ually. Finally, total glacier areas were extracted as vector layer that is used for the
calculation of total area covering glaciers and debris-covered glaciers.
For the delineation of glaciers of Sikkim for the year 2015, based on landsat-
8OLI/TIRS Imagery, clean glaciers were extracted by the same process as explained
for the year 1992 but in this Landsat-8OLI/TIRS satellite imagery band 1 is for coastal
aerosols, band 2 for blue, band-3 for green, band-4 for red and band-5 for NIR (near
infrared), and band-6 for SWIR (Shortwave infrared), because of this characteris-
tics of bands, here the formula for band rationing has changed to Band4/Band6
as (Red/SWIR) that were TM3/TM5 for Landsat-TM5. For the false colour com-
posite of Band654 as RGB were used as it has showed the same composition that
were there in Landsat-TM5 in the form of TM543, and for natural colour composite
Band432 combination were used. In this scene there were cloud cover near glacier
area, so for accurate extraction of glacier area Google Earth Imagery were used that
were cloud-free as compared to Landsat-8 imagery then finally area of clean ice and
debris-covered glacier were calculated.
Fig. 8.2 TM543 composite image. Source Landsat TM
8.3.3 Identification of Lakes
For both the year 1992 as well as 2015, glacial lakes were automatically mapped
using normalised difference water index (NDWI) that is NDWI = NIR − Blue
Band/NIR + Blue Band, in the resulted image, water bodies appeared black with
negative value, based on the observation of pixels value on image of water bodies and
surrounded surface pixel, an appropriate threshold was decided for the separation of
lakes from other surface features, after applying threshold on the resulted ratio image,
it showed only water bodies on the image then conversion from raster to vector was
executed and the water bodies were converted as vector layer; when we examined
the vector layer with the base map it was observed that some of the shaded area were
also classified as water bodies; to remove such discrepancy from the image again a
manual correction process were done using visual interpretation method by putting
Landsat image and Image from Google Earth as a base map so that it could map
correctly with manual digitizing. Finally, a new vector layer of lakes of Sikkim was
Fig. 8.3 TM321 Composite image. Source Landsat TM
identified. These processes were done for both years whether it was Landsat-TM-5,
1992 Image or Landsat-8OLI/TIRS from 2015.
8.3.4 Topographical Parameters
To extract the topographical parameters of the glacier-covered area there was a need
to extract it with the DEM data. For the analysis of such parameters the advanced
spaceborne thermal emission and reflection radiometer (ASTER) Global Digital Ele-
vation Model (GDEM) Version2 data were used. It was also used for showing eleva-
tion range over the region (Fig. 8.4). For the creation of slope map, digital elevation
model was used as input and same process was used for the creation of aspect map.
The slope and aspect map were derived to analyze how it affects the changes in
glacier’s area.
Fig. 8.4 DEM (Digital Elevation Model) of Sikkim. Source ASTER DEM
After the generation of these maps, the results of elevation, aspects and slope were
compiled with the vector layers of glaciers and lakes using zonal statistics; this work
is executed to analyze how such parameters affect the changes in glacier’s area.
8.4 Results
According to the current world scenario, glacier’s area is changing everywhere

because of many reasons, global warming is a major one of them. Temporal data were
used to detect changes in glacier’s area that is shown in Fig. 8.5 for the year 1992,
and for the year 2015 (Fig. 8.6). According to our study, Sikkim glacier area changes
22.18% from 1992 to 2015 (Table 8.2). In 1992 glacier area was 621.124 km2 , in over-
all glacier area clean ice is 537.873 km2 and debris-covered glacier is 83.252 km2 .
In 2015 glacier area is 483.374 km2 in overall glacier area clean ice is 414.214 km2
and debris-covered area is 69.125 km2 . The overall change in glacier area from 1992
to 2015 is 137.75 km2 .
Fig. 8.5 Glacier and lakes in Sikkim (1992). Source Landsat TM
Glacier cover delineated by different analysts is showing a trend of decreasing

glacier’s area on different years (Fig. 8.9). Topographic characteristics in the glaciated
area showing that mean slope on glaciated area is about 27° and mean aspect is about
158° with the elevation ranges from 3516 to 8237 m (Table 8.3).
In the region of changes in glacier’s cover or loss of glaciers, majority of slope in
that area is about 30° and aspect is southward with the elevation ranging from 3516
to 4500 m. These parameters are analyzed based on slope and aspect map showing
in Fig. 8.7 and Fig. 8.8, respectively, (Fig. 8.9).
In our study, glacial lakes also changed from 1992 to 2015 and shows the increase
in number of lakes. In 1992, numbers of glacial lakes were 169 and in 2015 number
of glacial lakes has increased to 261 (Table 8.4). The changes of glacier’s area and
formation of lakes can be seen from images of Lohnak glacier (Figs. 8.10 and 8.11)
in northwestern part of Sikkim.
Fig. 8.6 Glacier and lakes in Sikkim (2015). Source Landsat-8
Table 8.2 Glacier’s area and its changes from 1992 to 2015
Glaciers type Area (km2 ) Area loss from 1992 to 2015
1992 2015 Change (km2 ) Change (%)
Glacier (clean ice) 537.872 414.249 −123.623 22.98
Debris-covered glacier 83.252 69.125 −14.127 16.97
Total glacier 621.124 483.374 −137.75 22.18
Source Landsat TM and Landsat 8
According to Indian Meteorological department, minimum temperature in Sikkim

is rising at the rate of about 0.02 °C every year from last three decades. Because of
the temperature increase at this rate, it could be the possible reason for melting of
glacier that also has resulted in the increase of the area of glacial lakes.
Table 8.3 Topographic

Topographic parameters
parameters of glaciated area
Slope 27°
Aspect 158°
Minimum elevation 3516 m
Mean elevation 5384 m
Maximum elevation 8237 m
Source ASTER DEM
Fig. 8.7 Slope map of Sikkim. Source ASTER DEM
8.5 Conclusion
Remote sensing techniques have considerably improved the estimation of glacier’s

area change and also the identification of lakes in Sikkim. In this study semi-
automated and manual methods have been used to extract the glaciers cover for
the analysis of change. Glaciers in the Sikkim has been changed and decreased in its
area by approximately 22%, and the number of glacial lakes has been increased up
to 261 in 2015. Melting or shrinkage of glacier leads to unfolding of land and it also
affects biodiversity. Minimum temperature increasing from last three decades may
lead to disaster in the region by damaging property and life over a long distance on
its flow area as a result of glacial lakes outburst floods.
Fig. 8.8 Aspect map of Sikkim. Source ASTER DEM
Fig. 8.9 Glacier’s area calculated by different analysts. Source Landsat TM and Landsat 8
Table 8.4 Number of lakes

Year Number of lakes
in Sikkim
1992 169
2015 261
Source Landsat TM and Landsat 8
Fig. 8.10 Glacier outlines of Lohnak glacier for the year 1992 in black and 2015 in red with base
image of Landsat-TM5 of 1992. Source Landsat TM
Fig. 8.11 Glacier outlines of Lohnak glacier for the year 1992 in black and 2015 in red with base
image of Landsat-8 OLI/TIRS of 2015. Source Landsat 8
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Chapter 9
Quantitative Morphometric Analysis
of the Yerla River Basin, Deccan Trap
Region, India
Namdev V. Telore
Abstract The evaluation of basin from the drainage morphometric parameters helps
in understanding the physical behaviour of the catchments for various purposes.
Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS) techniques were used to
study quantitative morphometric analysis of the Yerla River basin of basaltic Deccan
Trap region, India. Morphometric analysis is carried out using Survey of India topo-
graphical maps in ArcGIS software. Thematic maps such as drainage map, stream
ordering map, contour map, elevation map, slope map, aspect map and digital ele-
vation model (DEM) are prepared. SRTM data of 90 m spatial resolution is used to
create DEM and ASTER data of 30 m spatial resolution is used to create longitudinal
profile of the catchment area. Various linear, relief and areal morphometric parame-
ters such as area, perimeter, stream order, stream length, stream number, bifurcation
ratio, drainage density, stream frequency, drainage texture, length of basin, form fac-
tor, circulatory ratio and elongation ratio are computed. The dendritic type drainage
network of the basin exhibits the homogeneity in texture and lack of structural con-
trol. The seventh order basin has low drainage density and poor stream frequency
indicates coarse drainage. The mean bifurcation ratio indicates a hilly dissected
basin. The form factor ratio and circularity ratio shows that the whole basin has
an elongated shape. The compactness coefficient value shows less hazardous basin.
Sinuosity indices value indicate transitional stage. Morphometric analysis helps to
understand the geo-hydrological characteristics of the watershed. It is inevitable in
development and management of drainage basin.
Keywords Drainage morphometry · Remote sensing · GIS · Yerla River Basin ·

Deccan traps · India
N. V. Telore (B)
Department of Geography, Raja Shripatrao Bhagawantrao Mahavidyalaya,
Aundh, Satara 415510, India
e-mail: nvtelore@gmail.com

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2097-6_9
116 N. V. Telore
9.1 Introduction
Morphometric analysis is widely used to assess the drainage characteristics of the

river basins for watershed management plans. Morphometry is the measurement
and mathematical analysis of the configuration of the Earth’s surface, shape and
dimensions of its landforms (Clarke 1966). In geomorphology, the development of a
landscape can be known by measuring morphometry of drainage and relief properties.
Horton (1945) is the pioneer worker who introduced the natural composition of
drainages which was further modified and developed by Strahler (1950), Schumm
(1956), Corley (1957), Scheidegger (1965), Woldenberg (1966), Morisawa (1968),
Shreve (1969), Ebisemiju (1979), Chorley et al. (1984) and others. Influence of
drainage morphometry is very significant in understanding the landform processes,
soil physical properties and erosional characteristics.
Morphometric analysis of various basins has been studied by many scientists using
conventional (Horton 1945; Smith 1950; Schumm 1956; Strahler 1956) and remote
sensing techniques (Oguchi 1997; Nag 1998; Vittala et al. 2004; Chopra et al. (2005);
Sreedevi et al. 2009; Saptarshi and Raghavendra 2009; Magesh et al. 2011; Agarwal
et al. 2012; Sarmah et al. 2012; Chandrashekar et al. 2015; Pande and Moharir 2017;
Sindhu et al. 2015; Rai et al. 2017; Malik and Shukla 2018; Suresh et al. 2018) stated
that remote sensing and GIS techniques are essential for morphometric analysis of
basins for watershed management. A comprehensive watershed management pro-
gramme may have multiple objectives such as controlling runoff and utilizing the
same for useful purposes, enhancing groundwater storage and appropriate use of the
land resources in the watershed (Sebastian et al. 1995).
The knowledge of local geomorphology is used for avoiding environmental degra-
dation, planning and management of watersheds. Bhatt and Ahmed (2014) used
Cartosat DEM to evaluate the morphometric analysis to study flood-prone areas of
upper Krishna basin. Morphometric knowledge is useful in watershed management
to reduce accelerated erosion and sedimentation in the catchment areas (Chadha
and Neupane 2011; Thomas et al. 2011). The basin characteristics are used in the
successful implementation of watershed management programmes (Rao et al. 2012;
Unde and Telore 2013; Singh et al. 2014). In the arid and semi-arid region, water-
shed management is extremely important to eradicate drinking and domestic water
scarcity (Tideman, 2007). Panhalkar and Jarag (2015) analyzed that IDW is an appro-
priate technique for river bathymetry generation in comparison to Kriging and Topo
to Raster techniques. Raju and Kumar (2001) classified micro watersheds based on
morphological characteristics and carried out comparative analysis of various clus-
tering techniques, which revealed that 13 micro watersheds out of 25 are commonly
suggested by KCA, FCA and KNN. Doke et al. (2018) studied characteristics of mor-
phogenetic regions of Maharashtra with reference to the climatic conditions prevailed
over a long time and processes operated in the region.
Prioritization of sub-watersheds based on morphometric analysis of drainage
basins using spatial information techniques was attempted by Nautiyal (1994),
Biswas et al. (1999), Javed et al. (2009), Mishra and Nagarajan (2010), Sethupathi
9 Quantitative Morphometric Analysis of the Yerla River … 117
et al. (2011), Kanth and Hassan (2012), Panhalkar et al. (2012), Cunha and Bacani
(2016) and Telore (2016). The use of free and open-source tools guarantees access
to everyone and its increasing popularization opens new development perspectives
in morphometric analysis and allied fields (Grohmann 2004; Manimozhi and Ren-
garajan 2007; Ahmed et al. 2010). Thus, detailed study of morphometric analysis of
a catchment is of great help in understanding the influence of drainage morphometry
of landforms and their characteristics.
9.2 Objective
To evaluate linear, areal and relief morphometric characteristics of the Yerla River
Basin, Deccan Traps, India.
9.3 Methodology
Topographical maps prepared by Survey of India on 1:50,000 scale are used to

generate the base map of the Yerla River basin. Morphometric analysis of a drainage
system requires delineation of all existing streams. The study area is delineated
using ArcGIS 10.5 software. All tributaries of different extents and pattern were
digitized from topographical sheets of 1:50,000 scale. Digitization work is carried
out for an entire analysis of drainage morphometry. Various thematic maps such as
drainage map, stream ordering map, contour map, elevation map, slope map, aspect
map and DEM are prepared. Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM) DEM data
of 90 m spatial resolution is used to create Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of the
Yerla watershed in ArcGIS 10.5, ERDAS IMAGINE 2015 software. Longitudinal
profile of the Yerla watershed is created using ASTER DEM data of 30 m spatial
resolution in Global Mapper v15.1 software. Ground realities are checked with the
help of handheld GPS during field visits. These parameters are measured from the
toposheets. The various linear, relief and areal morphometric parameters such as area,
perimeter, stream order, stream length, stream number, bifurcation ratio, drainage
density, stream frequency, drainage texture, length of basin, form factor, circulatory
ratio and elongation ratio are computed based on the formula suggested by (Horton
1945; Miller 1953; Schumm 1956; Strahler 1964) given in Table 9.1 and the results
are summarized in Tables 9.2 and 9.3.
9.4 Study Area
The Yerla River is the largest left-hand seventh order stream of the Krishna River
Basin in the Deccan Trap region (Fig. 9.1). The basin covers an area of 3067 km2
118 N. V. Telore
Table 9.1 Formulae for computation of linear, relief and areal morphometric parameters
Morphometric parameters Formula References
Stream order (U) Hierarchical order Strahler (1964)
Stream length (Lu) Length of the stream Horton (1945)
Mean stream length (Lsm) Lsm = Lu/Nu where Lu = Stream Horton (1945)
length of order ‘U’, Nu = Total
number of stream segments of order
‘U’
Stream length ratio (RL) RL = Lu/Lu – 1 where Lu = Total Horton (1945)
stream length of order ‘U’ Lu – 1 =
The total stream length of its next
lower order
Bifurcation ratio (Rb) Rb = Nu/Nu + 1 where Nu = Total Schumm (1956)
number of stream segment of order
‘U’; Nu + 1 = Number of segment of
next higher order
Drainage density (Dd) Dd = L/A where L = Total length of Horton (1945)
streams of all orders A = Area of the
basin (km2 )
Stream frequency (Fs) Fs = N/A where N = Total number of Horton (1945)
stream A = Areas of the basin (km2 )
Drainage texture (Rt) Rt = Nu/P where Nu = Total number Horton (1945)
of streams of all orders P = Perimeter
of the basin (km)
Circulatory ratio (Rc) Rc = 4πA/Lp2 Where A = Area of Miller (1953)
the basin Lp = Perimeter of the basin
Elongation ratio (Re) Re = (2 × (A/π)0.5 )/Lb where A = Schumm (1956)
Area of watershed, π = 3.14, Lb =
Basin length
Compactness coefficients (Cc) Cc = 0.2821 P/A0.5 A = areas of Horton (1945)
basin (km2 ), P = basin perimeter (km)
Basin relief (Bh) Vertical distance between the lowest Schumm (1956)
and highest points of watershed
Relief ratio (Rh) Rh = H/Lb where H = Total relief Schumm (1956)
(relative relief) of the basin in km; Lb
= Basin length
Length of overland flow (Lg) Lg = 1/Dd*2 where Dd = Drainage Horton (1945)
density
Chanel sinuosity Channel sinuosity = OL /EL where OL Schumm (1963)
= observed path of a stream; EL =
expected straight path of a stream
Table 9.2 Results of linear aspect of study area

Stream order Number of Stream Bifurcation Mean stream Stream
streams length (km) ratio length (km) length ratio
1 5987 4055.2262 4.2642 0.6773 0.3568
2 1404 1447.0295 4.6490 1.0306 0.5289
3 302 765.4509 4.6461 2.5346 0.5121
4 65 392.3704 3.8235 6.0364 0.3268
5 17 128.2608 3.4000 7.5447 0.7693
6 5 98.6800 5.0000 19.7360 0.6899
7 1 68.0795 – 68.0795 –
Total 7781 6955.0974
Table 9.3 Results of areal aspect of study area

Basin Basin Basin Form Circularity Elongation Drainage Stream
area length perimeter factor ratio ratio density frequency
(km/km2 ) (km) (km) (streams/km2 )
3067.89 108.55 340.38 0.26 0.33 0.57 2.15 2.53
of Mahadev Hill range of the Western Ghat and represents semi-arid condition. The
study area lies between latitudes of 16° 55 48 and 17° 52 44 N and longitudes of
74° 14 02 and 74° 45 00 E and receives 543.07 mm average annual orographic
rainfall. The Yerla River flows to the south about 139.58 km through Khatav Taluka
of Satara District and Kadepur, Khanapur, Tasgaon and part of Palus and Sangli
Taluka’s of Sangli District of Maharashtra State. The elevation of the watershed
ranges from 540 to 1058 m that represents 516 m of high relative relief (Fig. 9.2).
The drainage network is sub dendritic pattern. The study area is covered by compact,
fine grained, massive basaltic lavas of Upper Cretaceous to Lower Eocene age and
represents step like topography. The soils of the basin are residual, derived from the
underlying basalts. Natural vegetation represents the southern tropical dry deciduous
type.
9.5 Morphometric Analysis
9.5.1 Linear Aspects
Linear aspects that include stream order, stream length, mean stream length, stream
length ratio and bifurcation ratio were determined and results are given in Table 9.2.
120 N. V. Telore
Fig. 9.1 Location map
9.5.1.1 Stream Order (Nu)
Stream ordering is the first step of quantitative analysis of the basin. Horton (1945)
introduced a simple stream ordering system to describe the position of a stream in the
drainage network in terms of the number of tributaries received. The Horton’s stream
ordering method was further modified by Strahler (1952). Under the Strahler scheme
Fig. 9.2 Stream order map
all the fingertip tributaries are designated as first-order stream, two second-order
stream produces a third-order stream and so on. To determine the stream ordering
system of the Yerla watershed Strahler’s (1952) stream ordering system has been
used. The stream ordering map (Fig. 9.2) shows that the Yerla River basin is a
seventh-order stream. The number of streams (N) of each order (U) of the Yerla basin
is shown in Table 9.2. It has been observed that the maximum frequency indicates in
the first-order streams. It has also noticed that there is a decrease in stream frequency
as the stream order increases. The variation in order and size of the micro watersheds
is largely due to physiographic and structural conditions of the region.
9.5.1.2 Stream Number
The total order wise stream segments are known as stream number. Horton (1945)
stated that the number of stream segments of each order form an inverse geometric
122 N. V. Telore
sequence with stream order number. The basin contains total 7,781 streams in which
first-order streams are 5987 followed by second (1404), third (302), fourth (65), fifth
(17), sixth (5) and seventh (1) order streams. The strong negative correlation (−0.73)
is observed between stream order and number of streams in the study area (Table 9.2).
9.5.1.3 Stream Length (L)
Stream Length is the total length of streams of a particular order. The total stream
length of the Yerla River is 6955.09 km (Table 9.2). It reveals that the total stream
length 58.31% consist of the first-order streams. The percentage of the second, third,
fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh order streams stand at 20.80%, 11.01%, 5.64% 1.84%,
1.42% and 0.98%, respectively. The strong negative correlation (i.e. r = −0.82)
between stream order and total stream length suggests inverse geometric relationship
between these two parameters. Longer lengths of streams are generally indicative by
flatter gradient and coarse texture. Smaller lengths of streams are generally indicative
of larger slopes and finer texture.
9.5.1.4 Mean Stream Length
The mean stream length of the different order streams of the study area is presented
in Table 9.2. The orderwise mean stream length varies from 0.67 to 68.07 km. The
strong positive correlation coefficient (r = +0.77) between stream order and mean
stream length is observed. This strong positive correlation follows Horton’s Law of
stream length which expresses the length of stream of a given order in terms of stream
order and takes the form of a direct geometric series (Horton 1932).
9.5.1.5 Stream Length Ratio (RL)
The stream length ratio of the Yerla watershed is obtained after dividing the mean
stream length of the next higher order by the lower order stream. The stream length
ratio in the study area ranges between 0.32 and 0.76. It is observed that stream length
ratio increases as the order of the stream increases. The stream length ratio of different
orders of the study area is presented in Table 9.2.
9.5.1.6 Bifurcation Ratio (Rb)
Horton (1945) defined the bifurcation ratio as the ratio between the number of streams
of any given order to the number in the next lower order. Table 9.2 contains the
bifurcation ratio of the different order streams in the watershed which shows that
it has a constant nature and ranges between 3.40 and 5. Higher bifurcation ratio
indicates some sort of geological control and lower bifurcation ratio suggests that
structure does not exercise a dominant influence on the drainage pattern. The mean
is presented in Table 9.2. Bifurcation ratio of the area is 4.29 which indicates it is a
hilly dissected basin.
9.5.1.7 Sinuosity Indices
Sinuosity of a stream denotes the degree of deviation of its actual path from expected
theoretical straight path. The shape of the open link in terms of geometric structure
of drainage line involves the calculation of deviation of observed path (OL ) from
the expected path—almost a straight line (EL ) of a river from the source to the
mouth (Schumm 1963). Sinuosity indices of the study area are 1.30 which indicates
transitional stage.
9.5.2 Relief Aspects
Strahler (1969) stated that relief measures are indicative of the potential energy of
the drainage system because of its elevation above the mean sea level. Absolute relief
of the Yerla watershed is 1058 m. Relative relief of the area is 516 m that indicates
high relative relief, which is well illustrated in DEM in Fig. 9.3. The watershed is
characterized by an undulating topography with an average slope of about 0.47%.
Slope map (Fig. 9.4) illustrated that all the margins of plateau have greater slope
between 29.04 and 54.86° and plateau surface remaining from 0 to 7.53°. Slope is
decreasing from source to outlet region of the study area. Steep slope is observed in
the source region of mainstream and tributaries—Nani River and Kapur Nala. The
direction of the slope on the entire relief of the study area is illustrated in aspect map
(Fig. 9.5). The Yerla River flows north to south direction. The orientation of streams
is mostly east to west and west to east observed on the valley sections. In the upper
part, eastern streams flow towards west and southwest direction and western streams
flows towards northeast and east direction. Same pattern is found in the Nani river
which is a biggest western stream of the River Yerla. In the middle portion, eastern
streams are approaching towards north and northwest direction. In the lower eastern
part in Kapur, Nala streams are approaching towards south and southwest direction
and in the western part streams are approaching towards east direction (Fig. 9.5 and
Table 9.3).
9.5.2.1 Relief Ratio (Rh)
The relief ratio of mainstream relief to horizontal distance along the largest dimension
of the basin parallel to the principal drainage line is termed as relief ratio (Schumm
1956) (Table 9.1 and Fig. 9.3). He observed direct relationship between the relief and
channel gradient. There is also a correlation between hydrological characteristics and
124 N. V. Telore
Fig. 9.3 Digital elevation model
the relief ratio of a drainage basin. The relief ratio normally increases with decreasing
drainage area and size of basin of a given drainage basin. The value of the relief ratio
of the study area is 520 m.
9.5.2.2 Profile Analysis
River profile is of great assistance to analyze relief and surface of terrain. The profile
shows altitude against distance downstream. Longitudinal profile or valley thalweg
gives a vivid picture of breaks in longitudinal course of the river. Longitudinal profile
of the area is created using ASTER DEM data of 30 m spatial resolution in Global
Mapper software and is shown in Fig. 9.6. Relative relief of the basin is 542 m and
total length of river is 139.58 km. Longitudinal profile of the river is ideal. It is
having concave shape in the upper portion near the source at Mol, then progressively
Fig. 9.4 Slope map
less gradient as the mouth is approached at Bramhanal i.e. Yerla—Krishna River

confluence.
9.5.3 Areal Aspects
9.5.3.1 Drainage Area (A)
The drainage area of a watershed is the surface area located within the watershed basin
boundary. The size of a drainage area has a significant impact on watershed manage-
ment structures. Drainage area of the seventh order Yerla watershed is 3067.89 km2
(Table 9.3). It is observed that mean areal extent of the drainage basin increases as
the order of stream increases.
126 N. V. Telore
Fig. 9.5 Aspect map
Fig. 9.6 Longitudinal

profile
9.5.3.2 Basin Perimeter
The basin perimeter of the drainage basin is 340.38 km (Table 9.3). Generally,
both drainage parameters, stream order and basin perimeter are strong positively
correlated. Perimeter of the Yerla River increases as the order of the basin increases.
9.5.3.3 Basin Length
Maximum length between drainage basin reach and mouth has been considered as
basin length. Table 9.3 shows that basin length of the study area is 108.55 km. It is
observed that basin length increases as stream order increases.
9.5.3.4 Drainage Density (Dd)
Drainage density is the sum of stream lengths per unit area (Horton 1945). It expresses
the closeness of spacing of stream channels. Density factor is related to climate, type
of rocks, relief, infiltration capacity, vegetation cover, surface roughness and runoff
intensity index. The amount and type of precipitation directly influences the quantity
and characters of surface run-off. Kale and Gupta (2010) stated that semi-arid regions
have a finer density texture than humid regions. The drainage density of this semi-arid
region is calculated using formula given in Table 9.1 and found low i.e. 2.15 km/km2
(Table 9.3) indicating coarse drainage texture. Low drainage density of study area
indicates highly resistant or permeable subsoil material and low relief (Smith 1950).
9.5.3.5 Stream Frequency (Fs)
Stream or channel frequency is the total number of streams per unit area (Horton
1945). Scheidegger (1961) has suggested that stream frequency is related to drainage
density. The number of streams in a drainage basin also depends on superficial mate-
rial, amount of runoff, vegetation and topographic slope. All of which contribute in
geomorphic character of the area. The drainage density of the area is 2.53 streams/km2
which indicates poor stream frequency (Table 9.3).
9.5.3.6 Drainage Texture (T)
Thornbury (1969) defined drainage texture as the relative spacing of drainage lines.
Drainage texture includes the drainage density and stream frequency (Horton 1945).
Rock type is an important control on the drainage texture and density. In areas
underlain by resistant and hard rock such as basalt the drainage is coarse textured.
The drainage density values of the Yerla watershed are 2.15 km/km2 indicating coarse
drainage texture (Table 9.3 and Fig. 9.2). This is due to the fact that erosion in such
rocks is difficult and all the streams require a large area to maintain a channel of
given length. Therefore, the constant channel maintenance is high and density is low
(Kale and Gupta 2010).
128 N. V. Telore
9.5.3.7 Circularity Ratio (Rc)
The circularity ratio has been used as an areal aspect and is expressed as the ratio
of basin area of a circle having the same perimeter as the basin (Strahler 1964).
Circularity ratio values approaching one indicate that the basin shapes are like circular
and as a result, it gets scope for uniform infiltration and takes longer time to reach
excess water at basin outlet. It is affected by geology, slope and land cover. The ratio
is more influenced by length, stream frequency and gradient of various orders rather
than slope conditions and drainage pattern of the basin. Basin shape determines how
rapidly the runoff will reach the main river as well as the outlet. For elongated basins
the runoff reaches slowly in the arrival of flow after heavy rains. Studies by Hack
(1957) indicate that as the basins enlarge, the stream length increases and the basins
become narrower and longer. Therefore, a majority of rivers have elongated basins.
Miller (1953) has described the basin of the circularity ratios which have a range
of 0.4–0.7, which indicates strongly elongated and highly permeable homogenous
geologic materials. The circularity ratio of the whole Yerla watershed is 0.33 which
indicates elongated shape and highly permeable homogenous geologic condition
(Table 9.3).
9.5.3.8 Form Factor (Ff)
Form factor is defined as the ratio of basin area to the square of the basin length
(Horton 1945). The values of form factor would always be less than 0.78 (perfectly
for a circular basin). Smaller the value of Ff means more elongated will be the basin.
The form factor ratio of the study area is 0.26 which indicates that the whole basin
has an elongated shape (Table 9.3).
9.5.3.9 Compactness Coefficient (Cc)
Compactness coefficient is used to express the relationship of a hydrologic basin with

that of a circular basin having the same area as the hydrological basin. A circular
basin is the most hazardous from a drainage standpoint because it will yield the
shortest time of concentration before peak flow occurs in the basin. In the study
area, value of compactness coefficient is 1.34 which indicates less hazardous basin
(Table 9.3).
9.5.3.10 Elongation Ratio (Re)
Schumm (1956) defined elongation ratio as the ratio between the diameter of the circle
of the same area as the drainage basin and the maximum length of the basin. Analysis
of elongation ratio indicates that the areas with higher elongation ratio values have
high infiltration capacity and low runoff. Circular basins are more efficient in the
discharge of runoff than elongated basins. The values of elongation ratio generally
vary from 0.6 to 1.0 over a wide variety of climate and geologic types. Elongation ratio
values close to 1.0 are typically of regions of very low relief, whereas elongation
ratio values in the range 0.6–0.8 are usually associated with high relief and steep
ground slope (Strahler 1964). Elongation ratio of the area is 0.57 which shows that
the catchment falls in the less elongated category and showing high relief and steep
ground slope (Table 9.3).
9.5.3.11 Length of Overland Flow (Lo)
It is the length of water over the ground before it gets concentrated into the define
stream channels (Horton 1945). This factor basically relates inversely to the average
slope of the channel and is quite synonymous with the length of sheet flow to a large
degree. The length of overland flow approximately is equal to half of the reciprocal
of drainage density (Horton 1945). The length of the overland flow of the study area
is 2.23 km.
9.6 Conclusion
The dendritic type drainage network of the Yerla River basin, Deccan Trap region,
exhibits the homogeneity in texture and lack of structural control. The seventh order
basin has coarse drainage density and poor stream frequency. The mean bifurcation
ratio of the area is 4.29 which indicates it is a hilly dissected basin. The form factor
ratio and circularity ratio of the area is 0.26 and 0.33 which indicates that the whole
basin has an elongated shape. The compactness coefficient value is 1.34 which shows
less hazardous basin. Average slope of the area is 0.47%. Sinuosity indices are
1.30 which indicates transitional stage. The drainage density and channel frequency
values of this semi-arid region are low i.e. 2.15 km/km2 and 2.53 streams/km2 which
indicates coarse drainage texture and poor stream frequency. Longitudinal profile
of the river is ideal. The results of this analysis would be useful in determining the
effect of catchment characteristics such as size, shape, slope of the catchment and
distribution of stream network within the catchment. The quantitative analysis of
linear, relief and aerial parameters is found to be of immense utility in river basin
evaluation for natural resource management.
Acknowledgements The author gratefully acknowledges the University Grants Commission, Gov-
ernment of India, New Delhi for providing Teacher Fellowship vide file no. F. No. 36-03/12 (WRO).
Thanks to Professor Dr. Maya G. Unde, Department of Geography, Ahmednagar College, Ahmed-
nagar for critical assessment of the work and anonymous reviewers and Editor-in-Chief for their
many helpful suggestions.
130 N. V. Telore
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Chapter 10
Analysing the Capability of NCI
Technique in Change Detection Using
High- and Medium-Resolution
Multispectral Data
Subhanil Guha, Himanshu Govil, Anindita Dey and Neetu Gill
Abstract In the present research work, neighbourhood correlation image (NCI)

analysis technique was applied for identifying the changed and unchanged pixels
in land use/land cover system in a small part of Dehradun city, India. Correlation
image, slope image, and intercept image in the neighbourhood of a particular pixel for
any two multi-temporal data sets provide significant information regarding changed
pixels. The fundamental concept indicates a high correlation in the unchanged pixels
and a low correlation in the changed pixels for same windows of two multi-date
images. Various rectangular neighbourhood pixel windows (3 × 3, 5 × 5, 7 × 7, and
9 × 9) were used for NCI application. Results show that NCI analysis technique was
almost equally effective for raw data or radiometric normalized data. Furthermore,
the NCI technique becomes more effective in higher resolution with small pixel
window size.
Keywords IKONOS · Multi-temporal · Neighbourhood correlation image (NCI) ·

Pixel window · Resolution
S. Guha (B) · H. Govil

Department of Applied Geology, National Institute of Technology Raipur, Raipur, India
e-mail: subhanilguha@gmail.com
H. Govil
e-mail: himgeo@gmail.com
A. Dey
Department of Geography, Nazrul Balika Vidyalaya, Guma, West Bengal, India
e-mail: anindita.geo@gmail.com
N. Gill
Chhattisgarh Council of Science and Technology, Raipur, India
e-mail: gill.scorpio@gmail.com

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2097-6_10
134 S. Guha et al.
10.1 Introduction
Change in land use and land cover of any urban area is a dynamic process because
of rapid urbanization and immigration processes. Outskirts of city area can be con-
sidered as the most rapidly changed landscapes inside an urban area. Most of the
observed land conversions are from other lands into built-up areas and agricultural
land due to the necessity of residential space and occupational requirements. Land
cover change is a dynamic phenomenon. A single type of land cover always tends
to be changed. So, detection of the change in land use is a very important task in
the present-day situation (Ridd and Liu 1998; Lunetta and Elvidge 2000). It is a
process used to identify the differences in a natural or geographic feature within a
definite time period (Singh 1989). The major goals of change detection are to detect
the geographical area where the changes have occurred, to identify the changed land
cover type and to calculate a number of changes occurred. Change enhancement
methods and ‘from-to’ change information extraction methods can be considered
as two major groups of change detection method (Jensen et al. 1993; Johnson and
Kasischke 1998; Chan et al. 2001; Lu et al. 2004); Im and Jensen 2005). Gener-
ally, change enhancement methods (image ratioing, image differencing, principal
component analysis, vegetation indices, etc.) give valuable information of spectral
change and can estimate the amount of the change. Conversely, ‘from-to’ change
information extraction methods (hybrid change detection, change vector analysis,
post-classification comparison, etc.) impart pixel-based minute information about
the categories of land cover change (Im and Jensen 2005).
Recently, some new approaches for change detection were discussed (Jensen
2005; Atkinson et al. 2012; Farooq and Govil 2013). A new change detection model
was introduced for continuous land cover change detection on Landsat data (Zhu
and Woodcock 2014). Traditional pixel-based change detection techniques and their
comparison with the new object-based techniques were discussed by Hussaain et al.
(2013). Tewkesbury et al. (2015) assessed the advantages and disadvantages of seven
analysis units and six comparison methods within a change detection workflow. A
new comprehensive change detection method (CCDM) was presented by Jin et al.
(2013) for updating and monitoring the national land cover change. A generalized
statistical model to solve binary change detection problems in multispectral satel-
lite images with high radiometric resolution was proposed by Zanetti and Bruzzone
(2016). Hao et al. (2015) proposed an unsupervised change detection approach using
different trade-off parameters of an active contour model to reduce the effect of the
parameters. A new super-resolution change detection method (SRCD) was explained
for identifying changes in land cover at both high spatial and temporal resolutions (Li
et al. 2016). Another new change detection method with higher accuracy in remote
sensing technology based on a conditional random field was proposed (Cao et al.
2016). A completely new graph-based algorithm was evaluated by Vakalopoulou et al.
(2016). Recently, robust change vector analysis (RCVA) technique with pixel neigh-
bourhood effect was introduced, which is considered as an improvement over the
conventional change vector analysis method (Thonfeld et al. 2016).
10 Analysing the Capability of NCI Technique in Change Detection … 135
A number of studies were conducted on land cover change particularly in an

urban area. Multi-temporal remote sensing images have been used to evaluate land
cover changes in the Beijing metropolitan region (He et al. 2006; Zhang et al. 2002).
Liu and Zhou (2005) worked on the future prediction of urban expansion. Jensen
et al. (2005) evaluated CoastWatch change detection protocol in South Carolina.
Various approaches were adopted by the researchers to carry out pixel-based change
detection (Congalton 1991; Gong 1993; Jensen 2005; Ritter et al. 1990; Stauffer
and McKinney 1978; Weismiller et al. 1977; Xiuwan 2002). Moreover, it was exam-
ined that in change detection analysis, pixel-based techniques are more suitable
for low- or moderate-resolution image while object-oriented techniques are useful
for high-resolution data (Niemeyer and Canty 2003). Four separate algorithms were
analysed in bi-temporal space for detecting changes (Liu et al. 2004). Im et al. (2008)
used image segmentation method and correlation image analysis method together to
generate object-based change detection.
A sophisticated methodology was introduced based on neighbourhood image
analysis and decision tree classification to identify the urban land use change using
high-resolution data of Edisto Beach near Charleston with very good accuracy (Im
and Jensen 2005). Here this new technique was generated on circular windows with
1, 2, 3, 4, and 5-pixel radius. Im et al. developed intelligent knowledge-based systems
and discussed it with neighbourhood image analysis technique for detecting changes
(Im et al. 2005). A threshold-based calibration approach was successfully evaluated in
an automated binary change detection model using high-resolution QuickBird satel-
lite image. Neighbourhood correlation images, object correlation images, multi-band
difference images, and multi-band ratio images were used as single and multiple vari-
ables in this study (Im et al. 2007). Four optimum threshold search change detection
algorithms were compared using neighbourhood correlation image, neighbourhood
slope image, neighbourhood intercept image, and change vector magnitude image on
IKONOS and QuickBird data (Im et al. 2008). The present study was concentrated
on optimization and applicability of NCI technique on rectangular pixel windows
with four different sizes (e.g. 3 × 3, 5 × 5, 7 × 7, and 9 × 9) using IKONOS data for
detecting the change in urban area and validation of this technique in Indian context.
10.2 Methodology
10.2.1 Study Area and Pre-processing of Satellite Data
A small part of Dehradun city, Uttarakhand, India was selected for the present
research work. For administrative, commercial, and residential purposes, the land
use system of the city is continuously changing. It should be considered as a repre-
sentative of a developing urban environment. For the purpose of the present research,
multi-temporal data of near anniversary dates were required to keep the seasonal
variation in atmospheric condition at the minimum level. IKONOS panchromatic
136 S. Guha et al.
(PAN) data with 1 m resolution and multispectral (MSS) data with 4 m resolution for
4 November 2002 and 7 November 2005 (Source: Indian Institute of Remote sensing,
Dehradun, India) were used in the present work (Fig. 10.1).
Several approaches were applied in the study to examine the suitability of NCI
technique in detecting changes in land use. Raw image, calibrated image, and radio-
metric normalized image were used in both MSS and fused (PAN and MSS) mode.
2005 image was normalized with respect to 2002 image which was used as the ref-
erence image of the entire study. The capability of NCI technique was thoroughly
examined through the following two different approaches (Fig. 10.2):
Fig. 10.1 Location of the study area (Source DigitalGlobe)

Fig. 10.2 Flow chart of methodology
1. NCI on radiometric calibrated and PIF-based radiometric normalized MSS

image, and
2. NCI on radiometric calibrated and PIF-based radiometric normalized fused
image.
10.2.2 Algorithm Description
In NCI technique, correlation, slope, and intercept images are generated to derive the
information regarding land use/land cover change. The basic concept of this model
is that the same pixel window should be highly correlated if the land cover remains
unchanged and less correlated if the land cover is changed. The correlated multiple
data sets provide information about the changed area. Slope image and intercept
image also help to delineate the change information.
The following equations were used to determine correlation, slope, and intercept
image:
138 S. Guha et al.
cov12
r= (10.1)
s1 s2

n
(BVi1 − μ1 )(BVi2 − μ2 )
i=1
cov12 = (10.2)
n−1
cov12
a= (10.3)
s12

n
n
BVi2 − a BVi1
i=1 i=1
b= (10.4)
n
where r is the Pearson correlation coefficient; cov12 is the covariance between bright-
ness values found in all bands of images 1 and 2 in the neighbourhood; s1 and s2 are
the standard deviations of the brightness values found in all bands of images 1 and
2 in the neighbourhood; BV i1 , BV i2 are the brightness values of the ith pixel in all
bands of images 1 and 2, respectively; n is the total number of pixel in the neighbour-
hood; and μ1 and μ2 are the mean of the brightness values in the neighbourhood in
images 1 and 2, respectively.
10.2.3 Calibration and Radiometric Normalization

of IKONOS Data
Radiometric calibration method was applied on both MSS and fused data by the
conversion from DN to planetary reflectance is necessary (Table 10.1).
The formula of IKONOS spectral radiance is
104 .D Nλ
Lλ = (10.5)
CalCoe f λ .Bandwidth λ
Table 10.1 Spectral radiance

Band CalCoefk Bandwidth (nm)
of IKONOS data
DN*[mW/cm−2 –sr]−1
PAN 161 403
MS-1(Blue) 728 71.3
MS-2(Green) 727 88.6
MS-3(Red) 949 65.8
MS-4(NIR) 843 95.4
(Data source IKONOS Planetary Reflectance and Me an Solar
Exoatmospheric Irradiance, by Martin Taylor)
For radiometric normalization of MSS and fused image of 2005 with respect to
2002 image, pseudo-invariant features method was used (Schott et al. 1988). It is
an excellent and popular method to produce a normalized image with respect to the
reference image.
10.2.4 Neighbourhood Configuration and NCI Generation
In general, the NCI technique was applied on the geometrically and radiometrically
corrected IKONOS PAN and MSS image. Both the data sets were co-registered with
<0.5 RMSE and radiometrically normalized using pseudo-invariant features (PIF)
method in order to overcome the atmospheric effects that cause the apparent change
in the imagery. Rectangular windows (3 × 3, 5 × 5, 7 × 7, and 9 × 9) were selected
for neighbourhood configuration and generation of NCIs because they have more
accurate information than a circular window.
10.3.1 NCI Value for Different Approaches
The correlation, slope, and intercept images were computed on 3 × 3, 5 × 5, 7 ×

7, and 9 × 9 pixel window sizes for different sets of data. For both the approaches,
a separate range of NCI value was obtained. In order to select the best approach,
further comparative analyses were done on these NCI values.
In approach-1, NCI technique was applied on MSS IKONOS data. After radio-
metric calibration, the image was radiometrically normalized by pseudo-invariant
features method (Fig. 10.3).
For 3 × 3 pixel window size, the range of correlation value lies between 0.99
and −0.99, which refers to almost perfect correlation. The range of correlation value
(0.99 to −0.94) remains same for 5 × 5 and 7 × 7 windows. But 9 × 9 window has
a lower correlation value (0.98 to −0.77). The correlation images for MSS data have
been shown in Fig. 10.4.
After examining the MSS data, NCIs were also generated for fused IKONOS data.
In approach-2, pseudo-invariant features-based normalization method was applied
on calibrated fused IKONOS data (Fig. 10.5).
For the fused image, spatial resolution was increased from 4 m to 1 m by integrating
the panchromatic image with the multispectral image. For 3 × 3 pixel window size,
the range of correlation value presents exactly perfect correlation (+1 to −1). The
correlation range was close to perfect (0.99 to −0.96) for 5 × 5 and 7 × 7 windows.
Moreover, the 9 × 9 window also indicates strong (0.99 to −0.93) correlation. The
correlation images for fused data have been shown in Fig. 10.6.
140 S. Guha et al.
Fig. 10.3 Band-wise regression analysis of pseudo-invariant features of MSS data (Source
DigitalGlobe)
Fig. 10.4 NCIs on MSS data for various pixel windows (Source DigitalGlobe)
Fig. 10.5 Band-wise regression analysis of pseudo-invariant features of fused data (Source
DigitalGlobe)
Fig. 10.6 NCIs on fused data for various pixel windows (Source DigitalGlobe)
142 S. Guha et al.
10.3.2 Comparison Between Different Approaches for NCI

Output
It was really a tough task to select the best approach for NCI analysis technique. It is
undoubtedly encouraging that both the examined approaches have given almost same
output. So, NCI technique should be considered as a robust technique specifically
for urban change detection using high-resolution data.
NCI values are considerably changing due to the change in the pixel window size.
The result is reflected in both the approaches. The fused image always provides better
correlation than MSS image. In approach-1, MSS image has given a very high range
of NCI value (0.99 to −0.99) for 3 × 3 pixel window size. This range is very close
to the perfect correlation of two variables. This range has been gradually decreased
with the increased window size. For 5 × 5 and 7 × 7 windows, the range (0.99 to −
0.94) is exactly equal. But the range (0.98 to −0.77) is quite low for larger window
size (9 × 9 pixel window size). Approach-2 also presents the same characteristics
for the fused image. Fused image shows a range of exactly perfect correlation (+1 to
−1) for 3 × 3 pixel window sizes. The range has changed for other window sizes but
the difference is too insignificant. 5 × 5 and 7 × 7 window sizes depict same range
of correlation value (0.99 to −0.96). Even 9 × 9 pixel window indicates a range of
very strong correlation (0.99 to −0.93). In 3 × 3 pixel window, the average NCI
values of changed and unchanged zones are −0.65 and 0.89 for MSS data while the
corresponding values for fused data are −0.94 and 0.97. Thus, it is established that
finer spatial resolution achieves much better result than the coarser one. It is also
proven from the correlation image that any small geographical area like 3 × 3 pixel
window always provides the best correlation.
A zonal statistics method has also been considered for the evaluation of this
NCI technique. 40 sample zones have been randomly selected from the changed
and unchanged areas of the MSS and fused image. For change zones, the average
minimum NCI values for 3 × 3, 5 × 5, 7 × 7, and 9 × 9 pixel windows are −
0.65, −0.28, −0.28, and −0.07, respectively. The 3 × 3 window shows the lowest
average minimum value and establishes the best output. Again for unchanged zones,
the average maximum NCI values are 0.89, 0.71, 0.71, and 0.66 for 3 × 3, 5 × 5,
7 × 7, and 9 × 9 pixel windows, respectively. The results indicate the proportional
relationship of low window size with high correlation value. The smaller geographical
area was more appropriate for NCI generation than the larger one. 3 × 3 pixel window
size presents the most significant result compared to the others (Fig. 10.7).
For changed zones on fused image, the average minimum NCI values for 3 ×
3, 5 × 5, 7 × 7, and 9 × 9 pixel windows are −0.94, −0.63, −0.63, and −0.51,
respectively. In the case of unchanged zones, the average maximum NCI values are
0.97, 0.72, 0.72, and 0.60, for 3 × 3, 5 × 5, 7 × 7, and 9 × 9 pixel windows,
respectively, indicating the strong inversely proportional relationship between pixel
window size and correlation value. Being the smallest unit area, 3 × 3 pixel window
size produced best NCI output (Fig. 10.7).
Fig. 10.7 Change and no-change zone graphs based on NCIs with various pixel windows for fused
and MSS data (Source DigitalGlobe)
Figure 10.7 reflects a very close comparison between MSS data and fused data for
all the used neighbourhood rectangular pixel windows based on the zonal statistics
of change and no-change zones. The NCI values are inversely correlated to the pixel
window size, i.e. small window size always has better correlation than large windows.
3 × 3 pixel window presents the best output.
Only 3 × 3 rectangular pixel window is considered for the evaluation of generated
NCI values on MSS data and fused data (Fig. 10.8). From the zonal statistics graphs
for change and no-change zones, it is clear that fused data always produce slightly
better output though the difference is too negligible.
Lastly, it can be considered that NCI technique is more or less equally beneficial
for raw MSS or fused image. A raw image can also provide almost same output
like calibrated or normalized image. Here, NCI values were also examined with raw
image and there were no differences between the raw image and the processed image.
The average minimum and maximum NCI values were exactly same for the raw and
the processed image. Apart from the correlation image, slope and intercept image
individually may also act as an associated image in change detection analysis.
144 S. Guha et al.
Fig. 10.8 Change and no-change zone graphs in 3 × 3 pixel window for comparing fused and MSS
data (Source DigitalGlobe)
10.3.3 Visual Interpretation for Change and No-Change

Zones on NCI
The correlation image is very helpful for the visual interpretation of change detec-
tion. In the correlation image, the bluish and the reddish pixels (i.e. higher correlation
values) present the high positive and negative values, respectively. These high corre-
lation values normally show the unchanged area. But the yellowish and the greenish
pixels (i.e. lower correlation values) of the correlation image generally tend to be
changed. If the slope and intercept images are considered, the picture will be just
reverse. In that case, the high and low values of the intercept and slope images indi-
cate the changed areas while unchanged areas are presented with moderate values.
But the results may be different due to various reasons. Being an urban area, the land
use features are heterogeneous in nature. Two different categories of land may have
the same brightness value. So, it would be very difficult to identify and distinguish
those features. For example, in the present study, some pixels of barren land and
built-up area had almost same reflectance value. It really affects the change detection
process. Here, mainly roads and water bodies remain almost unchanged and they
are represented by high correlation value. Some forests and agricultural lands have
also been changed to some extent and are represented by moderate correlation value
(close to ‘0’ value). The presence of shadow and moisture may also create some
problems to distinguish the changed pixels from the unchanged, especially for small
neighbourhood sizes. A large neighbourhood like 9 × 9 pixel window may identify
the major land use conversions (e.g. deforestation). But a small neighbourhood like
3 × 3 pixel window size may detect the detailed minor changes in land use (e.g. an
extension of a building) only based on the brightness value.
Visually it is very clear from Fig. 10.9 that NCI provides an excellent result with
respect to raw or radiometrically corrected MSS or fused images to identify the
change and no-change area. Apart from the correlation image, slope and intercept
Fig. 10.9 Visual identification of changed/unchanged pixels on NCIs (Source DigitalGlobe)
images also play a very significant role in the identification of changed zone which
is vividly identifiable from the greyscale image (Fig. 10.9). It is not necessary that
high correlation value should always show the unchanged zone. If there is some
confusion arises on the correlation image, slope and intercept images help a lot in
change detection analysis. For the slope and intercept images, pixels with moderate
brightness values remain unchanged or less changed while the brighter or darker
pixels indicated the changed area.
10.4 Conclusion
From the final results and analysis of the research, it can be concluded that the NCI
analysis technique is very much suitable and may be considered as one of the best
techniques for change detection in an urban area using high-resolution remotely
sensed data. Even, without radiometric calibration or normalization, NCI can show
a very good result. Moreover, NCI technique provides a better output for a relatively
small area and higher spatial resolution. From the research work, 3 × 3 mask size can
be considered as the best mask size for evaluating NCI for detecting the change in the
urban area. Fused data also provide a better result than the MSS data in generating
146 S. Guha et al.
NCI. Finally, it may be concluded that NCI technique can play a very significant role
through quick assessment of the suddenly damaged portion of the earth surface.
The study does not consider the NCI for different satellite sensors. So, one can
also study the NCI to determine the upper limit of the optimal coarser resolution for
NCI technique. The NCI can also be tested through different radiometric resolution
(e.g. MODIS, AVHRR, Landsat 8) and different spectral resolution (e.g. MODIS,
ASTER, Landsat 8).
Acknowledgements The authors are indebted to Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, Dehradun,
India.
Disclosure statement No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
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Chapter 11
Comparative Analysis of Multi-temporal
Drought Indices Using Monthly
Precipitation Data: A Study
in the Southwestern Part of West Bengal,
India
Pradip Patra
Abstract Drought is considered as one of the most important natural hazards of

regional character. Although drought has different dimensions, its effects vary across
different sectors. Its immediate impact is felt in agricultural sector, and the coun-
tries which have less irrigation facility usually face acute problems due to this phe-
nomenon. The southwestern part of West Bengal is also considered as one of the
drought-prone regions of India due to its complex climatic and physiographical char-
acteristics. Thus, in this study, an attempt has been initiated to examine the drought
condition of the region using multi-temporal drought indices including Standardized
Precipitation Index (SPI), Rainfall Anomaly Index (RAI), and Effective Drought
Index (EDI), and to find out the best drought index. 113 years (1901–2013) of mean
monthly precipitation data recorded by India Meteorological Department (IMD) has
been used for the purpose. Correlation matrix (Karl Pearson) shows that EDI is
the best drought index with the highest correlation value (R2 ≥ 0.72) among the
drought indices with different time steps, while SPI3 is the best suited meteorolog-
ical drought index, having a higher correlation value (R2 ≥ 0.95) with 3 months of
the time steps, and medium correlation value (R2 ≥ 0.56) among all the time steps.
Therefore, SPI3 has been used to analyze an individual drought event quantitatively
in each district of the region, and on the basis of the parameters like Drought Duration
(DD), Drought Magnitude (DM), and Drought Intensity (DI), three equal climatic
periods have been classified (1901–1937, 1938–1975, and 1976–2013) to find out
whether the drought events have increased or not. The highest drought frequency has
been recorded in Purulia and Paschim Medinipur districts, while DD and DM are
the highest in Birbhum district.
Keywords Drought indices · SPI · RAI · EDI · Drought events
P. Patra (B)
Department of Geography, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, India
e-mail: patrapradip1990@gmail.com

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2097-6_11
150 P. Patra
11.1 Introduction
Drought is a period of drying up of normal conditions and generally occurs when an

area receives considerably less precipitation compared to the normal one. Drought
is a slow onset, progress, and ending phenomena. It is the result of many factors,
and accordingly, it can be classified into four categories like meteorological, hydro-
logical, agricultural, and socio-economic (Palmer 1965; Wilhite and Glantz 1985;
White and Walcott 2009). Defining and monitoring of drought are big challenges.
So, preparedness for drought planning and its monitoring depend on the availabil-
ity of spatio-temporal data from various sources, like meteorological, hydrological,
vegetation information, etc.
Various drought indices have been propounded by different scholars, like Palmer’s
Drought Severity Index, PDSI; Palmer Hydrological Index, PDHI (Palmer 1965);
Rainfall Anomaly Index, RAI (Van-Rooy 1965; Gibbs and Maher 1967); Crop
Moisture Index, CMI (Palmer 1967); Surface Water Supply Index, SWSI (Shafer
and Dezman 1982); Vegetation Condition Index, VCI (Kogan 1990); Standardized
Precipitation Index, SPI (McKee et al. 1993); Temperature Condition Index, TCI;
Vegetation Health Index, VHI (Kogan 1995); Normalized Difference Water Index,
NDWI (Gao 1996); Effective Drought Index, EDI (Byun and Wilhite 1999); Recon-
naissance Drought Index, RDI (Tsakiris et al. 2007); Temperature Dryness Vegetation
Index, TVDI (Keshavarz et al. 2014; Wan et al. 2004); and Standardized Precipitation
Evapotranspiration Index, SPEI (Vicente–Serrano et al. 2010).
Most of the drought indices have regional features and are applicable for a partic-
ular region only, e.g., RDDI (Gibbs and Maher 1967) used in Australia, PDI (Palmer
1967) widely used in USA, China Z-Indices (Wu et al. 2001) used by China Mete-
orological Society, Aridity Index by India Meteorological Organization (IMD), etc.
Before SPI and EDI, PDSI was widely used by various researchers. But due to the
lack of various climatic data, researchers often give importance to Drought Index
(DI) which can be calculated using one climatic parameter, e.g., precipitation, and
researchers have found that rainfall-based DIs are not only capable to detect meteo-
rological drought, but it is also useful for detection of other kinds of droughts (Akbari
et al. 2015; Rahiz and New 2014). After SPI (McKee et al. 1993), it has been widely
used, especially since its recognition by WMO (Svoboda et al. 2012). Nowadays,
EDI (Byun and Wilhite 1999) is also used by researchers as it gives emphasis on
precipitation effectiveness. Most of the researchers are now use to calculate multiple
Drought Indices (DIs), because it will help to find the characteristics of drought in
different time periods, examine the sensitivity and accuracy of DIs, and make correla-
tion among DIs so as to help us finding out the suitable DIs applicable for a particular
area (Haied et al. 2017; Halwatura et al. 2016; Joetzjer, et al. 2013; Le et al. 2016;
Khalili et al. 2011; Mahfouz et al. 2016; Pathak et al. 2016; Wang et al. 2015; Zarch
et al. 2015). Keyantash and Dracup (2002) reviewed 14 well-known DIs which have
been used for analyzing different types of drought and assessing their usefulness on
measurement of drought severity and found that SPI is the most valuable estimator
of drought severity. Morid et al. (2006) reviewed seven meteorological indices for
11 Comparative Analysis of Multi-temporal Drought Indices … 151
drought monitoring in Iran; Kim et al. (2009) used daily precipitation and found
how effectively EDI could be used to monitor drought. Vicente-Serrano et al. (2012)
compared drought indicator ability to define drought at the global scale. Dogan et al.
(2012) also compared multiple DIs using monthly precipitation data and found that
EDI was the most suitable DI. In this context, it may be mentioned that the main aim
of the Lincoln Declaration (2011) of DIs was to develop universal DIs and to prepare
a guideline for an early warning system. In India, various works have been done to
find out the best suitable DIs, e.g., district-wise multi-temporal DIs as computed by
Jain et al. (2015) over the KBK districts of Odisha, and they have found that both
SPI and EDI on an annual basis have responded in a similar way. Jain et al. (2015)
also compared DIs and found that the EDI was the most suitable DI for the Ken river
basin located in central India.
DIs are strong enough to define a drought, and the incorporated timescale is also
helpful to analyze sensitive issues related to a drought. Keyantash and Dracup (2002)
used only one month SPI, while Barua et al. (2011) used one month Percentage of
Normal (PN) and SPI, but with the combination of multi-monthly DIs, which may
result in multi-monthly precipitation, and play an important role to find out the cause
and characteristics of drought. Thus, the present study attempts to compare multi-
monthly DIs for determining drought and its severity over the western part of West
Bengal, India.
11.2 Objectives
Main objectives of the study are: first, to analyze and compare the different kinds of
multi-temporal Drought Indices (DIs) along with identifying the best suited DI for
the region, and second, to assess the characteristics of historical drought events like
intensity, frequency, duration, and magnitude besides finding out the most vulnerable
drought-affected districts on the basis of such parameters.
11.3 The Study Area
West Bengal is the only state of India that connects both the Himalayas and the Bay
of Bengal. Hence, climatic variability of West Bengal is very high. The state has
experienced various climatic hazards ranging from high intensity and short duration
phenomena like tropical cyclones, thunderstorms, and cloud bursts to low intensity
long duration hazards, i.e., droughts. The study area (Fig. 11.1) consists of five
districts situated in the southwestern part of West Bengal extending from 21˚46 42 N
to 24˚36 04 N of latitudes and 85˚47 21 E to 88˚23 0 E of longitudes covering an
area of ~34,200 km2 , which is more than one-third area of the state. Precipitation
characteristics of the region vary over place to place and time to time, although the
mean precipitations range from 1328 mm in the west to 1550 mm in the southern
152 P. Patra
Fig. 11.1 Location map of the study area
part of the study area. However, the inter-annual variability of precipitation is very
common, with the highest minimum annual precipitation of the region is 628 mm
(in Bankura), while the maximum of 2347 mm (in Paschim Medinipur) recorded
during 113 years (1901–2013). Summary of the precipitation characteristics of the
study area is given in the Table 11.1. The maximum temperatures of the region also
vary from place to place with the western side of the districts recording the highest
maximum temperature of ~45 °C. High spatio-temporal variation of precipitation
and intolerable temperature lead to high evapotranspiration and evaporation, which
contribute to scarcity of water. Physiographically, the area is very significant, as it
Table 11.1 Precipitation characteristics of the study area (precipitations in mm)

Name of the Minimum Maximum Range Mean SD Skewness Kurtosis
districts
Birbhum 862.8 2163.8 1301.0 1379.4 275.94 0.37 −0.29
Barddhaman 973.0 1950.1 977.1 1329.3 217.04 0.41 −0.41
Purulia 652.4 2021.8 1369.4 1334.2 240.35 0.31 −0.03
Bankura 876.6 2140.5 1263.9 1363.6 266.43 0.51 0.00
Paschim 907.1 2347.1 1440.0 1534.2 272.02 0.65 0.14
Medinipur
belongs to the transitional zone between the plateau fringe and the plain land; and the
western portion of the area is thus drought-prone. Lateritic soil is the predominant
soil type of the region, which has low water holding capacity, and the general slope
is from the western part to the southeastern to increase the vulnerability of drought.
The major economic activity of the region is agriculture with emphasis on cultivation
of paddy, but much of it remains fallow due to scarcity of the water, especially in the
dry seasons, although here the yield rates of paddy and other crops are found to be
relatively high.
11.4 Data and Methodology
113 years of mean monthly precipitation data of five districts, namely, Birbhum,
Barddhaman, Purulia, Bankura, and Paschim Medinipur have been collected from the
India Meteorological Department (IMD) Pune. The data is almost complete as only
2–3% is missing data in the entire 113 years of period, and hence, it is quite reliable.
The small amount of missing data have been estimated by simple arithmetic method
and normal ration method, which is applicable in this case. Three meteorological
drought indices (DIs) have been used to find out the regional drought scenario of the
five districts. These three DIs are Standardized Precipitation Indices (SPI), Rainfall
Anomaly Indices (RAI), and Effective Drought Indices (EDI), as discussed below.
11.4.1 Standardized Precipitation Indices (SPI)
SPI was developed by McKee et al. (1993) to estimate the intensity and duration of
the drought event. In general, computation of SPI requires the fitting of a probability
distribution of precipitation records for the timescale of interest in order to define
probability of the precipitation. Then the fitted probability distribution is normalized
to a standard normal distribution using the inverse normal function. In standard
normal distribution, the mean of the variance of SPI for the location and desired
time period are 0 and 1, respectively. Therefore, for any observed precipitation data,
the SPI value is the deviation from the entire standard normal distribution. The
multi-temporal SPI indices have been calculated as per McKee et al. (1993).
In 2009, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) recommended all of
the meteorological organizations situated in different parts of the world to use SPI
along with their conventional index or indices to monitor drought. This is because
SPI is flexible and it can be computed for multiple timescales. In shorter timescale,
for example, 1, 2, or 3 months, SPI may play an effective role for early drought
forecasting. Regional-scale drought can also be monitored using SPI.
However, the main demerit of SPI is that it totally depends on the availability of
precipitation, but drought in a particular place is the result of various other factors
like temperature and wind.
154 P. Patra
11.4.2 The Effective Drought Index (EDI)
White and Walcott (2009) propounded a new drought index called Effective Drought
Index (EDI). EDI not only gives us the correct information about the onset, end, and
stress of the drought, but it also emphasizes on the precipitation effectiveness. The
original EDI was based on daily precipitation, but monthly precipitation also can be
used (Dogan et al. 2012; Jain et al. 2015). Effective Precipitation (EP), as defined,
is the outcome of the current month’s precipitation and weightage of the previous
month’s precipitation, as in soil there remains some moisture from the previous
month’s precipitation. So, EDI is computed as the precipitation needed to return to
the normal (PRN) condition. Similar to SPI, EDI is also used to classify drought
events into four classes (Table 11.2).
PRN is calculated from monthly effective precipitation and its deviation from the
mean for each month. Thus, the first step in the calculation of EDI is to calculate EP.
If Pi is rainfall, “m1” is the month before the current month, and “N” is the duration
of the preceding period, then effective precipitation for the current month (EPj) is
given as
m

N
E Pj = Pi /M
m=1 i=1
For example, if N= 3, then EP= P1+ (P1+P2)/2+ (P1+P2+ P3)/3, where P1,
P2, and P3 are rainfall amounts during the current month (j), previous month, and
2 months before, respectively. Then the average and standard deviation of EP values
for each month are calculated, and the time series of EP values is converted to
deviations from the mean (DEP)
D E Pj = E Pj − E P j
PRNj values are calculated using the formula:
D E Pj
P R N j = N 1
i=1 i
Table 11.2 Drought classification by DIs values

Drought category SPI values EDI value RAI values
Mild drought 0 to −0.99 0 to −0.99 0 to −1.00
Moderate drought −1.00 to −1.49 −1.00 to −1.49 −1.00 to −1.99
Severe drought −1.50 to −1.99 −1.50 to −1.99 −2.00- to−2.99
Very severe drought <-2.00 <-2.00 <-3.00
If N is 3 months, then the sum of the reciprocal is used to calculate, which is

equal to 1/1+1/2+1/3. The final EDI value is obtained through dividing PRN by its
standard deviation, which is given below:

D E Pj = P R N σ P R N
11.4.3 Rainfall Anomaly Indices (RAI)
The RAI was developed by Van-Rooy (1965). The positive and negative RAI values
are computed by using the mean of 10 extremes values of precipitation. Let M be
the mean of the 10% of the highest precipitation records for the period under study,
“p” be the mean precipitation of all the records for the period, and the precipitation
for the specific year, then the positive RAI (for positive anomalies) for that year is
P−p
RAI = + 3
M −p
Let m be the mean of the 10% of the lowest precipitation records for the period
under study, and then the negative RAI (for negative anomalies) for the year is
P−p
RAI = −3
m−p
From the monthly precipitation data, in total 3 DIs with 11 time steps (1 EDI, 5
SPI, and 5 RAI) have been computed (Table 11.3). As drought mainly occurs due to
the deficiency of precipitation, multiple time steps is used here to establish the most
suitable time step for drought delineation.
Table 11.3 shows that with the increasing time step of SPIs, drought month fre-
quency of Mild Drought (MD) and Moderate Drought (MOD) has decreased, while
the drought month frequency of Severe Drought (SD) and Very Severe Drought
(VSD) have increased. In case of RAI, the result is reversed, with increase in fre-
quency of MD and MOD, and decrease in frequency of SD and VSD. SPI-12 and
EDI give us almost similar result so far as the different types of dry events are con-
cerned, while RAI gives the most severe drought in comparison to the SPI or EDI.
Hence, it can be concluded that RAI overemphasizes SD and VSD events. In case
of inter-district comparison, Purulia recorded the highest number of VSD in all the
DIs, and the frequency of MOD and SD also remained high in all other districts.
156
Table 11.3 Number of drought months in each DI of the selected five districts of West Bengal
DIs Bankura Birbhum Barddhaman Paschim Medinipur Purulia
a b c d a b c d a b c d a b c d a b c d
SPI3 612 149 21 2 605 154 26 4 597 140 33 2 603 165 23 0 595 145 27 3
SPI6 548 170 35 1 529 151 46 5 564 153 43 3 552 173 37 6 537 136 49 9
SPI12 495 138 69 4 461 168 57 5 512 158 58 2 572 128 45 12 526 122 51 17
SPI24 467 117 82 19 489 167 57 4 553 101 69 11 482 145 47 17 484 104 70 28
SPI48 489 120 54 25 474 115 64 16 442 105 103 14 537 95 55 19 510 114 66 23
EDI 531 157 47 1 522 155 56 0 522 163 48 4 548 147 41 5 552 143 31 13
RAI3 269 250 196 69 253 250 216 70 251 263 188 70 271 257 194 69 250 271 179 69
RAI6 270 243 173 68 238 264 162 68 300 232 162 69 267 254 179 68 247 273 144 68
RAI12 268 224 148 66 209 252 167 63 281 226 161 62 277 279 129 72 248 277 126 65
RAI24 306 200 105 74 283 205 165 64 334 231 95 74 268 214 150 59 316 203 95 72
RAI48 368 168 98 54 334 180 102 53 365 148 85 66 367 204 86 49 368 192 100 53
a. Mild Drought, b. Moderate Drought, c. Severe Drought, and d. Very Severe Drought
P. Patra
11.5.1 Comparisons of SPIs and EDI
There are 738 months of dry period (values less than 0) demarcated by EDI, of
which 610, 627, 600, and 504 dry months belong to SPI3, SPI6, SPI12, and SPI24 at
Purulia district. It is interesting that EDI with values of <-1.0 (169 months) is a very
good match with SPI3 (187 months), SPI6 (133 months), and SPI12 (113 months)
values while other indices have less dry period, especially SPI3 (102 months), SPI24
(79 months), and SPI48 (60 months), which means severe drought in this region may
occur in the mid-temporal scale, while in shorter or long run time period, drought may
not occur intensively. There are around 175 months of MOD period marked by SPI3
out of which SPI6 and SPI12, and EDI have also 93, 59, and 104 months of MOD
period, respectively. It gives us good information that short-term precipitation loss is
often recovered by high precipitation in later time period. In most of the cases, it is
found that due to water scarcity in the pre-monsoon and the post-monsoon seasons,
drought is marked by SPI3, but later on, huge precipitation in the monsoon period
recovers short-term dry condition which is identified by EDI.
SPI with shorter temporal scale shows more MD event in comparison with the
longer time step, while with increased time step Moderate Drought (MOD), Severe
Drought (SD), and Very Severe Drought (VSD) events have increased. SPI with
12 months or higher time step shows lower MD, MOD, SD, and VSD compared to
the EDI (Fig. 11.2a). SPI 9 and EDI have almost the same MD and SD events with
11 and 4% of drought events to the total.
11.5.2 Comparison of RAIs and EDI
From Fig. 11.2b, it is established that with the advancement of the temporal resolution
MD event increases, while MOD to SD events decrease. In most of the cases, it is
noticed that in very severe event, it did not change too much as it remains around
4–5% of the total events. Figure 11.2b shows that RAI3 has detected 5% of VCD
events and 14% of SD events. In most of the cases, RAI has overperformed compared
to the EDI. RAI3, RA6, and RAI12 show that around 30% of the drought months
belong to moderate to very severe drought in comparison with the 15% of EDI. With
the increased temporal resolution, moderate to very severe drought events have come
down. As precipitation of the study area is mainly concentrated in during monsoon
months, higher temporal scale gives us proper picture of water scarcity, which leads
to the hydrological drought events.
158 P. Patra
Fig. 11.2 a Comparison between EDI and SPIs. b Comparison between EDI and RAIs of Purulia
district
11.5.3 Comparison Among the Different Drought Indices
To know the most suitable correlated drought index, 11 by 11 Pearson’s correlation

coefficient matrix (95% of confidence level and 5% of significance level) has been
computed (Table 11.4). So, for each district, there are at about 121 correlation coeffi-
cient values. From the correlation matrix, it is found that with the increasing temporal
scale, the correlation becomes weak as compared to the smallest temporal scale—
although all of the correlations are good having the value above 0.55. From all the
correlation matrices of five districts, two main characteristics are found: (1) Medium
time step is highly correlated, while correlation with higher time step or lower time
step is not good; and (2) DIs with the same time steps are highly correlated with
Table 11.4 Correlation matrix (Pearson) of multi-scale drought indices of Purulia
Variables SPI3 SPI6 SPI12 SPI24 SPI48 EDI12 RAI3 RAI6 RAI12 RAI24 RAI48
SPI3 1.00 0.64 0.45 0.31 0.31 0.76 0.99 0.64 0.44 0.31 0.30
SPI6 0.64 1.00 0.66 0.45 0.42 0.86 0.63 1.00 0.66 0.45 0.40
SPI12 0.45 0.66 1.00 0.70 0.58 0.80 0.44 0.66 1.00 0.70 0.56
SPI24 0.31 0.45 0.70 1.00 0.74 0.56 0.30 0.45 0.70 1.00 0.72
SPI48 0.31 0.42 0.58 0.74 1.00 0.49 0.30 0.42 0.57 0.74 0.97
EDI12 0.76 0.86 0.80 0.56 0.49 1.00 0.75 0.86 0.80 0.56 0.48
RAI3 0.99 0.63 0.44 0.30 0.30 0.75 1.00 0.63 0.43 0.30 0.29
RAI6 0.64 1.00 0.66 0.45 0.42 0.86 0.63 1.00 0.66 0.45 0.40
RAI12 0.44 0.66 1.00 0.70 0.57 0.80 0.43 0.66 1.00 0.70 0.56
11 Comparative Analysis of Multi-temporal Drought Indices …
RAI24 0.31 0.45 0.70 1.00 0.74 0.56 0.30 0.45 0.70 1.00 0.72
RAI48 0.30 0.40 0.56 0.72 0.97 0.48 0.29 0.40 0.56 0.72 1.00
Average 0.56 0.65 0.69 0.63 0.60 0.72 0.55 0.65 0.68 0.63 0.58
Significance level alpha = 0.05
159
160 P. Patra
Fig. 11.3 Comparison of SPI3, EDI, and RAI3
each other, and correlation of one-time step with the nearby time step is also found
to be good. It is also found that EDI is the best suited drought index having a good
correlation of above 0.72 to the all of the multi-temporal DIs. The best correlation
has been found between the SPI3 and RAI3 with 0.99, while the least correlation,
that is, 0.29, is found between RAI3 and RAI48.
As EDI is computed on an annual basis (Table 11.4), it is highly correlated with
SPI and RAI with the temporal step of 6 months to 24 months. Although the best cor-
related DI with EDI is SPI6 (r2 = 0.85), for medium time step drought demarcation,
i.e., from 9 months to 12 months, EDI is the best suited. But for hydrological drought
delineation, SPI48 is the best of the DIs. While for shorter period drought detection,
i.e., for 3 months’ time step, SPI3 is the best suited drought index (Fig. 11.3) having
the correlation value more than 0.56, while the correlation value of RAI3 is 0.55.
11.5.4 Discussion on Drought Events
11.5.4.1 Drought Events Classification
From the above discussion, it is clear that EDI is the best drought index, and SPI3
is the best meteorological drought index. Thus, SPI3 has been used here to identify
internal characteristics of the drought events, like frequency, duration and magnitude.
(1) Drought Initiation Time (DIT): Drought initiates whenever the precipitation
shortfalls of the normal one and SPI3 having value less than zero can be considered
as for identification of the drought event.
(2) Drought Termination Time (DTT): The month when rainfall shortage becomes
sufficiently small so that drought conditions no longer exists, and the value of SPI is
found to be above zero.
(3) Drought Duration (DD): The time period between DIT and DTT of a drought
event (for example, DDb-c means the drought duration of b-c where DDb-c =
DDb−DDc + 1 = 4 months).
(4) Drought Magnitude (DM): It measures the cumulative deficiency of the pre-
cipitation within a drought period with respect to the defined threshold value (for
example, DMb-c means the drought severity of b-c, where DMb-c = DMb−DMc).
(5) Drought Intensity (DI): It is the average value of the precipitation deficiency
throughout the drought event period. It can be measured by dividing DM by DD (for
example, DIb-c = DMb-c/DDb-c).
For drought delineation, the period of 3 consecutive months having negative SPI
value, and at least one month with SPI equal to or less than −1 (SPI<-1), is used
as a threshold. Although in some cases prolonged dry period (negative SPI value)
persists for 3 months or more with interruption of one-month rainfall (positive SPI),
the total period is considered as one drought period.
11.5.4.2 Discussion on Historical Drought Events in the Study Area
(1) Drought Frequency

SPI3 is used to demarcate the frequency of drought events in the five districts. Purulia
and Paschim Medinipur have recorded the highest frequency of drought events, with
frequency of 67 in 113 years. Other districts like Birbhum and Bardhhaman have
recorded 61 drought events each, while Bankura has recorded 60 drought events.
It is also noticed that all of the districts have the highest number of drought events
in the decades of 1920s, 1950s, and 1960s, although some differences have been
found in regard to spatial characteristics of the droughts. The maximum number
of drought events has been recorded in the period 1938–1975 in the districts of
Paschim Medinipur and Barddhaman, while Purulia (Table 11.5) and Birbhum dis-
tricts have the highest drought events in the period of 1901–1937, and Bankura
district experienced it in latest period of 1976–2013.
(2) Drought Duration
The longest DD period of the study area is 38 months, recorded twice in Birbhum
district from January 1964 to February 1967, and from November 1949 to December
1952. Consecutive 31 months of DD recorded in Paschim Medinipur district from
May 1923 to February 1926. While in Bankura, the longest DD is 30 months recorded
from March 1957 to August 1959. Barddhaman (27 months) and Purulia (26 months)
districts recorded comparatively short duration of drought events. Every district of
the study area shows a uniformity about the spatial extent of DD, as all of the districts
show occurrence of the longest drought in the period of 1938–1975, while two other
periods have a shorter duration of DD events.
(3) Drought Magnitude
The highest Drought Magnitude (DM) of 26.92 was recorded in Birbhum district
during the period from January 64 to February 67, and DM of 26.77 from November
162 P. Patra
Table 11.5 Drought duration, drought magnitude and drought intensity in the district of Purulia
Onset month End Month DM DD DM DI
June, 1965 July, 1967 21.72 26 21.72 −0.84
February, 1954 November, 1955 19.67 9 19.67 −2.19
August, 1914 September, 1916 19.22 26 19.22 −0.74
January, 1963 February, 1965 17.40 26 17.40 −0.67
October, 1971 April, 1973 15.11 19 15.11 −0.80
May, 1931 December, 1932 12.29 20 12.29 −0.61
December, 1909 September, 1911 12.02 22 12.02 −0.55
June, 1982 March, 1983 10.97 10 10.97 −1.10
September, 1988 April, 1989 9.94 8 9.94 −1.24
October, 2008 August, 2009 9.34 10 9.34 −0.93
November, 1933 February, 1935 9.31 16 9.31 −0.58
May, 1979 December, 1979 9.20 8 9.20 −1.15
October, 1950 April, 1952 8.81 17 8.81 −0.52
January, 1960 August, 1960 8.68 8 8.68 −1.09
June, 1969 September, 1970 8.60 16 8.60 −0.54
May, 1935 April, 1936 8.49 11 8.49 −0.77
December, 2009 November, 2010 8.17 12 8.17 −0.68
August, 1949 May, 1950 8.00 10 8.00 −0.80
December, 1902 September, 1903 7.61 10 7.61 −0.76
January, 1962 October, 1962 7.52 10 7.52 −0.75
November, 2004 October, 2005 7.41 12 7.41 −0.62
September, 1984 September, 1985 7.34 12 7.34 −0.61
March, 2000 March, 2001 6.91 13 6.91 −0.53
January, 1957 January, 1958 6.74 13 6.74 −0.52
May, 1906 February, 1907 6.46 10 6.46 −0.65
1949 to December 1952, while the highest DM of other districts was found to be
in Bankura (DM of 23.69 from March 1957 to August 1959), Paschim Medinipur
(DM of 23.32 from May 1923 to February 1926), Purulia (DM of 21.77 from June
1965 to July 1967), and Barddhaman (DM of 13.84 September 1953 to December
1955). Except Paschim Medinipur district, all other districts had high magnitude of
drought occurrences in the period of 1938–1975, whereas during 1976–2013 drought
occurrence became comparatively of medium magnitude as the DD within the period
was less.
All of the districts had a very good relation between Drought Duration (DD) and
Drought Magnitude (DM). The correlation between DD and DM indicate that DD
was responsible for the higher DM with high correlation coefficient value (R2 > =
Fig. 11.4 Relationship

between DD and DM of
Purulia district
0.85). The relationship between DD and DM was not so good in case of Purulia with
R2 = 0.73 (Fig. 11.4) like other districts although as some high intensive but less
duration drought occurred here.
11.6 Conclusions
The study reveals that how the DIs are useful for drought quantification in the
southwestern part of West Bengal. The major findings of the study are:
(1) Comparison among multi-temporal SPI, EDI, and RAI indicates that all of the
indices are highly correlated with each other for the same time periods, and the
correlation increases at higher time periods.
(2) The correlation between SPI and RAI is high, compared to that between SPI
and EDI or EDI and RAI for the same time period.
(3) RAI is not only the least correlated with EDI but it also overemphasized SSD
and VSD events in all of the concerned districts.
(4) EDI is found to be the best suited drought index for long timescale, like 9–
24 months of the time period, while SPI is the best suited for short time periods
like 1 or 3 months’ timescale.
(5) Overall, EDI is the best suited for agricultural drought, while SPI3 is the best for
meteorological drought analysis. SPI3 also very well demarcates the drought
scenario of recent years (i.e., 2000, 2010).
(6) A very high positive correlation has been found between DD and DM, with R2
> 0.85 in all of the districts except Purulia, while R2 > 0.90 has been found in
the districts of Birbhum and Barddhaman.
(7) Out of 113 years of the time period, severe dry period has been noticed in the
decades of the 1950s and 1960s. Moreover, in some cases, severe drought has
occurred in two districts, while other districts remained comparatively less dry
or wet. So, inter-district variation of drought within the southwestern part of
West Bengal is one of the key findings of the present work.
164 P. Patra
Acknowledgements I would like to thank India Meteorological Department (IMD) for providing
me the precipitation data, and the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Ministry of
Earth Science (MoES) for funding this research work.
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Chapter 12
Use of Remote Sensing and Geographic
Information System on Agroforestry
Ecosystem in Himalayan Region
of Uttarakhand
Ganesh Datt Bhatt and Rajendra Singh Parihaar
Abstract The role of remote sensing and geographic information system in agro-
forestry ecosystem in the Himalayan region of Uttarakhand, India is presented in
the research work. The satellite remote sensing data of Landsat MSS are procured
from USGS and processed in ERDAS Imagine ver. 9.1 and Arc GIS ver. 10 software.
The satellite data are classified as per supervised classification scheme. The satellite-
based land use/cover thematic maps were prepared and validated in the field. The
fieldwork was undertaken in the Himalayan region of Chamoli district of Uttarak-
hand. The maximum traditional agroforestry ecosystem was observed in the hill
region as compared to Bhabhar region of Uttarakhand. The local people of Chamoli
district are highly dependent on the natural resources for their daily livelihood. The
economy of the local people depends on ecotourism, fruit trees, agricultural crops
and dairy, etc. The local people are well educated having less employment oppor-
tunities. The youth are mostly engaged in labour work, shops, dairy production and
ecotourism.
Keywords Agroforestry · Remote sensing · GIS · Himalayan region · Uttarakhand
12.1 Introduction
Acheamfour et al. (2015) stated that agroforestry is a unique land use system
that intentionally blends perennial vegetation and herbaceous land cover types to
enhance crop productivity, profitability and overall soil quality in an agroecosystem.
Also, agroforestry combines trees with both annual crops and perennial pastures to
increase sustainability of agricultural lands (Montagnini and Nair 2004; Nair et al.
G. D. Bhatt (B)
School of Agriculture, Galgotias University, Plot No. 2, Sector 17 - a, Yamuna Expressway,
Gautam Budh Nagar, Greater Noida 201310, Uttar Pradesh, India
e-mail: ganeshdattbhatt@gmail.com
R. S. Parihaar
Department of Botany, D.S.B. Campus, Kumaun University, Nainital 263001, Uttarakhand, India
e-mail: rajendraparihaar@gmail.com

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2097-6_12
168 G. D. Bhatt and R. S. Parihaar
2009; Kittur and Bargali 2013; Jhariya et al. 2015; Parihaar et al. 2015). Agroforestry
is the intentional incorporation of woody vegetation with agricultural crops, grasses
and farm animals on the same unit of land to produce ecological, economical and
societal benefits and sustainable in nature (Rapid el et al. 2015; Armengot et al. 2016).
Social factors like farmer economic and educational status (Anjichi et al. 2007;
Matata et al. 2010; Yadav et al. 2016c), demography, social connections, culture and
resource availability are important to understand why and how farmers select certain
management practices (Seabrook et al. 2008). In Indian Himalaya, more than 90%
people live in their villages, which are organized as independent socioecological
systems (Agrawal and Chhatre 2006). Usually, the farmers have maintained close
connections and equilibriums between agriculture, forestry and livestock, and these
linkages are a basis of land use patterns. This indigenous agroforestry-based land
use schemes not only support the livelihood through production of food, fodder and
fuelwood, but also mitigate the impact of climate change through carbon sequestra-
tion (Singh et al. 2008; Bargali et al. 2009). Also, these systems add other ecosystem
services like providing wildlife habitat (Jose 2009), maintaining biodiversity (Altieri
1999), reducing erosion (Lenka et al. 2012) and adding up microbial communities in
soil (Banerjee et al. 2015). Fruit tree-based agroforestry land use systems constitute
an important opportunity of organic matter addition to the soil ecosystem (Haile
et al. 2008; Takimoto et al. 2008; Isaac et al. 2001; Rajper et al. 2016). Traditionally,
forestry-based land use system in mountainous region is very near to natural ecosys-
tems because it provides ecosystem services similar to the forest like biodiversity,
availability of foodstuff and fibre, water resource and water cleansing, climate
regulation and carbon sequestration, nutrient cycling, primary production of oxygen,
soil formation, recreation and cultural services for the well-being of the people and
society (Sharma 2007; Gosain et al. 2015; Singh and Singh 2016). Previous studies
indicated that farmers make a modification to farming practices to take best advan-
tage from the system. Therefore, land use options which increase livelihood security
and reduce vulnerability to environmental changes are essential (Mendelsohn 2007).
Agroforestry ecosystem is related to tree species with agricultural crops and ani-
mals, and has been practiced since ancient times across the world in both the tropics
and temperate regions. Traditionally, people are engaged in agroforestry practices for
interdependent benefits of the three components; they are: trees, agricultural crops
and livestock including food, fruit, fodder, fuel, fertilizer and fibre (6F) (Chavan et al.
2015). Most of the agroforestry ecosystems is part of indigenous traditional knowl-
edge of local peoples (Parihaar et al. 2014; Kirtika et al. 2015). These agroforestry
systems vary from one part of the Uttarakhand to other part of the world because
of the diverse climatic, cultural and socio-economic conditions. The prominent tra-
ditional cultivation of local agricultural crops and fruits, and rearing of animals for
dairy purposes have evolved long time. Management of agroforestry systems is prac-
ticed predominantly in smallholder farms and is influenced by a number of social
factors besides economics. The objectives of the present study are—(i) to document
the information about the existing traditional agroecosystems by the use of remote
sensing and GIS techniques and (ii) to know about the changing pattern of the land
use/land cover in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand, India.
12 Use of Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System … 169
12.2 Study Area
District Chamoli is the second largest district of Uttarakhand state of India (Fig. 12.1).
Gopeshwar is the district headquarters. The study area lies between 79° to 80° E and
30° to 31° N, and is bounded by Tibet region in north and by districts of Uttarakhand,
Fig. 12.1 Location of the study area

Table 12.1 Details of satellite data used in the present study

S. No. Satellite Sensor Path Row Date Spatial resolution Band
(m)
1. -do- MSS 156 39 1976-11-19 60 4
2. -do- MSS 156 39 2006-11-19 60 4
(Source United States Geological Survey)
namely, Pithoragarh and Bageshwar in east, Almora in south, Garhwal in southwest,

Rudraprayag in west and Uttarkashi in northwest.
District Chamoli has six tehsils, viz., Joshimath, Chamoli, Karnaprayag, Pokhari,
Gairsain and Tharali. It is divided into nine development blocks which are Joshimath,
Dasoli, Pokhari, Ghat, Karnaprayag, Tharali, Narayanbagar, Dewal and Gairsain.
Elevation of district Chamoli is 800–8000 m. Winter season is November to March.
Rainfall is heaviest during monsoon season from June to September (Basistha et al.
2008). Major rivers in the study area are Alaknanda and Ramganga. Dhauli Ganga,
Birhi Ganga, Nandakini and Pindar are the main tributaries of the study area.
12.3.1 Satellite Data Process
The Landsat MSS satellite data of 1976 and 2006 with spatial resolution 30 m was
procured from Unites States Geological Survey (Source: www.usgs.gov.in). The
satellite data information briefly explained in Table 12.1.
The satellite data were corrected radiometrically using ERDAS Imagine soft-
ware ver. 9.1. The alterations such as histogram equalization, contrast enhancement,
noise correction, dark pixel subtraction and haze were completed following Lillesand
et al. (2008). The managed classification approach was incorporated to produce land
use/cover classification scheme. Training sites, extraction of signatures from imagery
and classification of the satellite imagery were done. Features of training sites were
digitized and validated in the field. After training site digitization, statistical charac-
terizations of the information were shaped. The maximum likelihood classification
techniques were applied for the imagery. The study areas were extracted using the
study area boundary.
12.3.2 Land Use/Cover in Chamoli
The land use/cover map of Chamoli district was made using satellite Landsat MSS
data of 1976 (Fig. 12.2) and 2006 (Fig. 12.3). In 1976 and 2006, maximum area was
Fig. 12.2 Landsat MSS false colour composite map of 1976 (Source The United States Geological
Survey)
covered mainly by forest and snow cover (Fig. 12.4), but the forest cover was observed
less in 2006 (Fig. 12.5). It was observed that the forest cover in 1976 was 3966.40 km2
(49.39%) followed by snow 2426.66 km2 (30.22%) and agriculture 618.94 km2
(7.70%). In the 2006, the forest cover was 3709.12 km2 (46.19%) followed by snow
2500.82 km2 (31.14%) and agriculture 643.78 km2 (8.01%). The forest cover was
reduced from 1976 to 2006 but snow and agriculture land was increased (Table 12.2).
There is an increase in the agricultural land in the study area because the wasteland
and forest land are used for agriculture purposes. This can be simplified only through
high spectral, spatial and temporal resolution qualities of remote sensing techniques.
Fig. 12.3 Landsat MSS false colour composite map of 2006 (Source The United States Geological
Survey)
Indeed, the precise database pertaining to forest cover information is an imperative

input of formulating various management plans, and also remote sensing technology
can be effectively utilized for change detection and monitoring activities (Jessica
et al. 2001).
The following points are discussed in this section.

Fig. 13.4 Land use/cover map of 1976 (Source The United States Geological Survey)
12.4.1 Agri-Silviculture System
Agri-silviculture is a type of production technique which supplies woods, foodstuff

and animal products from a single organizational unit where good agriculture prac-
tices are completed by the efficient use of trees. The system is the combination of
the two components, i.e. agriculture and silviculture. This involves the establishment
of an agriculture-cum-silviculture cycle so as to be a valuable symbiosis, and it is
Fig. 13.5 Land use/cover map of 2006 (Source United States Geological Survey)
being accepted as a very popular system and simultaneously preventing the degra-
dation of soil and vegetation. In this system, the agriculture crops such as Triticum
aestivum L., Solanum tuberosum L., Brassica nigra (L.) K. Koch and Pisum sativum
L. are grown during the winter season and Oryza sativa L., Zea mays L., Solanum
lycopersicum L. and Piper nigrum L. in the summer season are cultivated on the
permanent terraces prepared across the hill slopes, either as monoculture or polycul-
ture, while fodder, fuel and timber trees like Bauhinia variegate L., Celtisaus trails
Table 12.2 Area covered under diverse vegetation types and land use categories in 2006
Vegetation types and land use 1976 2006
Area (km2 ) Area (%) Area (km2 ) Area (%)
Agriculture 618.94 7.70 643.78 8.01
Built up 3.81 0.04 5.43 0.06
Forest 3966.40 49.39 3709.12 46.19
Glacial area 20.30 0.25 19.83 0.24
Snow 2426.66 30.22 2500.82 31.14
Wasteland 966.98 12.04 1124.25 14.00
Water bodies 26.88 0.33 26.74 0.33
Total 8030.00 100.00 8030.00 100.00
(Source The United States Geological Survey)
L., Eucalyptus tereticornis Sm., Ficus hispida L.f., Ficus palmate Forssk., Grewia
optiva J.R. Drumm. Ex Burret, Morus alba L., Populus deltoides Marshall, Tectona
grandis L.f., etc., were deliberately grown on the bunds of terraces (Table 12.3).
12.4.2 Agri-Horticulture System
Agri-horticulture land use system is made up by the combination of two systems.

One is agriculture and another is horticulture. Those areas where fuel and fodder
are easily available from other sources, land use practice by the system is very
common. In the agri-horticulture system, the agriculture crops are grown in the
interspaces of horticulture trees like Malus domestica Borkh., Sorbus domestica L.,
Prunus armeniaca L., Prunus persica (L.) Batsch, Pyrus bourgaeana Decne., etc.,
are grown in the hills of Garhwal region, Psidium guajava L., Mangifera indica
L., Litchi chinensis Sonn., etc., in the Bhabhar belt. The production of fruit is the
dominant component in the agro-horticulture system for commercial as well domestic
use (Table 12.3).
12.4.3 Agri-Silvi-Pastoral System
The agri-silvi-pastoral system includes the trees and grasses that are grown together
for production of fodder, fuel and timber, and soil conservation. Animal rearing is an
important component of the agri-silvi-pastoral system where milk production along
with bio-fertilizers for enhancing and maintaining the soil fertility and productivity
is obtained. Along with grasses, trees fodder is also utilized for stall feeding. Tra-
ditionally, agri-silvi-pastoral system is considered as highly sustainable system in
Table 12.3 Characteristics of agroforestry-based ecosystems
176
Agroforestry system Characteristics Woody/fodder plant species Herbaceous plant species

Agri-silviculture In this system, principal crops like wheat, rice, Common Botanical name Uses Common Botanical Uses
maize, jaun (barley), etc., were grown with name name name
multipurpose trees like Bhimal, Kachnar, Bhimal Grewia optiva Fu, Gehu Triticum Ed,
Padam, Timil and oaks. Generally, trees were J.R. Drumm. Ex Fo, aestivum L. Fo,
present on field boundaries, terrace risers and Burret Fi Com
in agricultural fields in scattered manner.
Cultivation was done on varying degree of Chir Pinus roxburghii Ed, Dhan Oryza sativa Ed,
slopes on terraced fields. The repeated Sarg. Ti, L. Fo,
fragmentation and sub-division had reduced Com, Com
the size of the holding. Chilly and ginger were Fu
the main Kharif cash crops while potato, garlic Padam Prunus Fu, Makka Zea mays L. Ed,
and onion were the major Rabi cash crops cerecoides D. Fo, Fo,
Don Ti, Com
Reli
Tilonj Quercus Fu, Maduwa Eleusine Ed,
floribunda Lindl. Fo, coracana Fo,
Ti Gaertn. Com
Banj Q. Fu, Jhangora Echinochloa Ed,
leucotrichophora Fo, frumentacea Com
A. Camus Ti Link.
Gethi Boehmeria Fo Jaun Hordeum Ed,
regulosa Wedd. vulgare L. Fo
Kharik Celtis australis Fu, Alu Solanum Ed,
L. Fo tuberosum L. Com
(continued)
G. D. Bhatt and R. S. Parihaar
Kachnar Bauhinia Fo, Adarak Zingiber Sp,
variegate (L.) Ed, officinale Com
Benth. Med Roscoe
Timil Ficus roxburghii Fo. Sarson Brassica Ed,
Steud. Ed campestris Oil,
L. Fo,
Com
Liptis Eucalyptus Ti, Urd Phaseolus Fo
tereticornis Sm. Com mungo L.
Poplar Populus deltoids Com Chilly Capsicum Ed, Com
Marshall annum L.
Sagwan Tectona grandis Ti, Onion Allium cepa Ed, Com
L.F. Com L.
Sahatut Morus alba L. Fo,
fu,
Agri-horticulture In this system, in hills fruit trees such as apple, Khumani Prunus Ed, Rajma Dolichos Ed, Fo.
apricot, pear, etc., were grown in systematic armeniaca (L.) Com lablab L.
fashion in orchards with field crops. Turmeric Dumort. Sweet
12 Use of Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System …
and ginger were cash crops in peach gardens Plum Prunus Ed, Adarak Zingiber Sp, Com,
while potato was ideal cash crop for apple domestica L. Com officinale Medicine
orchard. While in Tarai-Bhabhar area fruit Roscoe
trees like mango, litchi, guava, peach, amla,
etc., were grown intermixed with sugarcane Santra Citrus Sp. Ed, Haldi Curcuma Sp, Com,
and other crops Com longa L. Med
Amrud Psidium guajava Ed, Potato Solanum Ed, Com
L. Com tuberosum L.
(continued)
177
178

Seb Malus domestica Ed, Beans Vicia faba L. Ed
Borkh. Com
Aru Prunus persica Ed,
(L.) Stoke Com
Naspati Pyrus communis Ed,
L. Com
Kafal Myrica esculenta Ed,
Buch. Com
Darim Punica granatum Ed,
L. Com
Aam Mangifera indica Ed,
L. Com
Litchi Litchi chinensis Ed,
Sonn. Com
Amla Phyllanthus Ed,
Emblica L. Com
Agri-horti-silviculture This system was managed for the production Woody plants and herbaceous species were almost similar as described for
of fruits, crops, fodder and fuel or wood for above agri-silvi and agri -horticulture systems.
packaging materials. Fruit trees were planted
at regular interval within the fields, fodder and
timber trees were left on the field bunds while
the annuals were grown in the interspaces of
the trees
(continued)
Home gardens This is a traditional component of the rural Banana Musa Ed, Muli Raphanus Ed,
ecosystem that has been practiced for a long paradisiaca L. Com sativus L. Com
time by farmers. In this system, several plant
species (mainly fruit, fodder, vegetable and
spices) were grown and maintained near
homestead by the household members and
their products were primarily intended for the
family consumption. Plant species were
selected on the basis of climate and season.
This system is an important source of food and
nutrition and also provide secure livelihood
Papaya Carica papaya Ed, Arbi Colocasia Veg,
L. Med, esculenta Com
Com (L.) Schott
Kathal Artocarpus Ed, Onion Veg,Com.
heterophyllus Com
Lam.
Darim Punica granatum Ed, Garlic Allium Sp,
L. Com sativum L. Com
Aam Mangifera indica Ed, Rai Brassica Green

L. Com rugosa L. Veg,
Sp,
Oil
Litchi Litchi chinensis Ed, Palak Spinacea Green
Sonn. Com oleracea L. Veg
(continued)
179
180

Amrud Psidium guajava Ed, Beans Vicia faba L. Ed
L. Com
Aaru Prunus persica Ed, Tomato Lycopersicum Ed,
(L.) Stokes Com esculentum Com
L.
Santra Citrus Sp. Ed, Karela Momordica Ed
Com charantia L.
Malta Citrus sp. Ed, Mater Pisum Ed
Com sativum L.
Lemon Citrus lemon Ed, Kaddu Cucurbita Ed,
(L.) Burm. F. Com maxima Com.
Duchesne
Bringal Solanum Ed,
melongena Com
L.
Lauki Lagenaria Ed,
siceraria Com
(Molina)
Standl.
Dhania Coriandrum Sp,
sativum L. Med,
Com
(continued)
Agri-silvo-pastoral In this system, agriculture, trees, shrubs and Apple Malus domestica Ed, Mater Pisum Ed,
(S5) grasses were grown and maintained for fuel, Borkh. Com sativum L. com
fodder, timber and other benefits. This system Kharsu Quercus Fo, Alu Solanum Ed,
was mostly managed by landowner on leucotrichophora Fu, tuberosum L. Com
community land of the village A. Camus Ti,
Com
Baj Quercus Fo, Muli Raphanus Com,
floribunda Lindl. Fu, sativus L. Med,
Ti, Ed
Com
Naspati Pyrus communis Ed, Makka Zea mays L. Ed,
L. Com Fo,
Com
Deodar Cedrus deodara Com,
(Roxb.) G. Don Ti
Abbreviation: Ed—Edible; Fo—Fodder; Com—Commercial; Ti—Timber; Sp—Spices; Med—Medicine; Veg—Vegetables
181
Garhwal Himalaya. Generally, open grazing has been replaced by stall feeding, and
the size of animal heard has been reduced since 5–10 years. Adoption of girl educa-
tion, small family size, small land holding, growing of commercial and cash crops
are some of the reasons for stall feeding and small size animal heard (Table 12.3).
12.4.4 Agri-Horti-Silviculture System
Agri-horti-silviculture system is a common practice by the farmers of Garhwal region

including the cultivation of agriculture crops along with forest and horticulture trees
in the same land. The preparation of agri-horti-silviculture (agriculture crop + horti-
culture tree + forest) system provides stable and quality output to farmers and fodder,
fuelwood for packaging materials. At regular intervals, fruit trees are planted in the
field and fodder; timber trees are left on the field bunds although the annuals were
grown in the interspaces of the trees. The majority of farmers has followed the agri-
horti-silviculture system which is economically viable and ecologically sustainable
(Table 12.3).
12.4.5 Home Gardens
Home gardens include organization of multipurpose trees and shrubs in associa-

tion with annual and perennial agricultural vegetable crops and consistently live-
stock within the compound of distinct houses. Homestead gardens including trees
are one of the known agroforestry practices which is ecologically workable and
diversifies source of revenue of local people. Home garden is defined as land use
system involving planned management of multipurpose trees and shrubs in intimate
association with biannual and perennial agricultural crops and invariable livestock
within the compound of individual houses; the whole tree crop and animal unit is
intensively managed by family labour (Kumar and Nair 2006). They supply and sup-
plement necessities and generate secondary income. They tend to be located close to
dwellings for convenience and security (Ninez 1996). The whole crop tree-animal
unit is being managed by the family members. In the home garden system, supple-
mentary vegetables, fruits and spices are grown in mixture for own consumption as
well as for marketing. Home gardens play a major role in getting better the health
as the vegetables are a good source of vitamins, proteins, minerals and fibre, all of
which are necessary for human activity and functioning. One of characteristic of
home garden is high diversity of plant species that can be planted to reduce risks of
crop failure, thereby increasing biological stability (Hames 1983; Bhatt et al. 2014).
The species composition of home gardens can, however, differ from one garden to
another, depending on climate and economic status of the owner (Kathleen and Mark
1990). A few species that are grown in the study area are: Raphanus sativus L., Colo-
casia esculenta L., Allium cepa L., A. sativum L., Brassica campestris L., Spinacea
oleracea L., Vicia faba L., Pisum sativum L., Solanum tuberosum L. and Zingiber
officinale Roscoe (Table 12.3).
12.4.6 Farming Systems
Agroforestry farming system in Chamoli district is mostly monsoon-based rains (July

to September), which account for about the rain fed and traditional. The important
agricultural crops in the study area are: Triticum aestivum L., Leersia oryzoides (L.)
Sw., Vigna mungo (L.) Hepper, Macrotylom auniflorum (Lam.) Verdc., Eleusine cora-
cana (L.) Gaertn., Phaseolus lunatus L., Brassica rapa L., Glycine max (L.) Merr.,
Pisum sativum L., Hordeum vulgare L., Vigna radiata (L.) R.Wilczek and Macroty-
lom auniflorum (Lam.) Verdc. The agroforestry tree species in the study area are:
Quercus oblongata D.Don, Grewia oppositifolia Roxb. ex DC., Celtisaus tralis L.,
Ficus auriculata Lour., Ficus racemosa L., Bauhinia variegata L. and Toona ciliate
M.Roem. The horticultural crops in the study area are: Citrus aurantiifolia (Christm.)
Swingle, Citrus pseudolimon Tan., Juglans regia L., Morus alba L., Prunus arme-
niaca L., Prunus persica (L.) Batsch, Punica granatum L. and Pyrus pyraster (L.)
Burgsd (Table 12.3).
12.5 Conclusion
It is suggested, if proper interaction were made between the local people, villagers
and farmers, agriculture department for better understanding and development for
sustainable development of ecosystem in the study area. The ground-based policy
preparation and management should be prepared for better agroforestry productivity
for livelihood. Agroforestry practices such as agri-silviculture and agri-horticulture
system for wood, food and fruit, production, wind and soil protection by boundary and
contour planting; fodder production as well as soil and water conservation through
silvo-pastoral system; and home gardens, agri-silvi-horticulture for food, fruit and
fodder should be promoted for the sustainable developments of the nature and natural
resources.
Acknowledgements The authors gratefully acknowledge Prof. S.S. Bargali, Department of Botany,
Kumaun University, Nainital for his valuable suggestions, support, encouragement and help for
preparation of the manuscript.
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Chapter 13
UN SDGs and Context of Holy-Heritage
Cities in India: A Study of Ayodhya
and Varanasi
Rana P. B. Singh , Sarvesh Kumar and Pravin S. Rana
Abstract Following the UN SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) Target 11.4,

focussing on ‘Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Develop-
ment’, cultural heritage and urban sustainability are now considered inseparable part
of holistic development. Religion had played an important role for controlling power
in Indian monarchy in the ancient past, and in contemporary India too it played a role
in the formation of religious landscape and corporate identity of religious heritage,
through commonly using processions, pilgrimage, religious assemblies, religious
fairs (melā) and sacred places. Newly introduced concepts of pilgrimage tourism
will help to revitalise these sacred cities. Situated in the Ganga river basin, Ayodhya
and Banaras both have been primarily ancient tı̄rthas (riverfront sacredscapes) and
salvific cities that record settlement continuity since at least ca 800BCE. Under the
umbrella of holistic development, Government of India is promoting inclusive her-
itage sustainable development of heritage sites (cities), through active participation
of stakeholders in the purview of SDGs and future development.
Keywords SDGs · Pilgrimage tourism · Ayodhya · Varanasi · Inclusive heritage

development · Riverfront sacredscapes
R. P. B. Singh (B) · P. S. Rana

Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi 221005, UP, India
e-mail: ranapbs@gmail.com
URL: https://banaras.academia.edu/RanaPBSINGH/Papers
P. S. Rana
e-mail: psranabhu@gmail.com
R. P. B. Singh
ACLA-Asian Cultural Landscape Association (SNU), Seoul, Korea
S. Kumar
Department of Geography, D.D.U. Gorakhpur University, Gorakhpur 273009, UP, India
e-mail: sarvesh1k@gmail.com

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2097-6_13
188 R. P. B. Singh et al.
13.1 The Perspective: Culture, Cultural Heritage

and Inclusive Heritage Development
The classical model of Sustainable Development (Gro Herlem Brundtland Report

1987; Fig. 13.1) has been critically examined after the passage of time and com-
prehended under the umbrella of Universal Forum of Cultures 2007, emphasising
the base of Developing Civility—culture, language and religions for inter-faith dia-
logue. Three modes’ model for culture and sustainable development has been struc-
tured engulfing sustainability (Fig. 13.2): So, Social; En, Environment; and En,
Economic, where the three roles of Culture in Sustainable Development (the three
circles representing the three pillars, So, En and Ec) are envisaged. In this model,
Culture is added as the fourth pillar (a), Culture mediating between the three pillars
(b) and Culture as the foundation for sustainable development (c). The arrows in the
model indicate the ever-changing dynamics of culture and sustainable development
(Dessein et al. 2015, p. 29).
Fig. 13.1 Basic frame of

sustainability (Source Kumar
2018, p. 215, after
Brundtland Report 1987)
Fig. 13.2 Culture and sustainable development: Three models—a Culture in sustainable develop-
ment, b Culture for sustainable development, c Culture as sustainable development (Source Kumar
2018, p. 215, substantially modified after Dessein et al. 2015, p. 29)
13 UN SDGs and Context of Holy-Heritage Cities in India … 189
Within this perspective, the two heritage-holy cities of India, Ayodhya and
Varanasi, are selected for illustrating their inclusive heritage development strate-
gies and interlinking SDGs, especially Target 11.4, i.e. (i) vision for protecting and
safeguarding cultural and natural heritages, and (ii) consideration of the local con-
ditions, policies and orientation for preservation, protection and conservation of
national cultural heritages.
13.2 Introducing the Two Heritage-Holy Cities: Ayodhya

and Varanasi
It is important to note that not all of the geographical sites mountains, hills, rivers,
caves, etc. are considered holy. They must possess some peculiarity together with
sacral spirit and power of the place to qualify as a point where human beings can
seek contact with the divine. Association of sacrality and the geographical setting
enhances the sacred power of a place and therefore the awe or reverence to that. In
fact, in the Indian case, one finds great attraction of sacred places that has initially
not been due to a particular temple (alone), rather the geography of such holy places
was significant (Singh 2015, p. 70, also Singh 2013, and Singh and Rana 2016).
The seven most sacred and salvific cities of the India include Ayodhya,
Varanasi (Kashi), Mathura, Maya-Haridwar, Kanchi, Avantika-Ujjain, Puri, Dwarka
(Fig. 13.3). The heritage-holy cities of Ayodhya and Varanasi are located in the Ganga
river basin, which is served by the two main tributaries, the Sarayu (Ghaghara) and
the Yamuna. The Rig Veda (RgV 1.23.20), one of the earliest texts dated ca 2000
BCE, narrates water as the possessor of life’s infusing power, and the motherly
qualities, thus considered as a spiritual endowment. The stories of the Ganga also
associate the metaphysical, mystical and material worldviews of existence, continu-
ity and maintenance of human life (Singh 2009a), thus the whole of its basin became
sacred landscape (Singh 2015, p. 72).
Ayodhya (latitude of 26°47 16.67 N and a longitude of 82°11 54.79 E) is situated
on the right bank of the holy river Sarayu (Ghaghara, a tributary of the Ganga) at
a distance of 7 km east from Faizabad city (Fig. 13.3). Ayodhya was one of the
famous cities and the first capital of the powerful Kosala Kingdom among the 16
Mahajanapadas of ancient India (Law 1944, p. 424). The city for a period of over two
thousand years has borne witnessed to the presence of Jainism, Buddhism, Shaivism,
Vaishnavism and Islam, and therefore Ayodhya consists of the sacred and religious
places for Hindus together with Muslims, Jains, Buddhists and Sikhs (Shaw 2000,
p. 698, also Kumar and Singh 2016).
Ayodhya is sacred and religious place even for Janis. There are five Jain temples
located near birthplaces of the five Jain Tirthankaras (angels), viz., Adinatha or
Rishabhadev temple in Muraitola Swargadvara, Ajeetnatha temple near Saptsagar,
Abhinandananatha temple near to Saraya, Sumanthnatha temple near to the Ramkot
and last one Anantnath temple near to Golaghat. Ayodhya also records more than
Fig. 13.3 India: Seven sacred holy-heritage cities (prepared by the authors)
hundred mosques, mazars (tombs), idgahs (prayer ground), Karbala (burial place),
etc. related to Muslim sacred/ritual landscapes, that is how in metaphorically the city
is called ‘Chhoti Mecca’ (Little Mecca). Muslims perform a variety of rituals in their
sacred places.
Varanasi (latitude of 25° 19 3.52 N and a longitude of 82° 58 26.09 E) exists on the
left side bank of the Ganga river (Fig. 13.3), and popularly called Kashi or Banaras.
This city is popularly known as the Cultural Capital and Heritage city of India, and
also as one of the oldest living cities in the world. While a number of cultures have
risen high and fallen down, a number of cities disappeared in the abyss of time,
Varanasi continued to grow and maintained its cultural and scholastic traditions of
religious performances, learning, and arts and crafts.
Ashoka (272-242 BCE), who established the Buddhism as state religion, had paid a
visit to Sarnath (northern part of the city), and under his patronage many monasteries,
stupas and shrines were built. After the downfall of Mauryas, the prosperity of the
city has gone into darkness till the rule of Kushana in the first century CE. However,
again in the twelfth century, the city has recorded the glorious days, but due to several
invasions the glories fell down.
In the early eighteenth century with the decline of the government in Delhi,
Banaras first came under the rule of the Nawabs of Oudh in 1722, and later became
the seat of Mansaram (1730–1738), the initiator of the present state of Kashi. Under
the influence of the Marathas (1734–1785), a wave of cultural renaissance overtook
Banaras who substantially rebuilt the city. For the first time in 1948, the Banaras
Improvement Trust was formed for making ‘Master Plan of Banaras’, and thus
in 1951 the first such plan was prepared. The ongoing Master Plan of Varanasi
2011–2031 incorporated the earlier strategies and structure for the future develop-
ment on the line of SDGs and ‘Smart City Development Plan’. The Comprehensive
Development Plans (CDP) of both of the cities, Ayodhya and Varanasi, are in pro-
cess of development under GOI missions of HRIDAY (Heritage city Development
and Augmentation Yojana) and PRASAD (Pilgrimage Rejuvenation And Spiritual
Augmentation Drive).
Both of these historic cities are sacred places, of course primarily for Hindus, but
also they historically represent other religious groups, like Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhs
and Islam/Sufis (Muslims). Banaras is predominated by the Shaiva imageries, while
Ayodhya by Vaishnavite. These sacred-heritage cities record a number of rituals, fes-
tivities, pilgrimage journeys and ancient temples, river ghats (stairways and bathing
places), holy water bodies and riverfront sites, and associated heritage values—those
are the representative grandeur of art and tangible and intangible heritage repositories
that should be used as resources for sustainable urban development. Presently, around
1.9 million pilgrims/tourists pay visit to each of these places every year. Of course,
there appear many dilapidating religious heritage sites and monuments in lack of
sustainable conservation and preservation strategy, bad administrative management
and lack of people awareness and their active involvement.
13.3 Heritage Zones: Ayodhya and Varanasi
The idea of heritage zone is based on the importance of an area possessing represen-
tation of ancient and alive religious and sacred sites that maintained the continuity of
age-old tradition and considered to be a basic resource for inclusive heritage devel-
opment. These areas and zones are identified in the ongoing Master Plans of the
heritage-holy cities of Ayodhya and Varanasi.
13.3.1 Ayodhya
Ayodhya is predominantly a sacred-heritage city that is how religious landscapes are

the prevalent scene, and their concentration in specific area is taken to demarcate the
specific zone. The ongoing framing of the Master Plan, which first shaped for 1983–
2001 and now still in process for 2021, mentions scattered religious sites spotted in
different parts, which can easily be bounded with four heritage zones (Fig. 13.4).
13.3.1.1 Ramkot Heritage Zone
In this zone, 55 properties are enumerated, including Hindu temples, ghats (riverfront
bathing places), kunds (water pools), Jain temples, Muslim shrines and tombs, and
passing on pilgrimage routes. The Ayodhya Act-1993 and Archaeological Survey of
India’s rules related to acquisition of land (buildings, shops, residential houses) near
to Ramkot (Ramajanmabhumi) by provenance and rule under the Central Govern-
ment of India prohibits any type of new constructions in the vicinity of Ramkot, to
avoid interrupting security of the Ramajanmabhumi. However, there are incidences
of illegal encroachments, taking benefit of religious sentiments.
Fig. 13.4 Ayodhya: Heritage zone (compiled and prepared by the authors)
13.3.1.2 Riverfront Heritage Zone: Ghats and Temples
The bank of the Sarayu River at Ayodhya consists of 25 bathing places (ghats); those
are counted as sacred and ritualistic sites for Hindu adherents. The riverfront buildings
(monasteries and built heritage) are the distinct architectural grandeur, built mostly
by kings and lords from different parts of India between eighteenth and twentieth
centuries. This zone consists of two parts, viz., the eastern and the western. Most of
the riverfront sacred-heritage sites are in the eastern part. Among these, Svargadvara
Ghat (‘door to the heaven’), spreads between the Sahastradhara and the temple of
Treta Ke Thakur, is the most popular ghat for bathing and related rituals (Kumar and
Singh 2015).
13.3.1.3 Gulab Bari–Bahu Begum Maqbara Zone
This zone contains about seven properties related to Nawab period, i.e. Gulab Bari
or tomb of Suja-ud-daula, Tomb of Bahu Begum (Maqbara) and Tomb of Bane
Khanam, and all are under the protection of Archaeological Survey of India. Tomb
of third Nawab of Avadh Shuja-ud-daula is situated in the inner part of Gulab Bari.
The construction of this tomb was initiated by Shuja-ud-daula in his Nawabi period
and after death in CE 1775 he was buried in this tomb. The final construction of the
tomb with dome and tower was accomplished by Bahu Begum, the wife of Nawab
Suja-ud-daula in CE 1789.
13.3.1.4 Mani Parvat Zone
This zone contains more than 20 properties associated with Muslims, Buddhists and
Hindus. Mani Parvat (mound) is the oldest Buddhist ruined site dated ca 400 CE that
was seen by Faxian (Bakker 1986 II, p. 31), but presently it is known for Rama Sita
temple and the ceremonial place for Shravan Jhula festival. This site is under the
protection of Archaeological Survey of India. The Vidya Kunda lying 200 m east
from the Mani Parvat and 1.75 km south-west from the Sita Kunda is situated in the
inner courtyard of the Mahavidya temple complex.
Apart from the four heritage zones, pilgrimage and its associated sacred routes
are the other common religious heritage zones in holy cities. Ayodhya has developed
five pilgrimage routes in continuity of history, viz., Chaurasikroshi, Chaudahakroshi,
Panchakroshi, Ramkot ki Parikrama and Antargrihi Parikrama; among these the two
latter are minor and relatively less popular (Fig. 13.4). Three major pilgrimage routes
define the three territorial limits of Ayodhya, viz., Chaurasikroshi, Chaudahakroshi
and Panchakroshi. Like most of the pan-Indian holy centres, Ayodhya too displays
a three-tier cosmology, respectively, as macro (i.e. mandala, the Outer one), meso
(i.e. Kshetra, the Middle one) and micro (i.e. Puri/city, inner sanctum) cosmos, all
demarcated by routes and linked archetypally by temples/shrines and are described
in the ancient mythologies, which are frequently cited in various rituals and group-
chanting and sacred walks.
13.3.2 Varanasi: Heritage Zones
In the Master Plans for Varanasi, for the first time some strategies of urban heritage
and heritage zoning were proposed in the recent Master Plan (1991–2011; Singh
2009b, p. 327), focussing on to maintain and preserve the ancient glory of Varanasi,
and to identify necessary facilities and infrastructure and various heritage complexes.
The heritage zone as delimited in the Master Plan 2011 has been further incorporated
in the ongoing Master Plan 2011–2031. Only a little over 2% of the total area is
proposed under tourism and heritage zone. According to the zoning plan, five heritage
zones have been identified (see Singh 2009b, p. 329–332; and Singh and Rana 2019,
p. 155–158, Fig. 13.5).
Fig. 13.5 Varanasi, Development Plan 2011–2031 (after Singh 2015, p. 102)
13.3.2.1 Riverfront Ghats (Stairways to the Riverbank)
The riverfront heritage covers the eastern portion of the city stretching within 200 m
from the riverbank. Eighty-four riverfront ghats spread over a length of 6.8 km
along the crescent-shaped bank of the River Ganga, from the south to the north.
The riverfront is overlooked by lofty palatial buildings built between eighteenth and
twentieth centuries, mostly by kings and lords from different parts of India; the area
is primarily occupied by various shrines, temples and religious places.
13.3.2.2 Durgakund–Sankatmochan Area
This area contains about twenty temples and shrines and the water pools of Dur-
gakund and Kurukshetra kundas, which are two historic sacred tanks dating from the
late eighteenth century. Every Tuesday, and more frequently in the month of Shra-
vana (July–August) and Ashvina (September–October), especially during the nine
nights (Navaratri) in the light lunar fortnight (waxing), worshippers perform rituals
honouring goddess in the Durga temple. This temple was built on the orthodox model
of Hindu architecture. Towards the east near the Ganga river is the oldest sacred pond
in Varanasi, called Lolark Kund, which was referred to in the epic Mahabharata (sec-
ond century BCE) and which continue to attract a large mass of pilgrims, especially
on its annual day of celebration falling on the Bhadrapada (August–September) 6th
of the light-half lunar fortnight.
13.3.2.3 Kamachha–Bhelupura Area
This area records some of the old monasteries, ancient shrines and an ancient heritage
site associated with the Jain Tirthankara Parshvanath, together with many monuments
and buildings of the British period (eighteenth—nineteenth centuries). The histori-
cally notable temples and shrines of heritage values in this zone are Kamachha Devi,
Krodhan Bhairava, Angareshi Chandi, Vatuka Bhairava and Vaidyanath Shiva.
13.3.2.4 Kabir Math (Lahartara) Area
This site was the birthplace of Kabir, a great saint-poet and social reformer of the
sixteenth century. The Kabir Temple Complex is coming up as a great modern reli-
gious heritage and centre of solace and learning; of course it is turning to be a ‘White
Elephant’—less associated with the local society and culture. Under the heritage
development project by the State Government, some works have already been going
on.
13.3.2.5 Sarnath
This archaeological heritage site was famous for its sanctity, beauty and natural
scenery, qualities that attracted the Buddha to give his first sermon here in 528 BCE.
Following Muslim invasions and the downfall of the Gahadavalas Kings in the late
twelfth century, the site was left in ruins and only came to light in CE 1793.
Varanasi is famous for its series and layers of sacred circuits (counting to 54),
among which the Panchakroshi is the most popular. This pilgrimage circuit repre-
senting the cosmo-spatial mandalic territory (kshetra) of Kashi is a unique attribute
of Varanasi, where exist 108 temples and shrines. Under the recently initiated her-
itage development project, partial works like improvement of roads, cleaning of the
water pools and repairing of some of the roads are being completed. On the ground
of pilgrimage tourism, this cosmic circuit should be given special emphasis, so also
promote sustainable heritage tourism (for details see Singh and Rana 2018).
13.4 Ayodhya and Varanasi: Intangible Heritage

on UNESCO Scale
The Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH), conceived as the mainspring of human-

ity’s cultural diversity, covers the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge,
skills—as well as the instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces associated
therewith—that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognise as
part of their cultural heritage. The ICH has been transmitted from generation to gen-
eration, maintained and continued while also absorbing several aspects at different
times as response and acceptance of the society.
The UNESCO has broadly classified ICH into five categories: (1) oral traditions
and expressions, including language as a vehicle of the intangible cultural heritage;
(2) performing arts; (3) social practices, rituals and festive events; (4) knowledge and
practices concerning nature and the universe; and (5) traditional craftsmanship (see
Singh 2015, pp. 125–126). While giving due consideration to the UNESCO Scale
of ICH, in the Indian perspective of the ICH, specially referring to holy-heritage
cities like Ayodhya and Banaras, various attributes of the ICH can be classified into
ten broad categories (see Singh 2015, p. 127, also Singh et al. 2020, p. 252; see
Table 13.1).
As discussed above, Ayodhya and Banaras, both are fully suited to be designated
as sites of intangible cultural heritages (ICH) and their associated attributes should
be taken care of in the inclusive heritage development in the frame of SDGs.
Table 13.1 Attributes of intangible cultural Heritage: Ayodhya and Varanasi

Se Cultural Heritage attribute Ayodhya (major/selected Varanasi/Banaras
(selective) ones referred) (major/selected ones
referred)
1 Oral Traditions Rama Katha (religious Katha (religious
storytelling), Birha—folk storytelling), Birha—folk
songs, singing, dancing songs, singing, dancing
2 Performance Arts Bhajan, Nautanki, Bharat Classical like Dhrupad,
Milap, Lok Nritya (folk Sanskrit Theatre, Folk
dances), Ramajanma dance and singings,
Badhai, Birha, Ramanami Bharat Milap, instrumental
chanting, etc. and performances
3 Ramalila—Krishnalila at Bhagvatacharya at Ramanagar, Chitrakut,
(theatre form of the God’s Smaraksadan, Bade Sthan, Assi Ghat, Nati Emli,
story; varieties, distinctive; Gola Ghat, Lakshmankila, Chetganj, Khojwa, Shivpur,
historical) Jankimahal trust, Dashavatar Lila;
Ramajanaki Krishnalila—(Assi Ghat),
Mandir—Sahabganj, Nrisimhalila, etc.
Kothaparcha, Fatehganj,
etc.
4 Parikrama/Yatras, Chaurashikroshi Yatra, Chaurashikroshi;
Pilgrimages Chaudahkroshi Yatra, Panchakroshi; Avimukta;
Panchakroshi Yatra, Nagar Pradakshina;
Ramkot ki Parikrama, Antargriha—Vishveshvara;
Antergrihe Parikrama, Omkareshvara;
Kalpvas Kedareshvara; Aditya (Sun)
Yatra; etc.
5 Rituals and Festivals HINDU Festivals: Makara HINDU Festivals: Makara
(selective) Samkranti, Matgajendra Samkranti, Maha Shivaratri,
# For dates of selective Mela, Chaitra Navaratri, Ganga Dashahara, Krishna
Festivals, see Singh 2015, Rama Navami, Sarayu Janmasthami, Lolarka
the Appendix: 1, p. 124 Mahotsav, Savan Jhula Chhata Mela, Naga
Mela, Krishna Nathaiya, Surya Shashthi
Janmasthami, Hanuman Chhatha (Karttika
Jayanti, Gudara ka Mela, Purnima), Buddha Purnima;
Surya Kunda Mela, MUSLIM Festivals:
MUSLIM Festivals: Muharraum,
Muharraum, Idul-Fitr/Idul-Juha,
Idul-Fitr/Idul-Juha, Sabbe-rat, etc.
Sabbe-rat, etc.
6 Traditional Art and Murti casting (sculpturing), Murti casting (sculpturing),
Craftsmanship wooden work, special Shringar (icon decorative
sweets (e.g. Anarsa), art), Silver work, wooden
special toy making, Silk weaving
breakfasts—Kachori and (Banarasi Sari), etc.
Imarte, Samosa
(continued)

Se Cultural Heritage attribute Ayodhya (major/selected Varanasi/Banaras
(selective) ones referred) (major/selected ones
referred)
7 Scholastic Traditions and RML Avadh University, B.H.U., M.G.K.
schooling and discourses Narendra Dev University of Vidhyapith,
system Agriculture and S. Sanskrit University,
Technology, Gurukul Central University of
Sanskrit Mahavidyalaya, Tibetan Studies,
KPSL Saket Parshvanath Jain Institute,
Mahavidyalaya, Rama Nam Institute of Textile and
International Bank Weaving, Udai Pratap PG
College, Darul Salfia
Islamia
8 Indigenous Knowledge and Sanskrit study, meditation, Nature therapy, Yoga
Healing Tradition Ramakatha Vyas Pitha centres and tradition,
(Rama Katha Vachak) Ayurvedic medicine and
centres
9 Memorials, icons and Shri Rama, Gautam sites related to
Saints’ associated sites and Buddha; Five Jain Shankarachaya, Tulasi,
related performances Tirthankara: Rishabhadev, Kabir, Ravidas, Dadu,
Ajeetnatha, Nanak, etc., Rani Lakshmi
Abhinandananatha, Bai; Muslim Mazars:
Sumanthnatha, Anantnatha; Sheikh Salim Chisti, Sheikh
Tulasi; Nanak/other Sikh Ali Hazim, Shah Taaiyyab
saints; Muslim Mazars: Banarasi, Ghazi Miyan
Hazrat Noah, Shesh Chandan Shahid
Paigambar, Hazrat Sayad
shah (Adgada Mazar)
10 Birthplaces and memorials Narendra Deva, Mangal Pt Gopinath Kaviraj, L.B.
of Freedom Fighters and Pandey, Chakbast and Mir Shastri, Bismillah Khan, Pt.
Literates, and related Babar Ali Anis (Urdu Poet), Ravi Shankar, Premchand,
celebrations Umrao Jaan, Begum Akhtar Bhartendu Harishchandra,
(singer of Ghazal, Dadra, Jaishankar Prasad, Ram
and Thumri genres of Chandra Shukla, Birju
Hindustani classical music) Maharaj, Girja Devi, and
others
Source Compiled by the authors, with additions; see also Singh 2015, p. 127
13.5 Shaping Sustainable Heritage City System
The structuring, shaping and operating sustainable heritage city (SHC) system may
be arranged into six-tier operation, i.e. 1—Setting the vision for SHC of the venture,
2—Identifying the SDGs Target 11.4 and Inclusive Heritage Development, IHD,
Strategies, 3—Achieving the Political Cohesion, 4—Building the SHC Frame, 5—
Measuring the SHC’s Potential and the Progress, and 6—Ensure Accountability and
Responsibility (see Table 13.2). The structural shaping is rationally befitting to both
of the cities, Ayodhya and Varanasi.
Table 13.2 Shaping sustainable heritage city (SHC) system

SHC attribute Resultant function
1. Setting the vision for SHC of the venture Identifying—an inclusive heritage city vision
↓↑ is tune with the heritage city’s identity and
long-term inclusive heritage development,
IHD, strategy; relevant multi-stakeholders
and mechanisms; the existing governance and
organisational mechanisms for historic
heritage city solutions
2. Identifying the SDGs Target 11.4 and IHD Developing heritage city infrastructure (e.g.
Strategies Internet of Things); Identifying and
↓↑ developing smart and sustainable heritage city
services in the purview of SDGs Target 11.4
containing within the so-called ‘Urban
Sustainable Development Goals’
3. Achieving the Political Cohesion Local governments should obtain the
↓↑ necessary political approval and backing to
ensure that the strategic programme is pursued
as related to IHD. This includes the adoption
of the programme/targets through consensus
4. Building the SHC Frame Improvement of existing traditional
↓↑ infrastructure and new infrastructure must be
built under the IHD; developing an action plan
for Public–Private–Partnership programmes;
ensuring long-term services via good
operation maintenance of Sustainable
Heritage City, SHC
5. Measuring the SHC’s Potential and the Consisting of monitoring and evaluating
progress potential and work programme required to
↓↑ achieve the UN—SDGs Target 11.4,
emphasising a set of sustainable development
targets related to heritage cities and heritage
sites and settlements
6. Ensure Accountability and Responsibility Involves evaluating, reporting and learning
↓↑ from SHC process and related experiences.
The reflective process of evaluation will feed
into a process of continuous learning, which in
turn will influence and inform the IHD of the
future vision and strategy for smart and SHC
Source Kumar (2018), p. 216, developed in Indian context taking in view the ITU-T FG-SSC
(2015), and Habitat III Quito Report, October (2016)
In successful operation of Sustainable Heritage City System, like to other planning

models, community participation is the key energy in functioning and maintenance of
the system by making rational balance among social (religious and cultural heritage),
physical (housing and community development) and economic (cultural heritage
tourism) attributes of heritage-holy city; this can easily be schematized using set and
superimposing sets (see Fig. 13.6).
Fig. 13.6 Interacting Action

Plan for Community
Participation (prepared by
the authors)
13.6 Heritage and Pilgrimage Inclusive Development:

Framing HRIDAY and PRASAD
The Ministry of Tourism and Culture, and Ministry of Urban Development, Gov-
ernment of India, have recently initiated counter-depending missions of (i) Heritage
city Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY), and (ii) Pilgrimage Rejuve-
nation And Spiritual Augmentation Drive (PRASAD), with an aim to strengthen and
promote the heritage sites and centres of pilgrimage tourism in making the environ-
ment green and sustainable while befitting into the roots of culture and traditions.
Through the newly formed government in Uttar Pradesh, an agreement between GOI
Ministry of Culture and Tourism and government of U.P. has been made on 24 March
2017 to develop and transform the holy cities as special sites for heritage and reli-
gious tourism, which includes Varanasi, Ayodhya, Mathura, Gorakhpur and Agra.
Special plans are also in process preparing conservation and rejuvenation of heritage
and religious sites in these cities (see Singh and Rana 2019, p. 168).
13.6.1 National Mission of HRIDAY
The National mission on the ‘Heritage city Development and Augmentation Yojana’
(HRIDAY), aims conserving and preserving the distinct and unique characters of
the heritage cities, those continued their traditions of heritage (tangible, intangible,
transitory and cultural landscapes. They would be used as a resource for sustainable
development and ecological restoration on the line of achieving the SDGs (Sustain-
able Development Goals). The strategy of SDGs also includes cleanliness, planning,
livelihood of the local people and economy (cf. Kumar and Singh 2019, p. 78). The
protection, augmentation, management, authenticity and integrity of properties (both
tangible, intangible, and transitory) are also important considerations, together with
the marked specific characteristics.
13.6.2 National Mission of PRASAD
Aiming to beautify and improve the amenities and infrastructure at pilgrimage centres
of all faiths, a National mission on ‘Pilgrimage Rejuvenation And Spiritual Augmen-
tation Drive’ (PRASAD) has been announced in the Union Budget 2014–2015 and
an amount of Rs. 1,000 million (US$ 15 mill.) has been proposed for this initiative.
Under PRASAD the old historical–cultural pilgrimage routes and associated sites
would also be developed (see Kumar and Singh 2019, pp. 78–79).
These two schemes together planned to activate the following objectives (see
Kumar and Singh 2019, p. 326):
• Enhancing heritage sensitive infrastructure in the purview of planning, develop-
ment and implementation.
• Introducing service delivery and infrastructure provision that befit to core areas in
historic cities (e.g. Ayodhya and Varanasi).
• Motivating tourist and pilgrims to have direct experience of uniqueness of city’
heritage and improving sensitivity to preserve and revitalise heritage.
• Preparation and easy accessibility of Heritage Inventory Register, which may pro-
vide the historical accounts and a basis for urban planning, growth and service
provision and delivery.
• Basic service delivery, including sanitation services like public conveniences, toi-
lets, water taps, street lights with the use of latest technologies in improving tourist
facilities/amenities to provided, having a system of monitoring and continuous
appraisal.
• Local capacity building and scope for absorbing the contemporary problems
related to inclusive heritage-based industry be implemented.
• An inter-changing and countering system of effective linkages between tourism
and cultural facilities, including conservation of natural and built heritage, should
be strengthened.
• Using appropriate and indigenous technologies for retrofitting historic buildings
and urban heritage adaptive rehabilitation and maintenance, the structural plan to
be chalked out (HRIDAY 2015).
The interfaces and reciprocity between pilgrimage and tourism are integral parts of
human travel. That is how ‘pilgrimage tourism’ (‘Tı̄rthayātrā-Paryatan’) is consid-
ered as an alternative for the solution; of course, this is more inclined to metaphys-
ical issue and life philosophy: meeting sacred and profane. Pilgrimage tourism is
considered now as strategy for heritage awakening, deeper experiences and trans-
ferring the religiosity into global humanism and spirituality (see Rana 2014). The
sustainable frame of pilgrimage tourism and heritage should be promoted in three
ways: philosophical, organisational and managerial, which may fulfil the objectives
of SDGs Target 4.7 and Target 11.4, focussing inclusive development together with
protecting and safeguarding the cultural and natural heritages. In recent debate, the
eco-healing approach to pilgrimage tourism is considered as a post-modernist way
to consider pilgrimage as a bridge between recreation and spirituality; this way pil-
grimage tourism will hope to provide a rational alternative for cultural awakening
and strategy for poverty alleviation (cf. Singh, Rana and Kumar 2019, p. 80). As
the ‘caring for the place (the Earth)’ is inherent in the pilgrimage tourism, it will
also provide opportunity to intimately sense and deep feelings for the place and the
people—their behaviour, their heritage and the present lifeworld in which they live,
act and keep the glorious tradition alive, see Singh (2011a, 2011b).
The approach to study tourism so for has been the study of economic activity.
However, it limits the scope and answer to many questions posed as a consequential
result. On the line of ‘commodification approach’ proposed by Ashworth (1991,
p. 111), the ‘eco-healing package’ may be considered that may extend the horizon
of potential resources in pilgrimage tourism as an alternative tourism, expected that
it will fulfil the objectives of PRASAD (see Singh 2004, p. 213).
13.7 Epilogue: Vision and Concluding Remarks
Unlike the Millennium Development Goals, as a result of a concerted effort from

many sectors, the SDGs contain an explicit heritage target, Target 11.4, it calls for
making cities and human settlements inclusive, and safeguard the world’s cultural
and natural heritage. The Target is contained within the so-called ‘Urban Sustainable
Development Goals’, a set of sustainable development targets related to heritage
cities and settlements. Taking in view the prevailing condition in holy-heritage cities
in India (e.g. Ayodhya and Varanasi), the basic frame for holistic development will
be chalked out. Conserving heritage renews a sense of identity can inspire new smart
and sustainable system in pilgrimage city and sacred town development patterns,
especially emphasising on the valorisation of the assets of the poor. In the other
context of SDGs, the social sustainability of heritage city is based on social groups
of local living peoples, pilgrims and sadhus (Hindu religious ascetic), resulting in
social beliefs and cultural performances in the form of intangible cultural heritage.
According to the ancient history, Ayodhya and Varanasi have been historically the
holy-heritage cities where various social groups through the religious faiths of Hin-
duism, Buddhism, Jainism and Islam meet together in making multiple visitation
sites of heritage importance and nexus of harmonious life.
On the line of the earlier proposal (that was not finalised yet), taking UNESCO
Guidelines for inscription in the World Heritage List, cities of Ayodhya and Varanasi
are also in the process of assessment as both fulfil the five criteria out of ten (see
Kumar 2018, pp. 243–247, and Kumar and Singh 2017, pp. 58–65). The making
of dossiers for getting Ayodhya and Varanasi in the UNESCO WHL is in process
since last decades, while taking in view the strategies of Smart City Development and
SDGs (cf. Gidwani 2012); however, these are only the political agenda for mobilising
people in their support, instead of real sense, prioritisation and action.
Cultural tourism plays a great role towards socio-economic changes and pro-
motion of sustainability. According to Indian sentiment, the pilgrim’s centres or
tirthasthāna used to be visited by number of tourists to earn virtue (Dasgupta, et al.
2006, p. 11). As one of the largest industries, tourism is associated with many of the
prime sectors of world’s economy. Economic sustainability of Ayodhya and Varanasi
is regulated by annual visit of tourists (of course, mostly pilgrims), recorded ca 1.9
million, in each of the places, in 2018. Taking this view government is trying to pro-
mote pilgrimage tourism in the purview of SDGs, taking in view ‘heritage-making’
(‘heritagization’ or ‘patrimonialization’ in French). Pilgrimage defined as ‘a journey
resulting from religious causes, externally to a holy site, and internally for spiritual
purposes and internal understanding’ (Collins-Kreiner 2009, p. 153); that’s how
pilgrimage tourism will promote, sustain and maintain economic and cultural sus-
tainability, together with maintaining belief systems. Both of the pilgrimage cities
bear various interrelated phenomena to which people are affiliated with the belief
system, faith and spiritual merits. This is also to be kept in mind that the sacred spaces
vis-à-vis public spaces, in a way, will serve as peace plaza and places of spiritual
awakening having ‘the potential for healing communal strife and reviving urban art,
(cultural and) folk practices. Heritage conservation can thus become an empowering
tool for local communities and for the visitor an opportunity for spiritual growth’
(Sinha 2014, p. 60), which is an ultimate aim of the urban areas.
A recent study remarks that ‘If the urban SDG is to prove useful as a tool as
intended for encouraging local and national authorities alike to make positive invest-
ments in the various components of urban sustainability transitions, then it must be
widely relevant, acceptable and practicable’ (Simon et al. 2016, p. 60). This is valid
in the case of Indian heritage cities, where one always faces the problem of linking
locality and universality. Additionally, central to this task has been the challenge of
determining how to benchmark and measure performance according to the SMART
criteria (i.e. specific, measurable, assignable, realistic and time-specific), based on
specialist scholarship, the existing literature and practical experience of the site (see
Birch 2015, p. 228), taking into account demand, pressure response and multifactor
versus single factor, and also considering two metrics: the traditional dimensions of
sustainability (equity, economics and environment) and later forming the Liveability
Principles of Partnership for Sustainable Communities (PSC), while making bridge
between the age-old traditions and high-tech smart city plans.
In a recent meeting ICOMOS (2016) having discourses on ‘Heritage as Driver
of Sustainability: Mission and Activities for 2017–18’, it has been noticed that the
SDGs focused on achieving representation of heritage in the major policy papers of
Agenda 2030. Now that these policy papers are adopted at the highest, global level,
and their goals and targets await being fulfilled, focus has shifted to ‘implementation’
through public participation and PPP (Public–Private–Partnership). Therefore, the
mission that ICOMOS has given its Focal Point for the SDGs in the new term is
to ‘steer a coordinated process of advocacy to advance the implementation of UN
Agenda 2030—SDGs and Habitat NUA (New Urban Agenda) from the perspective
of cultural and natural heritage, within the framework of the ICOMOS mandate and
inputs from strategic partners’. The NUA, a framework laying out how cities should
be planned and managed to best promote sustainable urbanisation within the purview
of culture and cultural heritage will keep the vitality and image of holy-heritage cities.
Activities towards accomplishing this mission include liaising with stakeholders at
national, regional and local level (e.g. holy-heritage cities like Ayodhya and Varanasi)
and across governance sectors (public, private, civil society, experts/academia), in
particular for
1. Localising implementation, by providing guidance and direction to stakeholders
to adopt tools of implementation,
2. Monitoring implementation, with a focus on Indicator Target 11.4.1 defined by the
UN (expenditure and share of budgets allocated to heritage) to achieve consistent
and comprehensive data collection,
3. General advocacy, for mainstreaming culture and heritage within sustainable
development, by increasing visibility and outreach across the UN system and the
public sphere.
From the perspective of historic preservation in the ancient culture like India,
the goal looks great, the target thought to be good, but the indicator in view of the
contemporary scenario, frankly, is terrible. In this context, the crucial and critical
issues, mostly against viability and optimality, include inappropriate expenditure
(public and private) used per capita on the preservation, protection and conservation
of all types of heritage (cultural, natural, mixed, intangible and transitory), hierarchi-
cal gaps in the layers of government (national, regional and local/municipal), type
of expenditure (operating expenditure/investment) and also type of private funding
(donations in kind, private non-profit sector and sponsorship), and finally the resultant
consequential issues that intensify the problems.
While making plans and strategies in this direction, the hard realities to be kept
serious consideration, i.e. (1) while the SDGs set targets for nations, most of the
implementation will need to take place at the city or regional levels; (2) the SDGs
have much to say about ‘what’ but much less about ‘how’ or ‘by whom’; and (3) goals
are great, but the real tests of success will be implementation, bottom-up experimen-
tation, and localization! Considering all the diagnostic niches and consequences, let
us March and make ‘pilot models’ at the level of holy-heritage city. The following
six such procedures represent a direct commitment to heritage conservation in the
spectrum of SDGs and NUA (Rypkema 2016):
• Leverage cultural heritage to strengthen social participation and the exercise of
citizenship;
• Develop vibrant, sustainable and inclusive urban economies, building on cultural
heritage;
• Support urban economies through promoting heritage conservation activities;
• Promote regeneration while preserving cultural heritage;
• Include culture as a priority component of urban plans and strategies that safeguard
cultural heritage; and
• Support leveraging cultural heritage for sustainable urban development.

Following the path towards SDGs Target 11.4 in making holy-heritage cities
vibrant and liveable centre of global harmony, spiritual awakening, peace and deeper
understanding, public participation and education are pre-requisite (see Singh 2017,
p. 26). This paper should be taken as a frame and appeal in this direction.
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Chapter 14
Spatial Analysis and Mapping of Malaria
Risk in Dehradun City India:
A Geospatial Technology-Based
Decision-Making Tool for Planning
and Management
Ankita Sarkar, Vaibhav Kumar, Avtar Singh Jasrotia, Ajay Kumar Taloor,
Rajesh Kumar, Rahul Sharma, Varun Khajuria, Girish Raina,
Beena Kouser and Sagarika Roy
Abstract Land-use change emerged as one of the most rational component to the
global environmental change, potentially has significant consequences on human
health in relation to mosquito-borne blood diseases like malaria. Land-use change can
influence mosquito habitat, and therefore the distribution and abundance of vectors
and land use mediates human–mosquito interactions, including biting rate. Based
A. Sarkar
Department of Urban Planning, Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, Dehradun 248001, India
e-mail: ankitasrk26@gmail.com
V. Kumar
Centre for Urban Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India
e-mail: vaibhav.iirs@gmail.com
A. S. Jasrotia · A. K. Taloor (B) · R. Sharma · V. Khajuria · G. Raina
Department of Remote Sensing and GIS, University of Jammu, Jammu 180006, India
e-mail: ajaytaloor@gmail.com
A. S. Jasrotia
e-mail: asjasrotia@yahoo.co.uk
R. Sharma
e-mail: rahul29453@gmail.com
V. Khajuria
e-mail: varunkhajuria8182@gmail.com
G. Raina
e-mail: girishrainaraina@gmail.com
R. Kumar
Department of Geology, Govt. Gandhi Memorial Science College, Jammu, India
e-mail: rajeshkumarjugis@gmail.com
B. Kouser
Department of Geology, University of Jammu, Jammu 180006, India
e-mail: beenajucryosphere@gmail.com
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2097-6_14
208 A. Sarkar et al.
on a conceptual model linking the landscape, human, animal and mosquitoes, this
study focuses on the impacts of changes in land use on malaria in Dehradun city of
India. Health center wise data on malaria and land-use change data were prepared.
Results of the different components of the study were integrated in the geographic
information system (GIS) environment and linking land use to disease. The impacts
of a number of possible scenarios for land-use changes in the region were delineated
and also a risk map of the study area was prepared. Results indicated that land-use
changes have a detectable impact on malaria. This impact varies according to the
land use land cover (LULC) condition as well as the socio-economic condition but
can be counteracted by the adoption of preventive measures.
Keywords Malaria risk · Land use land cover · GIS · Spatial analysis
14.1 Introduction
Malaria is one of the most widespread diseases affecting humans and it remains
endemic in many parts of the world (Baeza et al. 2017). From the ancient history
of man malaria has infected humans and may have been a human pathogen for the
entire history of mankind. Tolle (2009) determines that malaria as a global concern
and the World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated that about 40% of the
world’s population, mostly those living in the developing and underdeveloped coun-
tries are at high risk of malaria. Of these 2.5 billion people are at risk, more than
500 million become severely ill every year and more than 1 million die due to the
effect of malaria. Malaria is a serious disease especially in Asia and Africa, where
one in every five (20%) childhood death is due to the effects of this mosquito-borne
infectious disease caused by parasitic single-celled microorganisms belonging to the
Plasmodium group. On an average, an Indian child receives between 1.6 and 5.4
episodes of malaria fever each year and at every day five children dies from malaria.
The vast majority of cases occur in children under the age of 5 years and pregnant
women are also quite vulnerable (Kumar et al. 2007).
Since, the birth rule in India malaria has varied entomological, epidemiologi-
cal, socio-economical and ecological determinants and thus remains a major public
health problem. The interactive outcome of these disease determinants leads to var-
ious combinations of transmission risk factors at local and focal levels. The 1980s
two million reported cases increased during the 90s both in terms of morbidity and
mortality. In the last 5 years, about 40 epidemics including 1400 malaria deaths have
been reported from nine states within the country (Srivastava et al. 2003). The urban
centres in India are more prone to malaria as compared to rural India. Some of the
reasons might be inadequate surveillance, poor reporting, and a time lag in reporting
S. Roy
Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Sciences, Bangalore 560013, India
e-mail: roy.sagarika@gmail.com
14 Spatial Analysis and Mapping of Malaria Risk … 209
to decision makers and lack of georeferenced information to pin-point the trouble

spots for a timely preventive action.
Geospatial technology is being widely used for identification, characterization,
monitoring, surveillance, and managing of breeding habitats and mapping of malaria
risk around the many parts of the world (Ahmad et al. 2018). Remote sensing
imageries were used for identification and characterization of the habitats that pro-
duced potential Anopheles vector mosquitoes in the Republic of Korea (Sithiprasasna
et al. 2005). Integrated use of remote sensing and GIS has been successfully demon-
strated in many studies related to the mapping of malaria risk in different parts of
Africa (Kleinschmidt et al. 2001). Malaria is a serious public health problem in
Southeast Asian countries including India. After the implementation of Modified
Plan of Operation (MPO) in 1976 in India, malaria incidence came down to 2–3 mil-
lion from 7.5 million recorded cases. However, malaria continued to be an endemic
in certain pockets particularly in the tribal regions. The emergence and wide-spread
drug-resistance in malaria parasites in India initiated using cost-effective and reliable
alternative method for the vector control (Dongus et al. 2007). Public funds for health
services in India have been largely focused on medical services, and public health
services have been neglected. This is reflected in the virtual absence of modern public
health regulations, and of systematic planning and delivery of public health services.
Various organizational issues also hinder the rational deployment of personnel and
funds for disease control (Khaleghian and Gupta 2005).
Geographic information science (GI Science) and attendant technologies in
remote sensing, geographic information systems (GIS), and spatial statistics can be
used for the surveillance and control of disease vectors in general, and specifically
mosquitoes in VBD (Pam et al. 2017). Geographic information systems (GIS), pro-
duction of global environmental digital datasets, meteorological and remote sensing
data collection and analysis at near real-time, development of methodologies, models
and tools for data standardization, collection, spatialization, analysis and dissemi-
nation, networking and information sharing, development of integrated information
management systems. Some experience has also been gained in the use of thematic
digital datasets for spatial modeling of vector-borne diseases (Kazansky et al. 2016).
GIS-based malaria cases mapping can help health authorities to understand more
about the spatial distribution of the disease in their area as well as its temporal
occurrence. The provided information will provide a guideline for control programs
and preparing health facilities based on the requirement of each area. GIS has been
continuously used for the analysis of spatial health related data. It can be a useful tool
for analyzing the spread of diseases in both developed and developing (Kazansky
et al. 2016). This tool can also be useful for management strategy to allocate resources
for preparing the needs for control of disease in high risk areas of disease. GIS also
enable us to generate revised maps as soon as new data are available. In India, GIS-
based malaria mapping as a decision support system to control malaria-a case study
has also been made in the Koraput district in Orissa, where the problem is more severe
due to minimal transport facilities and inadequate healthcare facilities. In rural India,
due to lack of facilities people visit a hospital only if the illness is highly prolonged
and if there is no response to the primary line of treatment (Daash et al. 2009).
During the rainy season, piedmont zone of the Indian Himalaya is highly prone
to waterlogging. There are innumerable streams which flow into the river Ganga and
Yamuna, the main river of Uttarakhand (Sidhu 2016; Jasrotia et al. 2018). The dense
forest provides shelter and humidity for mosquitoes breeding which might cause an
increase in vector density. As the population density is low and the breeding sites
are very extensive, the ratio of the breeding sites to man is very high. Breeding sites
are covered with dense aquatic vegetation which further makes it difficult to employ
any control agent. Patches of swamps and seepages exist all along the streams and
tributaries.
There are many factors which affect the spread of malaria in Dehradun city, India.
Some of the major factors are anthropogenic, geo-climatic, socio-economic factors
and way of living. It is essential to understand such factors that cause increase in the
vector densities, and hence the transmission of diseases to prevent the emergence
and resurgence of more diseases, as well as to serve as basis for effective control
(Yadav et al. 2013). Dehradun has a good healthcare system which helps people from
every socioeconomic class to get affordable treatment. Moreover, the cases are well
documented and are updated in the form of spatial format by the responsible state
agency.
14.2 Study Area
Dehradun city is situated in the newly formed state of Uttarakhand. It is one of

the oldest cities in India. The city of Dehradun is situated in the south central part
of Uttrakhand State located at an altitude of 640 m, lies at 30° 19 N and 78° 20
E covering a total area of 38.04 km2 (Fig. 14.1). The site where the city is located
slopes gently from north to south and southwest and is heavily dissected by a number
of seasonal streams and nullahs. The drainage of the city is borne by the rivers Bindal
and Rispana. Dehradun enjoys a salubrious climate due to its Dun location in the hilly
part of the state. Temperature during the summer season ranges between 36 °C and
16.7 °C whereas, winter months are quite colder with the maximum and minimum
temperatures ranges between 23.4 °C and 5.2 °C respectively (Matta 2014). During
the monsoon season (June to September) Dehradun experiences most of the annual
rainfall of about 2000 mm.
14.2.1 Soil Characteristics
The soil type which includes manly texture, organic matter content its infiltration
capacity and permeability, greatly affects the soil loss and run-off. Fine texture soils
are more susceptible to erosion than coarse texture soils, since rainwater enters in
and passes through a dense clay much more slowly than through a porous sand or
gravelly soil (Fischer et al. 2015). In the present study area, the alluvial soils at Vasad
Fig. 14.1 Location map of the study area (Source Landsat-8, OLI)
and Dehradun have a very high rate of run-off; the black soils have an intermediate
rate of run-off, but still the rate of run-off is high. The soil left in loose and pulverized
condition is particularly liable to erosion through sheet-wash and gullying (Gupta
and Panigrahy 2008).
14.2.2 Ground Cover and Land Use
When rain falls on a surface covered by a thick mantle of plants, its velocity and
erosive power, reduces and most of the water either quickly percolates through the soil
or moves over the surface with non-erosive velocity (Fischer et al. 2015). Areas not
protected with a thick cover of plants are unable to absorb water effectively, because
the dashing rains shatter the soil surface, the fine soil particles go into suspension
and the thick mixture of water and soil quickly fills and closes the tiny interstices in
the soil, reducing infiltration and consequently increasing run-off and soil loss.
14.2.3 Settlement Structure and Urban Form
The settlement structure of Dehradun depicts morphological expansion over a colo-

nial structure. The eastern Rajpur canal was the most important feature in Dehradun
during the British period that had served the needs of water for drinking and agricul-
tural purposes (Parkash 2014). The central part consists of the old city, i.e., the colo-
nial vestiges, and private residential areas. The prestigious educational and research
institutions are situated outside the core city. The western side houses the Canton-
ment area, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Forest Research Institute, and Wadia
Institute of Himalayan Geology. The eastern part of the city is largely residential.
The southern part of the city is designated as an industrial area (Kumar and Thapa
2015).
14.2.4 Demographic Aspects
As a part of the past heritage, concentration of national and regional level institu-
tions, and economic activities, availability of infrastructure, and the emergence of
Dehradun as the state capital on November 2000, would further invite the influx of
population from the rest of the valley as well as from outside (Parkash 2014). This
would further increase the growth rate in addition to the natural increase of population
within the city itself. Favourable climate, good regional linkages by rail and road, and
feasibility of spatial expansion of Dehradun city would be therefore instrumental for
further migration. However whether the city would support this population expan-
sion on a sustainable basis also calls for a detailed insight into the socio-economic
characteristics of population that in turn decides the quality of population as well as
certain aspects of urban planning and urban environment.
14.2.5 Socio-Economic Function of Dehradun City
Cities come into existence due to the functions they perform as central places. A
harmonious integration of functions and activities can lead to a healthy and orderly
development of the city. The major town functions of Dehradun can be grouped under:
Administrative: Dehradun is the capital of the newly formed state of Uttarakhand.
Educational and Institutional: The city besides being the seat for prestigious educa-
tional institutions, and other technical institutes, are also famous for national level
institutes as already stated. Commercial: Dehradun is the largest service centre within
the hilly region of Uttaranchal. It meets the trade and commerce requirements of its
region. With the expansion of national level institutes and offices, and the expansion
of the cantonment area, the commercial activity had gained momentum. Industrial:
Establishment of industries based mainly on limestone and forests have attracted
ancillary industrial units and other industries. Development of industries is likely to

play a vital role in building a sound economic base of the city. Tourism: Dehradun
is endowed with immense potentialities for tourism industry besides being gateway
to Mussoorie, the Queen of Hill stations. There are a number of tourist places and
recreation spots within a short distance of the city that can be developed adequately.
Defence: Dehradun is the headquarters of Indian Military Academy. A number of
other defence establishments also are in Dehradun. The defence function has played
a vital role in shaping the development and economy of the town (Suthar and Singh
2015).
14.3 Methodology
The Landsat 7 (ETM+Pan merged 15 m) data is used to prepare the spatial dis-
tribution map aided with ancillary data. The malaria data was collected from the
Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme, National Centre for Diseases Control
(IDSP 2013). Data consisted the entries from 15 health center of Dehradun city. The
city witnessed highest cases of malaria (349) in 2015. Health center named Shri
Mahant Indresh (SMI) reported highest number 61 Plasmodium falciparum (Pf) of
malaria cases, while 23(pf) cases were reported in SPD Bhagat Singh colony. Low-
est number of cases: 1(Pf), were reported by Synergy Institute of Medical Sciences.
ArcGIS 10.0 software suit was used for mapping spatial distribution of malaria inci-
dence at the micro level with the help of GPS survey. A 2 km buffer was created along
each health location. Further, the wards falling in the buffer zone were divided into
categories of high malaria incidence ward, moderate malaria incidence ward and low
malaria incidence ward depending upon the number of malaria cases. Digitization
of different data layers pertaining to the study area, rivers, water bodies, Income
group population, location of health centres, Ward maps, etc. were carried out using
Google earth explorer. Different attributes of the layers were added to the database
for further analysis. The detailed methodology adopted in the present study is shown
in the Fig. 14.2. The LULC for three area respectively high malaria cases, medium
malaria cases and low malaria cases was prepared to find the spatial distribution of
malaria in the Dehradun city. Supervised classification is done to prepare LULC map
for different area in Dehradun municipal area. Various classes considered are built-
up, vegetation, agriculture, and vacant land. The supervised classification approach
was used to determine various the land cover types present in the scene. To do this,
representative training sites of known land use land cover types are used to compile
a numerical interpretation key that describes the spectral attributes for each type of
interest the location and distribution of malaria vectors will be analysed through
thematic presentation and mapping. To remove the bias and error field verifications
for the training data has been done.
Fig. 14.2 Methodology adopted in the study
The section presents the results of the carried out analysis.
14.4.1 Temporal Distribution of Malaria Incidence
Temporal distribution of malaria incidence is considered, where 8 years (2006–13)

data are taken from chief medical office, Dehradun. In 2013 total malaria examined
case was 108521 (B/S exam) with total positive cases 346 persons (44Pf). During
rainy season, the city is prone to water logging in the low lying area. There are innu-
merable streams which flow into the River Yamuna, the important river of Uttarak-
hand. The dense forest within the city provides shelter and humidity for mosquitoes
Table 14.1 Malaria cases in the Dehradun city (2006–2013) (Source National Centre for Diseases
Control (IDSP 2013) Dehradun)
Year 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Malaria cases 11 19 49 53 232 230 487 346
Fig. 14.3 Showing trend

line of malaria growth from
(2006–2013) (Source
National Centre for Diseases
Control (IDSP 2013)
Dehradun)
breeding which may cause increase of vector density. The trend line shows gradu-
ally increasing malaria rate in 2009 but it increases exponentially after 2010 and get
doubled in the 2014 (Table 14.1 and Fig. 14.3). This is a matter concern, thus, must
be addressed by the decision makers.
14.4.2 Malaria and Rainfall Relationship
Rainfall data was collected from the year 2004 onwards from Indian meteorological
department (IMD) website (www.imd.gov.in), which gives a picture about the rain-
fall pattern in the district. From the data yearly irregularities in the rainfall is evident.
The average monthly variation of the rainfall shows that the rainfall is more promi-
nent in the region from the month of June to September. Rainfall affects anopheles
mosquitoes breeding site, a malaria vector, typically breeds in small water sources.
In Dehradun city a relationship between rainfall and malaria incident in per year is
shown in the graph below. The Correlation between rainfall and malaria is show a
moderate positive relationship (r 2 ) = 0.42 (Fig. 14.4). Climatic factor like rainfall
is not a single factor for malaria survival. Other factors like geographical and the
socio-economic conditions also play an important role like LULC of a particular
area. To understand this we analysed the LULC of the study areas with the malaria
cases in the next section.
Fig. 14.4 Relationship

between rainfall and malaria
cases (Source National
Centre for Diseases Control
(IDSP 2013) Dehradun)
14.4.3 Land Use Land Covers Distribution
The spatial and temporal changes in the distribution of malaria and land use land cover
changes (Table 14.2 and Fig. 14.5a–c) can influence malaria transmission intensity
(Wagner 2017). The association between land cover type and occurrence of malaria
is statistically significant (Himeidan et al. 2013). In high intensity area water is 2%,
agriculture 12%, vegetation 18% and built-up 62% and river Bindal is flows almost
vertically to the study area. In the moderate intensity area water level is similar (2%),
but the vegetation area is 13% and a high built-up percentage (77%) is present which
is higher than the high intensity area.
One of the important observations is high malaria incidence frequency prone
area consist 11.74% of agricultural land of the total area which makes this area a
high-risk malaria zone. Further analysis shows a positive correlation between high
malaria cases and the forest cover. The correlation between each class is calculated
and positive relationship between the land use/land cover and malaria has been found.
Figure 14.6a shows the relationship graph of vegetation percentage with malaria cases
Table 14.2 LULC percentage of the study area (Hectare: ha) (Source Landsat-8, OLI)
Land use/Land cover classes High malaria Moderate malaria Low malaria
incidence area incidence area incidence area
(ha) (%) (ha) (%) (ha) (%)
Water bodies 31.58 47.63 27.18 40.99 7.54 11.37
Agriculture land 166.86 11.74 0 0 0 0
Forest cover 254.99 47.89 140.10 26.31 137.25 25.78
Vacant land 81.52 35.30 83.91 36.34 65.45 28.35
Built-up 879.18 36.50 842.85 34.99 686.23 28.49
Fig. 14.5 a–c Land use land cover map of high malaria incidence area (a), medium malaria
incidence area (b) and low malaria Incidence area (c) (Source Landsat-8, OLI)
Fig. 14.6 a–b Relationship of malaria cases with vegetation area percentage (a), (b) Relationship
of malaria cases with Waterbody area percentage (Source Landsat-8, OLI)
(r 2 = 0.6172), and Fig. 14.6b shows the malaria case relationship with water body
percentage (r 2 = 0.6758).
14.4.4 Socio-Economic Condition and Malaria
Socioeconomic, socio-cultural and behaviour patterns of the community plays an

important role in disease transmission. To study the socio-economic conditions of the
people the income group map for all the three areas have been prepared from Google
earth and field verifications have been done to validate the datasets (Fig. 14.7a–c). We
found that high income group (HIG) area is less vulnerable to malaria occurrences as
compared to the low income group. Further, medium income group area is also found
to be vulnerable to the malaria occurrence risks. The percentage of HIG people is
Fig. 14.7 a–c Income map of high malaria incidence area (a), Income map of medium malaria
incidence area (b) and Income map of low malaria incidence area (c) (Source Field Survey)
low in high malaria incidence area but it is high in moderate and low area. The high
malaria incidence area is predominant by the LIG group of people and vice versa.
14.5 GIS-Based Malaria Risk Analysis
Hazard is the probability of the occurrence of mosquitoes infective with malaria

in a certain area. It was approached by assessing the suitability of environmental
condition for malaria transmission based on environmental and physical factors.
After preparing all the factor parameters compatible to risk analysis, estimating
weights for risk parameters was defined. To illustrate, the malaria risk map health,
hygienic condition, rainfall, land use land cover and income of the household were
used to decipher the malaria risk map (Fig. 14.8).
14.6 Conclusion
GIS now days emerge as one of the most significant tool in the spatial analysis
and demonstrates tremendous capabilities of the technology available to epidemi-
ologists and researchers. Integration of GIS with remote sensing data helped us a
lot in identification surveillance of breeding habitats and mapping of malaria risk
areas in the study area. The global positioning system data in a GIS assisted format
helped us in generating base map, mapping breeding habitats and analysis of areas
of high disease prevalence. The GIS-based malaria incidence mapping assisted in
risk mapping for analyzing past as well as present trends of malaria. Such kinds of
Fig. 14.8 Malaria risk map of the study area (Source National Centre for Diseases Control (IDSP
2013) Dehradun)
mappings have been extensively used in preparing maps of global malaria risk distri-
bution in space and time. Spatial analyses using geo-processing tools have assisted
in establishing relationship between malaria incidence and other potentially related
factors. GIS mapping helped determine distribution of malaria vector mosquitoes
along with monitoring and evaluation of malaria control activities in various coun-
tries. Three zones were identified for the malaria risks in the study area. It is found
in the study area that less hygienic condition, poor health and economic standard
are the major factor contributing the malaria in the study area. The areas which are
delineated as high-risk area are low income area, poor hygienic condition are the
major contributing factor to the high-risk malaria zone.
Acknowledgements The authors are thankful to the Health Department, State Government of
Uttrakhand for providing us the necessary data. We are also thankful to the anonymous reviewers
for helping us to update the manuscript.
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https://doi.org/10.1186/2049-9957-3-19
Chapter 15
Green Buildings: Building a Greener
City, a Greener Future—An Indian
Perspective
Kriti Kanaujia
Abstract Green building as a concept has become popular in recent years due to
concerns of un-sustainability and climate change. It is premised on being energy and
resource efficient from its inception to manifestation; in order to minimize environ-
mental and energy consumption costs. Although, the concept may seem new, but the
practice has been done since centuries in India in the form of white roofs of Jaisalmer
to rain water harvesting methods of baolis (step-wells), hauz (water reservoir) and
tals (lakes) in numerous old forts and palaces of India. Even in contemporary India,
many sustainable techniques are being promoted by the Government of India in
synchronization with State governments. Green buildings are the need of the hour
because they will help reduce our ecological footprint by adapting to the existing
climate and helping us to mitigate the effects of climate change to a considerable
level. Green buildings are the building blocks of Smart Cities.
Keywords Green building · Old practices · New energy efficient techniques ·

Sustainability · Urban areas · Smart cities
15.1 A Need to Rethink Our Urbanization
It has been many centuries since Urbanization appeared and influenced the human
lives. It has evolved through many stages and continues to evolve to keep in sync with
the changing necessities of time and people. In the recent decades of urban history,
a need for change in the approach to urban and its dynamics has been felt severely.
It is in this light that a debate between development and regeneration emerged on
the urban scene. While urban development acts as a mediator and facilitator for
transformation, urban regeneration on the other hand, acts as a catalyst extending the
process of transformation and as a means of sustaining urban development. An area
may develop to be urban but it cannot continue to sustain itself beyond a point of time
K. Kanaujia (B)
Department of Geography, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, New Delhi 110007,
India
e-mail: sak2lucy@gmail.com

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2097-6_15
224 K. Kanaujia
without regeneration. This has been exemplified by western experiences especially

that of London, post-reunified Berlin, Boston, Pittsburg, Scotland and many other
European cities (Mitrojorgji 2003). Urban regeneration means differently to different
people and contexts.
Broadly, urban regeneration is an attempt, a vision and a practice aimed towards
achieving all encompassing, resilient as well as sustainable solutions towards myriad
urban or urban related challenges while simultaneously providing improvements in
physical, socio-economic and environmental conditions of a specific area that has
been subjected to change(s). Regeneration encompasses these four aspects in entirety
namely; community, infrastructure, employment, health, literacy and so on. Each
aspect interacts with other aspects in an interrelated and complex manner along with
their in/direct impact(s) on other aspects (Carrion and Hanley 2007). Therefore,
it can be said that regeneration is not an individual oriented approach; rather is
an all-encompassing perspective that is premised upon sustainable development.
Urban regeneration is; therefore aimed at self-sustaining planned and regulated urban
development (Kanaujia 2016).
Urban development of the world at present is extremely rapid and unsustain-
able with haphazard growth; especially in the developing world. Most of the West
European countries and USA are highly urbanized due to industrialization and mod-
ernization. Urban regeneration has been accompanying urban development in the
West; with major emphasis after the World War II period. It was only after many
decades of urbanization experience as well as billions of dollars invested in urban
development which led to the realization of the importance of urban image, quality
of life and urban environment as necessary stimulants for economic development
of cities (Lawless 2010). It was in this context that urban regeneration was adopted
as an instrument of revival and rejuvenation of urban development in depopulating
and degrading urban centres; with the aim of self sustaining development from that
point forth. Urban Regeneration and not Redevelopment was adopted because the
cities required more than spatial re-configuration and renovation (Brodies 2009).
The cities were subjected to regeneration in order to revive economy, culture and a
sense of community among its inhabitants. Unlike urban development, urban regen-
eration has the versatility to mould itself in order to meet the challenges of the time
in a specific area aimed at specific section of society (Carrion and Hanley 2007).
Urban regeneration is not a “one size fit all” approach, it needs to be modified and
appropriated according to the needs of the area and its people in question (Brodies
2009). Urban regeneration as a concept works better and in synchronisation with the
concept of Green Buildings since both are premised upon self-sustainability.
With recent drastic and changed weather phenomenon being witnessed; we need
to relook at our current practices and norms and especially in urban areas because
the world is rapidly progressing towards urbanization and urban population growth
(refer to Fig. 15.1). Even though the urban population growth rate would register a
declining trend in upcoming decades, it is important to note that the World urban
population would continue to rise in absolute numbers implying that even a declining
growth would imply huge population increments.
15 Green Buildings: Building a Greener City … 225
Fig. 15.1 Trend of Urban Population Growth (in percentage) from 2015 to 2030. Data source
Urban Population Growth: 2015–2030 (World Health Organization 2014)
At present, 54% of the world’s population resides in urban areas and it has been
estimated that it will increase to 66% by the year 2050 (UN DESA 2014). It is
in synchronisation with the estimates made in the year 2007 and 2014 (refer to
Fig. 15.2) for the urban population growth by UN. There is an upward trend in urban
population numbers across major regions of the world. Although the increment seems
to be slowing, yet in absolute numbers the population added is large and will put
immense burden on existing resources giving rise to mega cities (refer to Figs. 15.3
and 15.4) with multi-million urban populations. These cities would be characterised
by high density, massive built-up area, unplanned growth and resource scarcity if
actions and relevant measures are not taken up immediately. In this light, we need to
question ourselves as to what kind of cities do we really want to live in or what kind
of cities we ought to live in.
Many cities are already facing the problems of over-urbanization along with severe
environmental impacts like water-logging during monsoons and Urban Heat Island
effect. In this context, we really need to question the very notion of what we under-
stood as Urban or as a City, should we really continue to conceive, plan and implement
cities the way they are being planned and implemented or is it really the need of the
Fig. 15.2 Trend, Proportion and Estimate of Urban population growth (in percentage) from 1950
to 2050*. Data source World Urbanization Prospects: The 2005 Revision (UN DESA 2006), World
Population Data Sheet (Haub 2007) and World Urbanization Prospects: The 2014 Revision (High-
lights) (UN DESA 2014)
*[The data excludes Oceania’s proportion of urban population (71, 71 and 74 for 1990, 2014 and
2050 respectively)]
226 K. Kanaujia
Fig. 15.3 Distribution of World Population according to Urban and Rural in Major regions. Data
source World Urbanization Prospects: The 2014 Revision (Highlights) (UN DESA 2014)
hour to re-conceptualize and re-visualize the planning and implementation notions

of and for a city.
It is in this context that, a need arises for sustainable urbanisms and urbaniza-
tion which is centred upon living life in greener, smarter, sustainable, energy and
resource-efficient ways. Green buildings or building in greener ways is a stepping
stone towards the realization of Smart Cities’ initiative and a relationship which
needs to be pursued more rigorously. But the concept and usage of green buildings
is a not a new phenomenon or idea, it has been a practice and an ideology that has
been in existence since several decades and centuries premised on ingeniously living
in-synchronization with the local geography.
15.2 Traditional Green Buildings: Living Smart in the Past
Human civilizations understood and learnt to live in synchronization with their nat-
ural surroundings by adapting themselves, their habitations and being ecological
and resource efficient. This may be exemplified by traditional Ogimachi houses
of Japan (wooden structures) which are built from the locally available resources
and extremely adept at its environmental and seismic surroundings, or by the white
facades of the numerous houses in Santorini, Greece or the locally suited stone tiled
roofs of Apulia in Southern Italy. Perhaps the best examples of green buildings can
be gathered in places like Ghana, Africa where the houses are designed to with-
stand extreme high day time temperatures and scarcity of building resources or the
thatched or grass laden roofs of Portugal, Iceland and Norway respectively exempli-
fying being one with the nature, living in nature with nature. Perhaps it is important
to point out one of the most famous examples of green buildings; Igloos. The Igloos
are traditional houses in the northern frigid zone of our world, wherein the houses are
Fig. 15.4 Population Trends and Ranking of select Indian urban agglomerations with more than
5 million inhabitants as of 1 July 2014, for the years 1990, 2014 and 2030. Data source World
Urbanization Prospects: The 2014 Revision (UN DESA 2014)
made by carving out bricks of ice. These houses are exceptionally environmentally
sustainable since they cause no damage to their surroundings and are premised upon
reuse–recycle.
Indians like their counterparts elsewhere; were aware of and makers of green
buildings even in historical times. Traditional homes were built in accordance to the
spatial and cosmological (the four cardinal directions, Vastu Shastra) location, local
climatic regime, available building materials and the idea of utilising nature at its
maximum.
Traditionally, Indian houses were made of baked roof tiles (red in colour) and
clay for construction of walls which proved to be energy efficient as they were able
to maintain cool ambience during summers and warmth during winters. Even till
today, many of the traditional rural houses utilize this age old technique to maintain
228 K. Kanaujia
temperatures naturally and with locally available construction materials like clay,
wood, jute ropes and so on. The traditional layout or architecture of the houses was
also constructed to be in synchronisation with the geographical location. Hence, the
buildings in hot and drier regions were characterised by corridors which naturally
directed the wind to cool while in wet regions, architecture was built in a way to
naturally use light and breeze. The presence of central courtyard in many traditional
houses was premised upon the natural use of light, ventilation, cooling of the inner
chambers and so on.
Many forts and palaces of India are built on the green building concept. A key
element was always the presence of a water harvesting method within the confines
of the building in order to be self sufficient and to ensure the smooth working of such
large structures. They also acted as cooling fountains and an element of aesthetic
pleasure as in case of Char Bagh style of Mughals’ garden construction or Fatehpur
Sikri or the various baolis and hauz that mark the cultural and environmental history
of India.
Another aspect that predominates in green buildings of times gone by is the use
of intricately designed Jaalis (decorated and carved windows of stone) on a massive
scale in hot and drier regions of India to help in natural ventilation, acting as a
mediator to cool the darker recesses of the buildings. A prime example is Hawa
Mahal located in Jaipur city in the Indian state of Rajasthan which is predominated
by these intricate jaalis to allow for natural ventilation and several other forts and
palaces of North-West India.
The knowledge of green building was not confined only to the Royals but seeped
deeply into the perception of the commoners as well and this can be exemplified by
the use of white limestone or chuna for painting the roofs of houses in Jaisalmer
(refer to Fig. 15.5). This is a necessity as well because Jaisalmer is located in the arid
zone with very high temperatures and in order to maintain habitable temperatures, the
Fig. 15.5 Comparison of rooftops of Delhi and Jaisalmer respectively. Data source Author’s
illustration, compiled from Google Earth Imagery; Image ©2018 DigitalGlobe
Fig. 15.6 Baolis in Purana Qila and Humayun’s Tomb Complex, respectively, New Delhi. Data
source Author’s illustration
roofs are white-washed to reflect and not absorb insolation. This practice is followed
till today.
Delhi being a city located in the sub-tropics, experiences harsh summers with
water scarcity. In order to sustain life in such a scenario, several rulers of Delhi
and its various cities constructed and maintained; Smart and green structures to
harvest water and provide a perennial source of water supply all year round for the
needs of the Empire and its several citizens. These traditional water harvesters vary
from tanks/kunds/hauz, baolis/step wells (refer to Fig. 15.6) or huge wells/kuan (like
former Dhaula Kuan). These structures were self sustaining, and resource efficient
in their complete building cycle. Few of the surviving and recorded traditional water
harvesters of Delhi are listed in this section (refer to Figs. 15.7 and 15.8) wherein
the status ‘Exists’ indicates that those structures could still be brought into water
harvesting uses with few repairs.
On a national level in India, traditionally and even in contemporary times, different
types of water harvesting and harnessing practices and systems are still used in
accordance with the local environmental and anthropogenic conditions and cultures.
The names vary according to the local dialects while the structures vary according
to locally available materials and micro/regional geography.
Dams, tanks, wells, artificial lakes and ponds, reservoirs, systems and practices
of irrigation, rain/water harvesting measures are few examples. Dams are stereotyp-
ically considered to be symbols of modern technology and progress but the idea and
the practice is not so modern. In different parts of India, these were and till today being
used to harness or conserve the precious resource of water. They are referred by many
names across India such as Bhanadaras (check dams/diversion weirs) in Maharashtra,
230 K. Kanaujia
Fig. 15.7 Traditional green structures and smart water providers in Delhi: Step wells or Baolis.
Data source Delhi: A thousand years of building (Peck 2009)
Fig. 15.8 Traditional green structures and smart water providers in Delhi: Tanks. Data source
Delhi: A thousand years of building (Peck 2009)
Johad (small mud check dams) in Alwar district, Rajasthan, Naada/Bandha (stone
check dam) in Mewar region of Thar Desert (Padigala 2017), Katas/Mundas/Bandhas
(strong earthen embankment) in Odisha and Madhya Pradesh and Korambus/Chira
(temporary dam) in Kasaragod and Thrissur district, Kerala.
Among other types of natural and artificial reservoirs are lakes which are referred
as Sagar/Samand (bigger lakes), Talab/Bandhis (medium sized lakes/reservoirs),
Talai (reservoir area of less than five bighas) and Pokhariyan (ponds) in Bundelkhand
(natural) region and Udaipur (artificial), Rajasthan, Nadis (village ponds) in Jodhpur,
Rajasthan and Dongs (ponds) in Assam. Tanks are far more prominent in South India
due to topography of the region but are also found in north-western India as well.
They are named as Chandela (small sized tanks), Bundela (larger than Chandela
tank), Tobas (natural ground depression) and Tankas (small home tank) in several
areas, Rapat (percolation tank) in Rajasthan and Cheruvu (runoff storage reservoirs)
in Chitoor and Cuddapah districts, Andhra Pradesh. In other parts of India, they
are referred by several names such as Jhalaras in Rajasthan and Gujarat, Kohli in
Bhandara, Maharashtra, Kere in Central Karnataka Plateau, Eri in Tamil Nadu and
Ooranis in South Travancore, Tamil Nadu to name a few.
Wells are one of the most abundantly marked artificial reservoirs of water in
Indian maps and especially in rural or village maps. Many a times, they have played
significance in maintaining socio-cultural relations and power-politics in the village
space. Their names and roles are signifier of their importance in community life.
They may be referred as Baoris/Bers (community wells) in Rajasthan, Saza Kuva
(open well with multiple owners) in Aravalli hills in Mewar, eastern Rajasthan,
Virdas (shallow dug wells) in Great Rann of Kutch, Gujarat (Padigala 2017) and
Vav/Vavdi/Baoli/Bavdi (stepwells) in Gujarat (refer to Fig. 15.9) and Rajasthan. It is
also in the villages that agriculture and specifically traditional agricultural practices
are utilised for crop production. Irrigation plays a major role in agricultural productiv-
ity especially in a sub-tropical monsoon dependent nation. Several types of irrigation
practices are employed in India in different parts of the country; in-synchronization
with the local geography and suitable conditions. These practices may be referred
to as Bamboo drip irrigation (Bamboo pipes for irrigation) in Khasi and Jaintia hills
of Meghalaya, Cheo-oziihi (channel irrigation) in Nagaland, Pat (irrigation system)
in Jhabua district, Madhya Pradesh, Dungs/Jampois (small irrigation channels) in
Jalpaiguri district, West Bengal and Apatani (wet rice cum fish farming system) in
Arunachal Pradesh to name a few.
Fig. 15.9 Traditional Green building: Bavdi in Baroda, Gujarat. Data source Author’s illustration
232 K. Kanaujia
In several other parts of India, the abundance of water is utilised efficiently for
times of scarcity. Several kinds of rain water and surface water harvesting systems are
used to conserve, utilize and store abundant water availability rather than allowing it
to be just run-off. Amongst the myriad rain water harvesting practices in India; Jack-
wells in Great Nicobar Island, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Khatri in Hamirpur,
Kangra and Mandi districts, Himachal Pradesh, Kuis/Beris in western Rajasthan,
Kunds/Kundis in Thar desert, Rajasthan and partially in Gujarat and Zabo/Ruza
(impounding rainwater run-off system) in Nagaland are some significant few to men-
tion. Ahar Pynes in south Bihar is a unique practice of harvesting flood waters while
Kuhls in Jammu and Kul in Spiti valley, Himachal Pradesh are a practice revolving
around the utilization of surface channels as well as Naula (surface water harvest-
ing) in Uttaranchal. Khadin/Dhora is a surface run-off harvesting system found in
Jaisalmer, western Rajasthan while Surangam/Thurangam/Thorapu/Mala is unique
tunnel water harvesting system found in Kasaragod district of Kerala. Other names
of water harvesting systems in different parts of India are Paar in western Rajasthan,
Phad in Dhule and Nashik districts, Maharashtra and Zings in Ladakh to name a few.
It is in the light of this rich heritage of green buildings, that the relationship
between green buildings and smart cities need to be rigorously pursued for attaining
smarter cities with smarter solutions for maximum sustainable efficiency.
15.3 Green Buildings and Smart Cities: A Relationship

to be Pursued
To understand Green buildings better, one can peruse this definition for a general
understanding behind their conception. Green Building is:
Any built structure that is designed to judiciously and efficiently utilize its key
components namely site, energy, water and materials (but not limited to) in an
environment-friendly and sustainable manner along with the practical implemen-
tation of reuse and recycle ideology for improving quality of human life and envi-
ronment. They are mediation between the best of both worlds that is; they are highly
energy and water efficient as well as sustainable and economic in the longer duration.
Green Buildings are an integral part of a sustainable way of life especially neces-
sitated in urban areas which are at present characterised by innumerable problems
of over population, pollution, unplanned; haphazard, chaotic and congested urban
spaces and energy scarcity with increasing economic and environmental costs over
time. With so many problems and challenges, Green buildings provide an energy effi-
cient, healthier and environmentally sustainable way of life. Green buildings are also
paving way towards a greener, sustainable future by exhibiting resilience towards
climate change, giving time for adjustments and for finding newer alternatives to
adapt to climate change economically, socially, ecologically and even psychologi-
cally. Recently, in the Indian context, Green buildings and their key characteristics
have found prominent place in the Smart City initiative.
To define a Smart City is difficult because it is not a “one size fit all approach”,
just like urban regeneration and green buildings. Hence in order to understand or
explain the concept of smart city, there is no universally accepted definition for it;
since it would imply different perceptions and understandings to different people,
for instance in this case; it implies green buildings as an integral part of or a building
block of a smart city.
The conceptualisation of a Smart City as stated in the Mission document released
by the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD), India in June, 2015, therefore
defines it as a perceptual, spatio-temporal and resource-based approach. This implies
that the concept itself would differ spatially in context of developmental levels,
intention to change and reform and dependent upon the resource availability and
aspirations of urban dwellers in a specific space and time. Even then, few parameters
are required to act as guiding forces in this Mission which have been outlined as
the list of essential urban infrastructures namely; the availability of sufficient as well
as continuous: water and electricity supply, sanitation and solid waste management
services, accessibility, affordable housing with special emphasis upon the urban poor,
well networked information and communication technologies, effective governance
along with citizen participation, safety and security of citizens, effective health and
education system as well as environmental sustainability (MoUD 2015).
An urban area is typically premised upon inclusive and widespread development
which can be broadly categorized into myriad physical, socio-economic and institu-
tional infrastructure. It may be long or short term depending upon the needs and chal-
lenges of the situation, area and people. Smart cities are premised upon or imagined as
the spaces providing a suitable quality of life to its inhabitants through comprehen-
sive development and availability of essential infrastructure while simultaneously
assuring hygienic, ambient and sustainable environment through Smart solutions’
application. The comprehensive development through the addition of essential lay-
ers would progress towards incremental smartness. Towards the intention of smart
city through green building, the strategies of retrofitting in and of existing buildings
along with implementation of green building and energy efficiency codes would be
implemented in Greenfield developments.
Green buildings are the need of the hour primarily because they are efficient in
energy and water savings and provide a better alternative to harmful and wasteful
utilization of resources especially in urban areas. Green buildings also fulfil the
targets or goals set by the Urban Sustainable Development Goals and Smart Cities
initiative. Even at the environmental level, Green buildings are a strong necessity
given the present environmental scenario and the amount of non-renewable energy
being consumed wastefully.
Green buildings like regeneration are not a “one size fit all” approach rather they
are micro-based solutions that are better adept at tackling problems and resource
scarcity at hand and appropriate to local conditions. It is high time that we relook at
our present spate of urbanization and implement greener options to make our cities
more sustainable and adept at tackling climatic changes along with bearing more
resilience to urbanization related issues. Green buildings are an answer to many
problems simultaneously and effectively and are also regenerative in the sense that
234 K. Kanaujia
they are based upon self-sustainability implying that much can be achieved in a
positive sense if buildings are adopted, constructed or modified to be green. But
all this can only be achieved or implemented if the people at their individual level
become aware of the problems at present and the need for such measures to sustain
a greener future and our future generations.
15.4 Green Buildings: Paving Way for a Better, Greener

Future
In September, 2013, the campaign for Urban Sustainable Development Goal (USDG)
was launched by Sustainable Development Solutions Network with the support of
UN Habitat and many other organisations and agencies for Sustainable Cities and
Regions (UNSDSN 2013). It is within the spirit and context of USDGs that the Green
buildings are placed as an intention; to be pursued in solving and mitigating urban
and urbanization challenges. Even in India, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s
vision of 100 Smart cities (India Today 2014), again due importance is premised
upon the need for Green Buildings.
The concept of Green Buildings is somewhat rooted in the self-sustainability
aspect of regeneration. To many, the concept of Green Building may appear to be
new or modern or innovative but the fact is that the concept is as age old as human
habitation. The practice to stay in synchronisation with our environment and seasons
has been practiced since times gone by and to an extent are practised till today as
part of rural traditions and techniques.
The concept of Green Buildings is premised upon Recycle and Reuse, Energy
efficiency and Water management as key concepts from plan to implementation stage.
Green buildings (refer to Fig. 15.10) are thought green, built green and use green to
sustain and efficiently work. Even if they are not initially built green, simple measures
and modifications can ensure greener use of the buildings. A green building must be
in synchronisation with its environment and specifically with its local climatic regime
because if this is not the case, then the added temperature controlling mechanisms
will render the building non-green and unsustainable as it would consume energy
to regulate an adequate temperature regime within the confines of the building. In
such a scenario, the important role is played by the design of the building and the
construction material.
At present in urban areas, the green building mechanisms employed range from
using solar water heaters, solar panels for energy generation and solar cookers
for cooking, rainwater harvesting systems for groundwater recharge, storage tanks,
wastewater recycling system to minimize water loss and increasing efficient use,
using motion sensors to switch off/on lights and air-conditioning, energy efficient
appliances, CFLs or compact fluorescent light bulbs, using bio-degradable waste
Fig. 15.10 Basis of Green building efficiency. Data source Based on LEED- India approach (2001)
from kitchen as compost manure for house garden and so on. Even the use of build-
ing material is also scrutinised to be in synchronisation with the local climate imply-
ing that glass is more appropriate for use in colder climates because it creates a
greenhouse effect keeping the inside of the house/building warmer than the outside
whereas wood, mud and lighter wall colours must be used in hot climates to keep the
buildings/houses cooler without much dependence on artificial sources of ventilation
and temperature control mechanisms. Green buildings are premised upon efficiency
of water and energy saving and utilization which is extremely required in the present
scenario.
15.5 Greening Smart Cities: Present Practices and Policies
Any green building in contemporary times resonates with Smart Technology. Smart
technology helps in resource and energy conservation, efficiency and judicious uti-
lization over time. To exemplify, Taipei 101, located in Taiwan can be observed as an
energy efficient, smart-green building. Taipei 101 is the world’s tallest green building
standing at a height of 508 m above ground with smart technology (solutions provided
by Siemens in 2008) such as motion sensors that detect and allow other technolo-
gies to function only in the presence of inhabitants, along with automatic ventilation
236 K. Kanaujia
control for air conditioning, improved insulation for heating and lighting controls
utilizing natural light. It is (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) LEED-
Platinum rated building. Further, Siemens has provided smart technology solutions
to Crystal, London, UK in 2012; under its Sustainable Cities initiative. The Crystal
is an all electric building that utilizes solar power and ground source heat pumps to
fulfil its own energy requirements. It is an ‘Outstanding’ certified building by (Build-
ing Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Methodology) BREEAM (a
Green building rating agency, similar to GRIHA, LEED and BEE). Apart from these
two, a sustainable and green city is being constructed in Abu Dhabi, UAE referred to
as Masdar—City of Tomorrow. The city is proposed to use Green building concepts
and solar energy to fulfil its necessities to live in an environmentally sustainable and
smart way.
In India, few preliminary steps have been taken towards green and smart buildings
and one of the prominent examples at present is the Cochin International Airport in
Kerala, India. Very recently, the Cochin airport achieved Power Neutrality, the first of
its kind; at this scale in India. The airport at present is running upon the energy derived
from the solar panels and works on principle of energy sharing. When they have
excess energy, they supply to the grid, when they do not have adequate quantity, then
they borrow from the grid, making them energy-neutral. They have emerged as a light
house to guide others in adopting such cleaner, greener and smarter technological
practices.
At present, India has a total of 752 certified green buildings, which are fully
functional and operational (The Economic Times 2018) while their number is still
increasing. To refer a building as a Green building in India, it is necessitated to
apply for one of the following rating systems. The GRIHA or Green Rating for
Integrated Habitat Assessment is an Indian rating system which has been jointly
developed by TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute) and the Ministry of New and
Renewable Energy, Government of India (www.glassisgreen.com, accessed 2018). It
is an evaluation process comprising of three tiers. GRIHA rating system comprises of
34 criteria classified in four sections and includes such criteria as site selection and site
planning, conservation and efficient utilization of resources, building operation and
maintenance and innovation (www.grihaindia.org, accessed 2018). Prime examples
of GRIHA buildings are Commonwealth Games Village, New Delhi, Fortis Hospital,
New Delhi, CESE (Centre for Environmental Sciences and Engineering) Building,
IIT Kanpur, Suzlon One Earth, Pune to name a few (www.greencleanguide.com,
accessed 2018).
Another important rating system is the IGBC or Indian Green Building Council;
which has licensed the LEED Green Building Standard from the USGBC or the
U.S. Green Building Council. The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design
(LEED) is the rating system developed by U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC)
for certifying Green Buildings. LEED is a framework for assessing building perfor-
mance against set criteria and standard points of references. The benchmarks for the
LEED Green Building Rating System were developed in year 2000 and are currently
available for new and existing constructions (www.greencleanguide.com, accessed
2018).
LEED-INDIA approach for Green Buildings Confederation of Indian Industry

(CII) formed the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) in year 2001 (Madhumathi
and Sundarraja 2014). IGBC facilitates Indian green structures to become green
buildings. At present, nine Green Building rating systems are available under IGBC
such as; LEED India 2011 for New Construction, LEED India 2011 for Core and
Shell, LEED 2009 (V3) for Homes, LEED 2009 (V3) for Neighbourhood Develop-
ment, LEED 2009 (V3) for Commercial Interiors to name a few (www.usgbc.org,
accessed 2018).
Yet another green building rating system in India is the BEE or Bureau of Energy
Efficiency. BEE rating is measured as a range of stars from one to five with more
stars implying better energy efficiency. It also developed Energy Performance Index
(EPI) specifically for rating air conditioned and non-air conditioned office buildings
wherein one unit is measured as Kilo watt hours per square meter per year. The
Reserve Bank of India’s buildings in Delhi and Bhubaneshwar, the CII Sohrabji
Godrej Green Business Centre are few examples that have received five star ratings
from BEE (www.greencleanguide.com, accessed 2018).
At present, there is no nationwide initiative for building green buildings but the
scenario is slowly changing in their favour. Around the year 2000, for instance in
Haryana and Delhi, there was a rule for installing rain water harvesting systems on
roofs of individual houses in order to get house completion certificates. At present,
there are serious dialogues on benefits to be given to the owners of green buildings for
reducing their carbon footprint. These green buildings may use solar water heaters
and panels to fulfil their energy needs and use water harvesting and wastewater
management systems to fulfil their water needs and so on. In several states across
India, the need and importance of green buildings are being recognised and initiatives
taken accordingly as in the case of Tamil Nadu; wherein the State government has
targeted the rural poor to provide solar power run green houses while allocating Rs.
1,080 Crore for construction of 60,000 green houses (The Hindu 2011).
The Kerala State Housing Board initiated the work on sixty eco-friendly apart-
ments (as limited scale commercial venture) located in Kochi and Thiruvananthapu-
ram under the GRIHA system. This intention is further pursued under the Saphalyam
Housing Scheme for the financially weak in the districts of Kottayam, Kollam, Idukki,
Kozhikode, Malappuram, Palakkad and Thrissur. Several plans are also underway to
implement GRIHA while constructing the new government residential flats as well
as for rehabilitating slum dwellers in a green building way (The Hindu Business
Line 2012). Furthermore, there are comprehensive plans by several states namely;
Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal in north, Gujrat and Maharashtra is
west, Odisha in east and Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu in south along
with the union territory of Delhi; to implement the Energy Conservation Building
Code (ECBC) for all new commercial constructions (Institute of Building Efficiency
2012).
Recently in Green building context, the Delhi Development Authority or DDA
has formally stated a need and initiation for talks of a policy concerning promotion
of green buildings (The Economic Times 2014). Even at a personal level, people,
communities and organizations are adopting for living and building green as in the
238 K. Kanaujia
case of Govardhan Eco Village in Thane, Maharashtra. This is a community which has
built buildings with compressed stabilized Earth blocks, Rammed Earth Technique,
Cob Houses (Adobe Bricks) with traditional thatched roofs. These buildings have
received a five-star rating from GRIHA to be certified as Green buildings (www.
teriin.org, accessed 2015). Another example is of Green One in Chittaranjan Park,
New Delhi which became the first individual home to register for a green building
rating from TERI in June 2011. This ultimately led to the initiation of the pilot project
for Small Versatile Affordable Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment or
SVAGRIHA, TERI’s adaptation of the GRIHA system for small homes. In January
2014, Green One became the first individual home in India to get a green rating,
earning a five-star SVAGRIHA rating from TERI (www.teriin.org, accessed 2015).
Along with this, the newly built TERI gram/village located on Gurgaon-Faridabad
road is also rated as a green building.
In Delhi, institutions such as Centre for Science and Environment (Tughluqabad),
Indian Spinal Injury Centre (Vasant Kunj) and Rashtrapati Bhawan (New Delhi),
residential colonies namely Nizamuddin East and Defence Colonies (New Delhi)
are prime examples of Rain water harvesting systems and thereby transformation
(refer to Fig. 15.11) leading towards green buildings, green communities, green
neighbourhoods (Singh 2015) and green city.
Further, the notion of green buildings is surpassing myriad activities, practices
and processes; geared towards environmental and urban sustainability. Increasingly,
industries are also being encouraged and mandated to go green, to exemplify; the
recent instructions of the National Green Tribunal, 2015 (Times of India 2015) which
state that all Textile Industries must fulfil Zero litre Discharge mandate wherein
the concerned units are required to install Effluent Treatment Plants in conjunction
with Reverse Osmosis plant to recycle and reuse waste/discharge water and min-
imise dependence upon fresh withdrawal of water for their processes. Essentially
this system can be termed as individual wastewater treatment plants, a bold smart
solution.
Green buildings are inclusive of myriad building and functional types and it is
when all of them go green, become green and stay green, can we say that we can
progress towards a future revolving around a smart city.
15.6 Building Greener Smart Cities
With the Smart Cities’ initiative, the time has come to build and modify the buildings
we live, work and access as Green for resource and environmental efficiency, embed
smart solutions and technologies for efficient utilisations for an integrated system
of smart-green buildings and neighbourhood. They also provide us with ways to
mitigate climate change; for instance through the implementation of Green roofs
(Castleton et al. 2010) which can have solar panels for power generation, rain water
harvesting systems (Mentens et al. 2006), plant/grass cover for natural cooling or a
roof top agricultural farm (Oberndorfer et al. 2007) and so on which may provide us
Fig. 15.11 The cyclic nature of building green: A step towards Smart City. Data source Author’s
illustration
with several opportunities and efficiencies. Some studies also indicate towards their
positive role in tackling air pollution and climate change.
It is a fact and an initial desistance that building green buildings is slightly expen-
sive than conventional buildings but this is true only in a very short run. In the longer
run, green buildings have proven to be far more cost-effective than their conven-
tional counter parts. Green buildings are a profitable venture in social, ecological
and economic contexts and hence must be vigorously pursued. Green buildings have
been built since time immemorial but in contemporary times riddled with several
urban issues; they are needed with utmost urgency to sustain urban and urban ways
of life but in an environment-friendly manner. Green buildings are a way to increase
resilience towards climate change and to tap environmental degradation.
Green buildings have been made an integral part of Urban Sustainable Develop-
ment Goals and Smart Cities’ initiative because of their multiple uses and efficiencies
in tackling so many challenges simultaneously along with providing an opportunity to
240 K. Kanaujia
live healthy, sustainably and pollution free lifestyle. Smart Cities are premised upon
Green buildings without which the smartness can never be achieved completely.
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Chapter 16
Conceptualising and Measuring Social
Capital as a Sustainable Development
Strategy in Mewat Region, Haryana
Naresh Kumar and B. S. Butola
Abstract This paper attempts to conceptualize and measure social capital as a sus-
tainable development strategy in Mewat region, Haryana. Social capital resides in
relations of the people that they can use for their benefits. Social capital here is recon-
ceptualised as an instrumental use of social relations for the mutual benefit of the
communities. Social capital is contextual and is best captured as a multidimensional
variable. For lack of secondary data, this study relies on a primary field survey of
ten sample Panchayat Villages in Mewat, Haryana. Sample Panchayats are identified
through cluster random sampling and use measures of associatedness (economic,
social and political), relations of production, institutions, social cohesion, and social
pathologies as a set of variables. A mixed methods approach is used to analyze the
variables. The empirical results show that socio-cultural activity has the highest level
of associatedness followed by economic and political activities. The results show that
self-help groups are an important source of social capital along with associatedness in
socio-cultural activities, increase in mutually beneficial production relations, vibrant
institutions and strong social cohesion. The paper concludes that social capital along
with economic capital can be employed as a strategy of sustainable development in
Mewat region, Haryana.
Keywords Social capital · Sustainable development · Meos · Other communities ·

Mewat region · Haryana
N. Kumar (B) · B. S. Butola

School of Social Sciences, Centre for the Study of Regional Development, Jawaharlal Nehru
University, New Delhi, India
e-mail: jnunaresh@gmail.com
B. S. Butola
e-mail: bsbutola@gmail.com

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2097-6_16
244 N. Kumar and B. S. Butola
16.1 Introduction
Fulfilment of basic human needs is the prime objective of development. The Neolib-
eral Model of Development has failed to meet these needs and even deprived them
of the aspirations of having these needs in the future. It has led to the concentration
of development in certain regions at the cost of many and in turn serious social and
economic consequences for the rest of the world (Escobar 2011). It has led to stark
regional and global inequalities all over the world. Consequent to this, doubts are
being raised over the relevance of the current development model being pursued all
over the world under the leadership of the Bretton Woods Institutions. In this pursuit,
the United Nations Organisation (UNO) organized the Conference on Environment
and Development (UNCED) in (1987) in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil to formulate ‘a
global agenda for change’ to further a new development paradigm. The agenda pro-
posed sustainable development as the only alternative to the current development
paradigm. It defined Sustainable development as that “development that meets the
needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to
meet their own needs” (World Commission on Environment and Development 1987).
There is significant evidence, which suggests that social capital adds a lot to the
sustainable development process (Grootaert 1998). The idea of social capital has a
dramatic rise in the social sciences in the last decade. The enthusiastic practition-
ers of the idea state that social capital has important implications for development
policy especially community development (Defilippis 2001). The importance of the
idea of social capital is due to its instrumental use, social action and civic value for
sustainable development outcomes (Bourdieu 1986; Coleman 1988; Putnam et al.
1993). Social capital is being termed as the ‘missing link’ in development (Grootaert
1998). Village communities are socio-spatial units, which occupy social and cultural
space and cannot be ignored altogether. They are the ideal units in the sense that they
denote separate social and cultural boundaries and are easily recognizable from oth-
ers. Several scholars (Portney and Berry 1997; Krishna and Uphoff 1999; Sampson
and Graif 2009) have used the community as a scale of social capital.
Understanding new concepts and spatial information technologies is an integral
component to the strategy of sustainable development. The conceptual framework,
sampling, data collection, methodology, and the analytical tools are part of the deci-
sion support system to achieve sustainable development goals. The information on all
of these aspects is crucial for this strategy to be successful. Following the statement
of the problem, this paper has broadly two objectives: (1) To look at the problems
in terms of conceptualization and measurement of social capital and (2) To look at
the levels of social capital of Meos and other communities in Mewat, Haryana. This
study relies on an extensive primary database to fulfill the objectives and follows a
multidimensional methodological approach to study social capital as a sustainable
development strategy.
16 Conceptualising and Measuring Social Capital … 245
16.2 Study Area
Mewat region of Haryana comprises of four tehsils of Mewat district and one tehsil
of Palwal district (Fig. 16.1). The region is situated between 26° and the 30° north
latitude and 76° and 78° East longitude (Ali et al. 1970). Mewat is surrounded by
Gurgaon district on its north, Rewari from the west and Faridabad from the east. The
demarcation of the Mewat is based upon the area for which the Mewat Development
Board (MDB) works.
After the failure of the ‘Gurgaon Experiment’ (1928) and the Community Devel-
opment Programme (CDP) in the 1950s, MDB was constituted in 1980 by the
Haryana government ‘with a commitment to deliver social and economic justice
to the backward and under-privileged sections of society’. Its executive agency at the
field level is Mewat Development Agency (MDA) headquartered at Nuh, the district
capital of Mewat district. On its southern border, Mewat shares its boundary with
the state of Rajasthan. It is largely a plane area although there are varied forms of
landscapes.
Despite the relative prosperity of Haryana, Mewat has remained backward on all
the parameters of development. This relative lack of development and the consequent
repercussions are having adverse effects on the socio-cultural development of Mewat.
Mewat is a unique ethno cultural tract providing glimpses of the mixing of both
Fig. 16.1 Location map of Study area

Hindu-Muslim identities (Sikand 1995). The region is known for a strong sense of
community among the Meos (Ali et al. 1970).
16.3 Methodology
The database is an important and integral part of any research. It is indeed difficult
to locate the data sources of social capital, as there is no specific data set related to
these aspects in India. Moreover, the secondary data sources are also scattered. To
analyze the developmental problems of the Mewat region in terms of social capital
at the community level, this research has relied on an extensive primary database
consisting of community schedule, focus group discussion (FGD), key-informant
interview and organization profile interview.
16.3.1 Survey Sampling
Ten Panchayat villages (fourteen revenue villages) were selected for the detailed
survey based on cluster random sampling. Cluster sampling is used to select Meos
and the other communities. This sampling is implemented in stages. It is a complex
form of sampling in which two or more levels of units are embedded into the other.
The first stage consists of constructing the clusters, which in turn was used to draw
the sample. In the second stage, a sample of primary units is randomly selected from
each cluster.
In the following stages, in each of those selected clusters, additional samples of
units are selected, and so on. All ultimate units (individual unit, for instance) selected
at the last step of this procedure are then surveyed. This technique, thus, is essentially
the process of taking random sub-samples of preceding random samples. Following
criteria were followed for the selection of the sample Panchayat villages:
(I) Only Panchayat villages were selected. In reality, some villages do not have
Panchayat of their village. They are attached to the Panchayat of the other big village.
The reason behind choosing the Panchayat village is that Gram Panchayat itself
represents a form of social capital. It is a resource for the village community upon
which they rely for solving their day-to-day problems and sustenance.
(II) Since one of the main objectives of the study looks at the social capital of
the Meos and other communities, so a predominant village of either Meos or other
communities (SC, Gujjar, Jat and Kumhar) was selected based on the inputs and
advice of the local population.
(III) A Panchayat village and preponderant social group were preferred, which
was located near the tahsil headquarters. It could not be possible in all cases because
there was a problem in locating sample Kumhar Panchayat villages and even if a
Gram Panchayat and sample social group preponderant village were located in the
interior, it was selected.
16.3.2 Mixed Methods
Since most of the quantitative data is categorical in nature, therefore, cross tabulation
was done to analyze the various aspects of social capital(s). Mixed methods approach
was used to analyze both data sets. The qualitative data is used here to supplement the
quantitative data. The analysis of qualitative data poses certain problems of coding
and quantification. To solve these problems, numerical weights have been attached
to make the data scale-free as per the advice and discretion of the local population.
The weights have been attached keeping in mind the importance attached to that
associational activity by the respondents in the field area (Table 16.1). There are three
methods of giving weightage. These include discretionary measures, equal weightage
and statistical method (Mahmood 1977). In a complex and heterogeneous society, it
Table 16.1 Weightage to

Weights
economic, socio-cultural and
political activities (i) Economic activities
(a) Agriculture 5
(b) Government job 4
(c) Self-employed 3
(d) Private contract jobs 2
(e) Casual labour 1
(ii) Socio-cultural activities
(a) Id-ul-fitr 13
(b) Bakrid 12
(c) Holi 11
(d) Teej 10
(e) Rakshabandan 9
(f) Bhandara 8
(g) Havan 7
(h) Diwali 6
(i) Dussehra 5
(j) Gugga Pir 4
(k) Dargah Shariff Ajmer 3
(l) Durga mata 2
(m) Jai Ambe Puja 1
(iii) Political activities
(a) Panchayat 3
(b) State assembly 2
(c) Lok Sabha 1
Source Community Field Survey Mewat 2012
Table 16.2 Weights to

Organizations Weights
organizations in the sample
communities (i) Informal organizations
(a) Non-government organizations 5
(b) Self-help groups 4
(c) Tablighi Jamaat 3
(ii) Formal organizations
(a) Gram Sabha 2
(b) Gram Panchayat 1
(iii) Which persons or organization help or support these
community-based organizations
(a) Non-government organizations 5
(b) Gram Panchayat 4
(c) Religious organization 3
(d) Zamindar 2
(e) Any other (specify) 1
(iv) Which place the members of the community regularly use
for meetings?
(a) Panchayat Bhawan 4
(b) Dharamshala 3
(c) Village school 2
(d) Personal homes 1
is not possible to give equal weightage to all since it would distort the whole picture.
The whole purpose of the exercise would be defeated.
There is always some sort of subjective reasoning involved in the weightage of
the variables. Keeping in mind the limitations of the quantitative methods, they are
not able to measure, which is most likely to be measured. However, it has been taken
care of by the logical reasoning as implied by the respondents in the field area. The
views and responses of people of the field have lessened the subjectivity inherent in
the weights. The weights being attached are provided above.
Associatedness includes economic activities, socio-cultural activities, and polit-
ical activities. Economic activities include agriculture, government job, self-
employment, private contract jobs, and casual labour. Socio-cultural activities include
festivals and ceremonies observed by the village communities. Political activities
include participation in Gram Panchayat, state assembly, and Lok Sabha elections.
Two types of organizations are found, formal and informal. There are also com-
munity organizations in the village. The members of the community regularly meet
to resolve the issues facing the community. Here also, the weightage is given as per
the information given by the respondents in the study area (Table 16.2).
16.4 Conceptualising Social Capital
Social capital ‘while not all things to all people, is many things to many people’
(Narayan and Pritchett 1999). It has important implications for development policy
and has a dramatic rise in the social sciences in the last decade of the twentieth
century (Woolcock 1998). This rise has been accompanied by enthusiasm in the first
instance and skepticism in the second. The enthusiasts of the idea state that social
capital has important implications for development policy especially community
development while the critics assert that until now there is disagreement about its
definition and methodology. The literature on social capital is divided into many lines
and presents a confused scenario. There are contrasting views to conceptualize and
measure social capital in the available literature. Most scholars agree with Putnam on
the need for a ‘lean and mean’ definition. Following Bourdieu (1986), this paper tries
to reconceptualise social capital as instrumental use of social relations for mutual
benefit and cooperation.
There are two dimensions of social capital, which includes both cognitive and
structural dimensions. Both the dimensions need to be looked at understanding this
idea. There is a need to develop a general theory of social capital, which can devise
some basic principles on which the empirical investigations can be carried out. How-
ever, the current literature is not helpful in this direction. The literature is divided on
how to operationalise the concept in an empirical setting. Practitioners of the idea
assert that to operationalise social capital; there is a need to follow a multidimen-
sional, coherent and contextual methodology (Krishna and Uphoff 1999; Bullen and
Onyx 2005; Krishna 2002, 2007).
The earliest attempt at conceptualization and measurement was by the World
Bank under the Social Capital Initiative project (SCI 1998) before Bourdieu (1986),
Coleman (1988, 1994)) and Putnam et al. (1993), Putnam (2000) made initial efforts
in this direction. Stone (2001) argues that there is a need for a measurement frame-
work that takes into account the theoretical understanding of the concept and recog-
nizing that it is a multidimensional construct. Paxton (1999) states that to measure
social capital, single measures are not enough and variables and outcomes need to be
separated for better measurement. Krishna and Uphoff (1999) look at the empirical
correlates of social capital in Rajasthan in India. Brehm and Rahn (1997) look at the
individual level evidence for the causes and consequences of social capital. Bullen
and Onyx (1998, 2005) provide a measure of community social capital in New South
Wales, Australia.
Further, there is a macro versus micro-debate in the literature on social capi-
tal. There are some studies, which support the macro social capital (Knack and
Keefer 1997). These studies look at the international perspective and work within
the broader political economy framework of development. Bjornskov (2006) looks
at the determinants of generalized trust in a cross-country investigation. Svendsen
and Bjornskov (2007) attempt to construct measures of social capital of twenty-five
countries in eastern and western Europe. Most of the studies under this framework
rely on cross-national data. All of these studies are undertaken in the West since they
have a robust institutional network of data collection and dissemination. Apart from
the macro-perspective, there is also an inclination towards meso studies like commu-
nity development. Brisson and Usher (2012) attempt to conceptualize and measure
social capital in low-income neighbourhoods. While advocating community studies,
Saegert et al. (2001) write
Making use of social capital as an analytical construct requires a shift from the individual
to the community as the unit of analysis for strategies to combat poverty. Social capital is a
collective asset, a feature of communities, rather than the property of an individual. As such,
individuals both contribute to it and use it, but they cannot own it.
However, the importance of social capital lies in the fact that it looks at non-
material resources and how these resources can be accessed at the meso and micro
levels. Therefore, it is important to look at community levels to understand its effects
on the macro level phenomena.
16.5.1 Associatedness
The history of human beings is the history of embedded association (Bourdieu 1986).
Because of living in close proximity to each other, the village communities have
joined each other in times of need and distress (Kropotkin 1998). By associating
with each other, they try to add economic value to the social relations. The addition
of value to social relations results in the accumulation of (social)capital. Table 16.3
looks at the associatedness of male for Meos and other communities in Mewat. The
activities include economic, socio-cultural and political. The table records weighted
scores for each social group in sample Panchayats.
Figure 16.2 looks at the level of associatedness of Meos and other communi-
ties in economic activities. Scheduled castes report the highest level of associat-
edness in total economic activities followed by Gujjars, Jats, and Kumhars. Meos
reports the lowest level of economic activities. Agricultural has the highest level
of associatedness among all the social communities followed by government job,
self-employment, and casual labour. Private contract jobs have the least level of
associatedness.
In socio-cultural activities, Gujjars have the highest level of associatedness fol-
lowed by Jats and SCs (Fig. 16.3). Meos here also have the lowest level of associated-
ness except for the Kumhars, which reports the extremely low level of associatedness
and hence may be considered as an outlier.
Holi festival among the Hindus has the highest level of associatedness followed
by Teej, Rakshabandan and Diwali. What is interesting to note that the role of local
deities is slowing declining in the lives of the Hindus day by day as is evident from
this data? The Gugga Pir festival and Havan ceremonies report the lowest level of
associatedness.
Table 16.3 Level of associatedness in Meos and other communities (Weighted Scores)
Economic Gujjar Jat Meo SC Kumhar Total
Agriculture 10 20 20 20 0 70
Casual labour 2 2 2 0 4 10
Private contract jobs 2 0 0 0 0 2
Self-employed 0 3 0 0 12 15
Government job 12 0 0 18 8 38
Total 26 25 22 38 24 135
Diwali 24 14 0 24 0 62
Holi 48 37 0 48 0 133
Dussehra 20 20 0 20 0 60
Teej 32 32 0 42 0 106
Gugga Pir 4 0 0 0 0 4
Rakshabandan 36 36 0 0 0 72
Durga mata 8 0 0 0 8 8
Jai Ambe Puja 4 0 0 0 4 8
Dargah Shariff Ajmer 0 0 12 0 0 12
Id-ul fitr 0 0 50 0 0 50
Bakrid 0 0 46 0 0 46
Havan 0 7 0 0 0 7
Bhandara 9 32 0 0 0 41
Total 185 178 108 134 12 617
Panchayat election 12 12 12 12 12 60
Assembly election 8 8 8 8 8 40
Lok Sabha election 4 4 3 3 4 18
Total 24 24 23 23 24 118
Sum total 235 227 153 195 60 870
Fig. 16.2 Levels of Economic Activities Source Community Field Survey Mewat 2012
Fig. 16.3 Levels of Socio-cultural Activities Source Community Field Survey Mewat 2012
Fig. 16.4 Levels of Political Activities Source Community Field Survey Mewat 2012
Political activities show the highest level of similarity among the sample commu-
nities (Fig. 16.4). Gujjars, Jats, and Kumhars show the highest level of associatedness
followed by Meos and SCs. Panchayat election shows the highest associatedness fol-
lowed by Assembly and Lok Sabha election meaning thereby that local elections are
more participatory and directly affect other elections.
16.5.2 Particularized Trust
Particularized trust refers to that trust which is found among the members known
to each other. The members are known to each other, and this similarity leads to
what is known as reputation among the members of the community (Uslaner 2008).
Opposite to the particularized trust is the generalized trust. Generalized trust is trust
towards strangers whom you do not even know (Bjornskov 2006). It is based on
mutual reciprocity and behaviour by the individual members.
Table 16.4 Particularized trust in Meos and other communities

Gujjar Jat Meo SC Kumhar Total
Do people in this community trust one another in matters of lending and borrowing?
Yes 2 2 2 2 2 10
No 0 0 0 0 0 0
In the last five years, what is the level of trust
among the community members?
Improved 2 2 2 2 2 10
Worsened 0 0 0 0 0 0
Remained the same 0 0 0 0 0 0
Compared with other community groups, how much do people in this community trust each
other in matters of lending and borrowing?
More trust than in other communities 2 2 2 2 2 10
Same as in the other communities 0 0 0 0 0 0
Less trust than in other communities 0 0 0 0 0 0
Do you agree or disagree with the following statement: “People here look out mainly for the
welfare of their families, and they are not much concerned with community welfare”
Strongly agree 1 1 1 0 0 3
Agree 0 0 0 0 0 0
Strongly disagree 0 0 0 0 0 0
Disagree 1 1 1 2 2 7
There are obligations upon the members in the particularized trust, and they fear
social boycott in case trust conditions are violated and infringed upon. If a stranger
breaks trust or cheats another stranger, then it is highly unlikely that he would be
subjected to the same treatment as the member who is known among the members
of the community.
Table 16.4 shows the particularized trust among Meos and other communities
in Mewat. The first variable looks at the trust regarding lending and borrowing in
the community members. The entire sample communities report that they trust each
other regarding lending and borrowing.
The second variable looks at the level of trust among the community members in
the last five years. The entire communities report that the level of trust among the
community members has improved. The third variable looks at how much people
in this community trust each other in terms of lending and borrowing as compared
with the other communities. The entire communities report that the people in their
community trust each other more than other communities in terms of lending and
borrowing.
The fourth variable puts forward a statement, ‘people here look out mainly for the
welfare of their families, and they are not much concerned with community welfare’.
The Gujjar, Jat and Meo communities strongly agree that people here look mainly
for the welfare of their families and they are not much concerned with community
welfare. The same communities also disagree that people here look out mainly for the
welfare of their families and they are not much concerned with community welfare.
The entire SC and Kumhar communities disagree that people here look out mainly
for the welfare of their families and they are not much concerned with community
welfare.
16.5.3 Relations of Production
The need to trade goods, commodities, and services arise from the basic fact that
human needs are numerous and to satisfy these, it is impossible to meet these or
satisfy from local produce. Therefore, there is always a need to bring the goods,
commodities, and services from other places. Due to this, there is a constant rise in
the exchange of goods, commodities, and services from other places. This process of
exchange has travelled a long distance over human civilization. Barter or exchange
through money and virtual trade are some of the important features of the same.
It is understood that these progressions in the form of trade have transcended the
limitations imposed by various geographical and sociological obstacles and added
new dimensions into trade including convenience and comfort.
However, when one looks at these conveniences and comforts, it is an undeniable
truth that they have been at the cost of social capital meaning thereby that though
barter and direct exchanges are inconvenient and cumbersome processes, yet they
are rich in social capital. As opposed to this, the virtual trading is most convenient
and very poor in social capital.
Table 16.5 shows the relations of production of Meos and other communities in
Mewat. The first variable looks at where the inhabitants of Meos and other commu-
nities sell their livestock products and other produce. All the Gujjar, Jat, Meo and SC
communities report that they generally sell their livestock products and produce at
the local mandi. The members of the Kumhar community report local mandi as well
as nearby city market for their products and produce. Only the Kumhars of Patkhori
Panchayats sell their products in the village.
The second variable looks at the visit of agricultural extension workers to advise
the farmers in their areas. The members of the Gujjar, SC and Kumhar communities
report that the agricultural extension workers sometimes visit and sometimes, do not
visit the area and provide advice to the farmers. The members of the Meo community
report that agricultural extension workers do not visit the area and provide advice to
the farmers.
The third variable looks at the facility of the agricultural cooperative for credit
and loan services by Meos and other communities. The entire Gujjar, Jat, Meo, and
SC communities report that they avail of the facility of the agricultural cooperative
for credit and loan services. The members of the Kumhar community do and do
not avail of the facility of agricultural cooperatives for credit and loan services.
The fourth variable looks at those institutions, which provide credit to the Meos and
Table 16.5 Relations of production in Meos and other communities

Where do the inhabitants of this community generally sell their livestock products and produce?
Local mandi 2 2 2 2 1 9
District mandi 0 0 0 0 0 0
Cooperative society 0 0 0 0 0 0
Any other (specify) 0 0 0 0 1 1
Do the agricultural extension workers visit the area and provide advice to the farmers?
Yes 1 2 0 1 1 5
No 1 0 2 1 1 5
Does this community avail of the facility of the
agricultural cooperative for credit and loan
services?
Yes 2 2 2 2 1 9
No 0 0 0 0 1 1
What are the three main institutions that provide credit to farmers in this community?
Moneylenders 2 0 2 0 1 5
Agricultural cooperatives 0 1 0 1 1 3
Development banks 0 0 0 0 0 0
Commercial banks 0 1 0 1 0 2
In the last three years, the yield per acre has
Increased 1 1 2 1 2 7
Decreased 1 0 0 0 0 1
In the last three years, the sale of agricultural/livestock products in this community have
Increased 1 1 2 1 2 7
Decreased 1 0 0 0 0 1
other communities. The entire Gujjar and Meo communities report that moneylenders
provide credit to the farmers in this community while the Kumhar community avails
of the credit facility from both moneylenders and agricultural cooperatives. The
members of the Jat community report agricultural cooperatives and the commercial
banks provide credit to the farmers in their community.
The fifth variable looks at yield per acre in the sample Panchayats. The members
of the Gujjar community report that yield per acre has increased as well as decreased
over the last three years. The members of the Jat and SC communities report that
the yield per acre has increased over the last three years but lately have remained the
same. The members of the Meo and Kumhar communities report that yield per acre
have increased over the last three years.
The sixth variable looks at the role of agricultural/livestock products in the com-
munity. The members of the Gujjar community report that the sale of agricul-
tural/livestock products has increased and decreased in the last three years. The
members of the Jat and SC communities report that the sale of agricultural and live-
stock products have increased and remained the same in the last three years. The
members of the Meo and Kumhar communities report that the sale of agricultural
and livestock products have increased in the last three years.
16.5.4 Types and Role of Institutions
Institutions are arrangements by which people come together for fulfilling certain
needs. Institutions are instrumental in the sense that they provide service to the people.
Institutions are essential for the proper functioning of society. They also provide the
necessary social and cultural sanction to social groups and communities.
Table 16.6 looks at the institutions of Meos and other communities in Mewat. The
entire sample communities attach highest weightage to the Gram Sabha followed by
statutory Gram Panchayat, self-help groups, and NGOs. The members of the Meo
communities attach highest weightage to the Tablighi Jamaat, a religious Islamic
Table 16.6 Types and Role of Institutions in Meos and Other Communities
Organizations Gujjar Jat Meo SC Kumhar Total
Gram Sabha 2(4) 2(4) 2(4) 2(4) 2(4) 10(20)
Statutory Gram Panchayat 2(2) 2(2) 2(2) 2(2) 2(2) 10(10)
Self-help group (SHG) 1(5) 2(10) 0 2(10) 2(10) 7(35)
Non-government organization (NGO) 0 0 0 0 1(4) 1(4)
Tablighi Jamaat 0 0 2(6) 0 0 2(6)
Which persons or organization help or support these community-based organizations?
Gram Panchayat 2(8) 2(8) 2(8) 2(8) 2(8) 10(40)
Zamindar 0 0 0 0 0 0
Non-government organization (NGO) 0 1(5) 0 0 0 1(5)
Religious organization 0 0 2(6) 0 0 2(6)
Any other (specify) 0 0 0 0 0 0
Which place the members of the community regularly use for meetings?
Village school 0 0 0 1(2) 0 1(2)
Dharamshala 1(3) 1(3) 0 0 2(6) 4(12)
Panchayat Bhawan 0 0 0 1(4) 0 1(4)
Personal homes 1(1) 1(1) 2(2) 0 0 4(4)
Note Figures outside the parenthesis indicate number of institutions and inside the parenthesis total
score of the institutions
organization, for the upliftment of their community. The second variable looks at
which persons or organizations support the community-based organizations (CBOs).
The members of the entire sample communities report that they help and support the
Gram Panchayat. The members of the Meo community report that along with Gram
Panchayat; they also support the Tablighi Jamaat.
The third variable looks at the meeting place of the members of the commu-
nity. The members of the Gujjar and Jat communities report that they regularly use
dharmshala and personal homes for meeting members of the community. The mem-
bers of the Meo community report that they use personal homes for meeting members
of the community. The members of the SC community report that they use village
school as well as Panchayat Bhawan for meeting members of the community. The
members of the Kumhar community report that they use dharmshala for meeting
members of the community.
16.5.5 Community Cohesion
Community cohesion is belongingness among the members of the society for achiev-
ing shared values and goals. It looks beyond diversity and strives to bridge social
inequalities in the society. It advocates positive relations among the community
members. A sense of belonging has to be there in the community so that all sample
communities feel safe and secure. Table 16.7 looks at the community cohesion of
Meos and other communities in Mewat.
The first variable looks at gendered roles of the community members in solving
the issues facing the community. The entire sample communities report that male
members of the community participate most in solving the issues facing the commu-
nity. Women have no say in solving the issues facing the community. Even males do
not work in association with females in solving the disputes. Patriarchy is so much
rampant that women are not allowed to come out of the four walls of the house in
these matters. The second variable looks at which age groups participate most in
solving the issues facing the community. Old persons participate most in solving the
issues facing the community.
The third variable looks at the occupational status of those, which participate most
in solving the issues facing the community. The village zamindars participate most
in solving the issues facing the community. The fourth variable looks at whether the
community has organized itself to address a problem or not in terms of initiatives.
The members of the Gujjar, Jat, Meo and Kumhar communities report that they
have organized themselves to address a problem (drinking water, electricity) and
the same also report that they have not organized themselves. The members of the
SC community report that they have organized themselves to address a problem
(electricity) in the village.
The fifth variable looks at whether there are specific affirmative action pro-
grammes for the welfare of the communities. The members of the Meo and the
SC community report that there are specific assistance programmes for the welfare
Table 16.7 Community cohesion in Meos and Other Communities

Organizations Gujjar Jat Meo SC Kumhar Total
Which members of the community participate most in solving the issues facing the community?
Gender
Male 2 2 2 2 2 10
Female 0 0 0 0 0 0
Both male and female 0 0 0 0 0 0
Age
Youth and adolescents 0 0 0 0 0 0
Adults 0 0 0 0 0 0
Older persons 2 2 2 2 2 10
None participates 0 0 0 0 0 0
Occupation status
Village zamindars 2 2 2 2 2 2
Businesspersons 0 0 0 0 0 0
Govt. jobholders 0 0 0 0 0 0
Any other 0 0 0 0 0 0
In the last five years, has the community organized to address a need or problem?
Initiatives one
Yes 1 1 1 2 1 6
No 1 1 1 0 1 4
Initiative two
Yes 0 0 0 0 0 0
No 0 0 0 0 0 0
Are there any specific assistance programmes for this community?
Yes 0 0 2 2 0 4
No 0 0 0 0 0 0
of their community which include Multi-sectoral Development Programe (MsDP)

and lending schemes of National Minority and Development Finance Corporation
(NMDFC).
16.5.6 Social Pathologies
The importance of social capital lies in its consequences. It can be used for both the
positive and the negative outcomes in the society. Most of the literature on social
capital has focused on the positive aspects of social capital. The ‘other side’ of aspects
or the dark side of the social capital has been ignored in most of the literature (Portes
and Landolt 2000). While focussing on the positive aspects, it is also very important
to highlight the negative aspects, keeping in mind that the same social capital can be
used for the negative outcomes.
Table 16.8 looks at social pathologies of Meos and other communities in Mewat.
One Panchayat of Meo and Kumhar communities report that there are burglar-
ies/vehicle theft in the community and they have been affected most by these in
the last one year. The entire members of the SC community also report burglar-
ies/vehicle theft in the village. As one SC member puts it: ‘Recently one of our
neighbours attended a marriage. After the bestowing ceremony, he found that his
Table 16.8 Social Pathologies in Sample Communities

Do any of the following problems exist in this community? If yes who is the most affected or at
risk group during the last one year?
Burglaries/vehicle theft
Yes 0 0 1 2 1 4
No 2 2 1 0 1 6
Robberies
Yes 2 0 0 1 0 3
No 0 2 2 1 2 7
Assaults
Yes 1 0 2 0 0 3
No 1 2 0 2 2 7
Gangs
Yes 0 0 2 0 0 2
No 2 2 0 2 2 7
Vandalism
Yes 0 0 0 0 0 0
No 2 2 2 2 2 10
Violent disputes
Yes 0 0 0 0 1 1
No 2 2 2 2 1 9
Alcohol abuse
Yes 1 1 1 0 0 3
No 1 1 1 2 2 7
Drug abuse
Yes 2 0 0 1 0 3
No 0 2 2 1 2 7
motorcycle was gone. The thieves just broke the lock’. This proves the hypothesis
that a given form of social capital at the individual level that is valuable in facilitat-
ing certain actions may be useless or even harmful to others at the community level.
The entire members of the Gujjar community Panchayats and one SC Panchayat
report robberies (Jewellery). The entire members of the Meo Panchayat and one
Gujjar Panchayat report assaults. The entire members of the Meo community report
small gangs. The entire sample communities report that there is no vandalism in the
sample Panchayats. The members of the Kumhar community report violent dispute
resulting in a murder in the Pathkhori Panchayat. The members of the Gujjar, Jat and
Meo communities report rampant alcohol abuse. The entire members of the Gujjar
community and the lone SC Panchayat report drug abuse.
16.6 Conclusion and Policy Implications
It can be concluded from the above discussion that a consensus is fast emerging
towards a ‘lean and mean’ definition of social capital, which points to an instru-
mental use of resources for mutual benefit and cooperation. It also points to a deep
theoretical understanding of the concept in historical setting particularly of Pierre
Bourdieu. The first step in measuring social capital is to recognize that it cannot
be measured by just one variable and is multidimensional. The second step relates
to contextual underpinning, which brings out its relevance and the utility for devel-
opment policy outcomes. The selection of variables and indicators is an important
exercise in understanding and analyzing social capital and its implications for local
development. Variables have to be contextualized and made relevant to the situation
under consideration. Along with the quantitative variables, qualitative information
is also processed for a coherent understanding of social capital. In the backdrop of
all these considerations, this paper proceeds to analyze the levels of social capital of
Meos and other communities in Mewat, Haryana.
The empirical results show that in terms of embedded association, socio-cultural
activity has the highest level of associatedness followed by economic and political
activities. It shows higher informal socio-cultural interaction among the communi-
ties. The entire sample communities report an increase in yield per acre except for
the Gujjar community as the surface soil is badly affected by termites. While the
Meos report an increase in the sale of agricultural and livestock products, the others
(Jats and SCs) report no change in sale in the last three years. The self-help groups
are the most prominent informal organizations of the women and contributing to the
welfare of the households and communities. The formal organizations include Gram
Sabha and statutory Gram Panchayats. The Gram Panchayats support the CBOs fol-
lowed by religious and non-government organizations. Members of the community
regularly use dharmshala as a meeting place.
The women Sarpanch do not play an active role in resolving the issues facing
the community as in most of the cases the Sarpanch-pati continues to run the Gram
Panchayat. The members of the SC community have organized community members
to address problems like drinking water and electricity as compared to Gujjar, Jat and
Kumhar Panchayats. In this regard, they have organized bandhs and submitted a mem-
orandum to the public representatives. The results also show that self-help groups
are an important source of social capital along with associatedness in socio-cultural
activities, increase in mutually beneficial production relations, vibrant (informal)
institutions and strong social cohesion. The paper concludes that social capital may
prove important in improving the decision support system for community develop-
ment outcomes as it allows the instrumental use of social relations for mutual benefit
and this in association with economic capital in the form of income support can be
employed as a strategy of sustainable development in Mewat region, Haryana.
Acknowledgements The author certifies that no funding was received for this paper. At the time
of writing this research, he had no affiliation with any organization with any financial interest or
non-financial interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript. All procedures
performed were in accordance with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments and
ethical approval was obtained from all sources. Informed consent was obtained from all individual
participants included in this article. The author further declares that there is no conflict of interest
involved in the preparation of this article.
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Chapter 17
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City, India
Pawan Kumar Thakur, Manish Kumar and Vaibhav E. Gosavi
Abstract Urban Sprawl, a burning global phenomenon, refers to that extent of city
or urbanisation, which may driven by industrialisation, population growth, settle-
ment on the periphery of the city and large-scale migration. India, with population of
over one billion, which is one-sixth of the world’s total population, phenomenon of
Urban Sprawl is affecting its natural resources like never before. This results in mul-
tiple problems such as unmanageable transportation, unemployment which results in
poverty, illegal housing colonies, slums, etc. This study illustrates the use of Geospa-
tial and Statistical Techniques to highlight the extent of Urban Sprawl in Shimla
Municipal Corporation, Himachal Pradesh, India; at a detailed level. In the present
work, four temporal satellite images of Landsat Thematic Mapper have been used
over a period of nearly two decades (i.e. 1991–2011). Landsat imageries of two time
periods (Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) of 1991 and 2011; and ETM+ (Enhanced
Thematic Mapper) 2001), were used and quantified for studying the decadal change
in land use/land cover. Supervised classification methods have been employed using
Support Vector Machine in ENVI 5.0 and ERDAS 2014. The study area is categorized
into five different classes, viz. water bodies, forest area, built-up area, agriculture and
open space. The results indicate that built-up area is the major land use in study area.
During the period 1991–2011, the area under built-up land has increased by 529.65 ha
(26.48)% due to construction of new buildings on forest land, agricultural land and
open spaces. As a result, the area under vegetation (forest), open space and water
bodies decreased by −361.71 ha (−18 09%), −178.02 ha (−8.90%), 0.36 ha (0.02%)
respectively. Urban built-up density was calculated in percentage (%) for 25 wards
P. K. Thakur (B) · V. E. Gosavi

G. B. Pant, National Institute of Himalayan Environmental & Sustainable Development,
Himachal Regional Centre, Mohal-Kullu 175 126, Himachal Pradesh, India
e-mail: thakurpawankumar0431@gmail.com
V. E. Gosavi
e-mail: vaibhavgosavi8@gmail.com
M. Kumar
Department of Geography, Kalindi College, University of Delhi, East Patel Nager, New Delhi,
India
e-mail: manish.ks1@gmail.com

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2097-6_17
264 P. K. Thakur et al.
of the city for 1991, 2001 and 2011. Depending on the density levels, it categorized
as low, medium and high density. The process of urban expansion in the Shimla
City during 1991, 2001 and 2011 are further studied by examining a distance decay
concept from a major road. The study also highlights the nature, rate and location
of change; and the importance of digital change detection techniques in land use
planning for sustainable growth of the study area. The Shannon’s Entropy Index and
Landscape Metrics have been computed in order to quantify the urban growth using
built-up area as a spatial unit. Further, Stepwise Regression techniques were used
to explore the relationship between the urban growth and its contributory factors.
Further, Stepwise Regression was used to study the impact of Independent Variables
(population density, female literacy rate, road density, total workers, sex ratio, α-
population, number of HH, β-population) and Dependent Variables (percentage of
built-Up area) factors on urban growth. The result shows that the growing population
triggers the increase in built-up area in study area. This study also demonstrates the
potentials of geospatial data in mapping, measuring and modelling the urban sprawl,
which could be helpful to decision makers to form/make particular decision support
system for sustainable growth of hilly urban areas or in making Smart City planning.
Keywords Urban sprawl · SVM · Digital change detection · Built-up density ·

Shannon’s entropy · Stepwise regression · Shimla city
17.1 Introduction
The world urban centers are growing very faster in terms of the extent geographical
area and density of population. Moreover, the urban areas change a rapid rate in
developing countries and are experiencing stress. According to the United Nations
(2014) report, the trend of global urbanization shows that 66% of the world’s pop-
ulation is projected to be in urban area by 2050, with 90% of this expansion being
anticipated in developing countries. In 2050, most of the urban population living of
the world will be combination in Asia (52%) and Africa (21%). In India, the percent-
age of urban population to the total population has been steadily increasing since
Independence. India is the 2nd largest urban organization in the world with more
than 30% of urban population. The half of India’s population will become urban has
been estimated by 2025. The urban population of Indian cities is highly concentrated
in large cities which are growing rapidly compared to small urban centres. The most
Indian cities population is highly concentrated in large which are growing rapidly
compared to small CBD (Central Business District) centers.
Urbanization drives the change in land use/land cover pattern. Actual information
on the extent of urban growth is of great interest for the various purposes such
as developmental activities like urban planning and management, land and water
resource management, service and marketing analysis, etc. Urban local bodies are
required to dedicate more time, effort and attention to able to use of land resources in
order to accommodating the growing population or other urban land uses (Jat et al.
17 Monitoring and Modelling of Urban Sprawl Using … 265
2008). The traditional surveying and mapping techniques are time-consuming and
also expensive for the estimation of urban sprawl. Therefore, more research interest
is being focused on mapping and monitoring of urban growth using Remote Sensing
and GIS techniques (Epstein et al. 2002). Several researches on urban sprawl have
been attempted by many scholars (Batty et al. 1999; Torrens and Alberti 2000; Barnes
et al. 2001; Hurd et al. 2001; Jantz and Scott 2005; Yang and Liu 2005).
Urban sprawl usually takes place on the border area of the city or along the
highways. Some studies of urban sprawl (The Regionalist 1997; Sierra Club 1998)
was carried out in developed countries (Batty et al. 1999; Torrens and Alberti 2000;
Barnes et al. 2001, Hurd et al. 2001; and Epstein et al. 2002) as well as in developing
countries such as China (Yeh and Li, 2001; Cheng and Masser 2003) and India
(Jothimani 1997; Lata et al. 2001; Sudhira et al. 2003). To quantify the urban sprawl,
built-up is considered as a defining parameter (Torrens and Alberti 2000; Barnes et al.
2001; and Epstein et al. 2002), which used to be delineated using standard toposheets.
Remote Sensing and GIS systems played important role in quantifying, monitoring,
and subsequently predicting urban sprawl phenomenon. On spatial scale, GIS assist
in determining the landscape properties in terms of structure, function and change
(ICIMOD 1999; Civco et al. 2002). Modelling of the spatial dynamics mainly cover
the LULC change studies (Lo and Yang 2002). In predicting the situation of Ipswich
watershed, USA, in terms of its land use change, Pontius et al. (2000) carried out
future land use changes prediction based on validated model for 1971, 1985 and
1991. Further, the Cellular Automata (CA) technique was extensively used in the
urban growth models (Clarke et al. 1996) and in simulating urban sprawl (Torrens
and O’ Sullivan 2001; Waddell 2002).
The Geo-spatial techniques, such as Remote Sensing and GIS plays vital role in
quantifying and modelling urban landscape which is otherwise not possible or time
consuming by mapping through traditional methods. Remote Sensing have proven its
usefulness in mapping urban areas and as a data sources (spatially and temporarily)
for modelling of urban sprawl as well as in studying LULC (Batty and Howes 2001;
Clarke et al. 2002; Donnay et al. 2001; Herold et al. 2001; Jensen and Cowen 1999).
Therefore, more often, it is used for the analysis of urban sprawl (Sudhira et al. 2004;
Yang and Liu 2005; Haack and Rafter 2006). The integration of Remote Sensing
with GIS and database management systems helps in quantifying, monitoring and
modelling the urban sprawl phenomenon. This has reflected in extensive research
efforts made in last three decades for urban change detection studies using remotely
sensed images (Gomarasca et al. 1993; Green et al. 1994; Yeh and Li 2001; Yang
and Lo 2003; Haack and Rafter 2006).
Sudhira et al. (2004) used geospatial techniques in modeling simulation of future
urban sprawl. Kumar et al. (2007) carried out similar study in Indore city of India
using three temporal satellite Remote Sensing data (1990–2000). In Ajmer city
(India), Jat et al. (2008) analyzed the urban sprawl using eight multi temporal satel-
lite imageries of duration 1977–2005. They found that the built-up development in
Ajmer city is more than three times the population growth. The spatial extent and pat-
terns of systematic/random changes in urban development in Haridwar city (India)
was studied by Jha et al. (2008) for developing future plans. In applying Entropy
approach, Punia and Singh (2012) conducted study on Jaipur city (India) to quantify
urban sprawl. This study reveals that the rate of built-up growth in Jaipur city have
outstripped the rate of population growth. Based on study using satellite data from
1990 to 2010, Rawat and Kumar (2015) found that there is sharp increase in built up
area in Almora town of Uttarakhand state in India, which is attributed to construction
of new buildings on agricultural and vegetation lands.
Apart from the research work of land use/land cover change detection, there are
studies in which uses statistical techniques with geospatial technology to quantify,
estimate, map & model urban sprawl (Jat et al. 2008). Shannon’s Entropy is based on
information theory. One of such statistical techniques is Shannon’s Entropy which
used as a mathematical estimation of Urban Growth that occurs in a disorganized way.
Shannon’s Entropy (Hn) is used to measure the degree of spatial concentration or
dispersion of geophysical variables (Xi) among ‘n’ spatial units/zones. In quantifying
urban forms, Shannon’s Entropy has been used by Joshi et al. (2006).
Changes in urban structures and pattern can be obtained using landscape metrics,
which gives information about the configuration of the land cover classes and the
landscape, are algorithms used to describe and quantify the spatial characteristics
of patches, class areas and the entire landscape (Cabral et al. 2005; Herold et al.
2002). GIS helps in calculating the urban landscape metrics, like patchiness and
density in order to characterize landscape properties in terms of spatial distribution
and change (Trani and Giles 1999; Yeh and Li 2001; Civco et al. 2002, Sudhira et al.
2004). However, the analysis of the sprawl pattern and the configuration of landscape
metrics correlate with each other, and cannot be seen apart. With the identification of
the pattern a first impression of the pattern is obtained, the landscape metrics provide
statistical insight of the configuration of the urban sprawl.
In present study, an attempt has been made to investigate the usefulness of the
Remote Sensing and GIS techniques along with Shannon’s Entropy (Hn) and land-
scape metrics for urban sprawl dynamics and monitoring of spatial and temporal
variability of Shimla city, Himachal Pradesh, India from 1991 to 2011. Variation
of urban sprawl (spatially and temporally) is considered for identifying the rela-
tionship between urban sprawl and some its contributory factors such as (indepen-
dent variables) population density, female literacy rate, road density, total workers,
sex ratio, α-population, number of household’s (HH), β-population, using Stepwise
Regression Analysis. In order to quantify and measure the urban growth, Shannon’s
Entropy, Built-up Density, Landscape Metrics and Spatial Dynamic of urban sprawl
were calculated. The landscape metrics were used to enhance understanding of the
urban forms. Computation of these parameters helps in understanding the process
of urbanization at a landscape level. An attempt has also been made in the study
for mapping the status of land use/land cover of Shimla Municipal Corporation,
Himachal Pradesh (India) for detecting the land use rate and the change that have
taken place during 1991–2011 using Remote Sensing and Geographic Information
System (GIS) technique.
17.2 Study Area
Shimla is a capital of Himachal Pradesh. The population of Shimla city is 1,69,578

(Census of India 2011). Shimla city, located between 31°3 and 31°8 N latitudes
and between 77°7 and 77°13 E longitudes (Fig. 17.1). It has an average altitude of
2195 m above mean sea level and extends along a ridge with seven spurs. The city is
spread over an area of 30 km2 . Population of Shimla city has increased from 1,42,555
(in 2001)–1,69,578 (in 2011), accounting for 18.96% decadal growth. Population
growth in percentage (%) has increased from 39.51% (in 2001) and 18.95% (in
2011).The climate in Shimla is mostly cool during winter months and moderately
warm during summer months (Cwb), under Koppen climate classification, with three
distinct seasons—summer, rains and mild winter. Shimla has an average temperature
of 19 °C–28 °C during March to June (in summer) and average temperatures in winter
season (November–February) ranges from 03 °C–09 °C. As a result of north-west
monsoon, the city receives an annual rainfall of 1577 mm between July–October.
The warmest month of the year is June.
Fig. 17.1 Location Map of the study area

Table 17.1 Data used for study

Data Date of acquisition Spatial resolution & scale (m) Sources
A. Satellite images
Landsat TM 16–11–1991 30 m Earth Explorer
Landsat ETM+ 18–10–2001 28.5 m Earth Explorer
Landsat TM 22–10–2011 30 m Earth Explorer
B. Additional data
Toposheet (53E/4) – 1:50,000 Survey of India
SMC Map (Ward) 2011 – SMC
Demographic data 1991, 2001 and 2011 – Census of India
Road layers 2011 – Google Earth
17.3.1 Data Used
Primary and secondary data sources have been used for present study (Table 17.1).
17.3.2 Methodology
Cloud Free Landsat satellite data of multi-temporal image of three years: 1991,
2001 and 2011 were selected for analysis. The freely available Landsat images were
downloaded from Global Land Cover Facility (GLCF) and Earth Explorer website of
United States Geological Survey (USGS). All the data are preprocessed and projected
to the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) projection system. Another reason for
selecting these images was their availability at similar resolution.
Using bands 2, 3 and 4 of the preprocessed images, map of land use/cover pat-
tern was prepared by Supervised Classification using the Support Vector Machine
(SVM) classification algorithm of Envi (Environmental Visualization Imagine) 5.1
and ERDAS 2014 (Earth Resource Data Analysis System) software. ArcGIS 10.2.2
software was also used for spatial analysis and generating thematic layers. To study
the built-up change detection especially in the land use/cover over the period of two
decade (from 1991 to 2011), unsupervised and supervised classification was used. In
the ERDAS 2014, indices such as Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI),
Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) and Normalized Difference Built up
Index (NDBI) were also applied to classify the Landsat images at a spatial resolution
of 30 m of 1991 and 2011, ETM+ at a spatial resolution 28.5 m of 2001. The Error
Matrix and Kappa coefficient method were used to assess the mapping accuracy.
Five Land use/cover types have been identified and used in this study, namely (i)
Water Body(ii) Forest Area (iii) Built up Area (iv) Agriculture Area (v) Open Space
Table 17.2 Description of land use/land cover classes

Land use/land cover categories Description
Urban or built-up Residential, commercial, services and industrial, roads and
playground, others means of transportation and other urban
feature and Recreational areas also included
Forest area (Vegetation) Vegetation areas, grass land and green parks and Forest,
scattered trees
Agriculture Area Production of food and fiber, This includes cropped areas,
fallow lands and plantation (Apples and pears orchards and
nurseries)
Water bodies River, lakes, tank, ponds, reservoirs etc
Open space/land Exposed soil, landfill sites, polder area of active excavation,
open space in the built-up land etc
(Table 17.2). A change matrix (Weng 2001) was build using ERDAS 2014 and
ArcGIS 10.2.2 software. The quantitative areal data of land use/land cover changes
and its gains and losses in each categories from 1991 to 2011, were compiled.
In determining qualitative as well as quantitative aspects of the changes from 1991
to 2011, classified image pairs of respective time frame were compared using cross-
tabulation. In order to produce the change information on pixel basis and interpreting
the changes more efficiently, a pixel-based comparison was performed. A change
matrix (Weng 2001) and Land Encroachment map was produced using ERDAS
Imagine 2014. The matrix showed the respective gains and losses in land use/cover
category during 1991–2011. Field data were collected for two reasons: first, to acquire
GPS data for ground verification of doubtful areas; and secondly, to calculate the
mapping accuracy of the classified images (Table 17.3). The ground control points
were used to correct the misclassified areas using recode option in ERDAS Imagine
2014 software. To assess the classification accuracy of all the produced outputs a
reference dataset of randomly selected 200 pixels were used. Land use/land cover for
these pixels was determined with the help of urban settlement map, and data collected
from other secondary maps. In order to avoid the errors in the reference dataset for
sensitive classes such as vegetation, which is temporal in nature; the original satellite
data was used for better assessment in its accuracy. Some of the ground truth data
that have been used in present study essentially includes urban settlement map and
Table 17.3 Description of

Land use/land Overall accuracy Kappa coefficient
land use/cover mapping
cover (%)
accuracy
1991 92.00 0.714
2001 97.00 0.926
2011 96.00 0.920
Sources: Landsat TM and ETM+ satellite data for 1991, 2001 and
2011
geographical locations of some of the features, location-wise type of vegetation,

buildings, play grounds, permanent water bodies, and road network.
Urban sprawl over a period of two decade (1991–2011) is obtained from the
classified images. To understand and model the urban sprawl pattern, different
Landscape Metrics (Shannon’s Entropy, Stepwise Regression, Map density and
Buffering along major roads) were calculated using the demographical and built-up
area statistics. Shannon’s Entropy (Hn ) is mostly used for ascertaining the urban
growth phenomena. This method is basically used from information theory which
acts as a measure of uncertainty of conveyed information over a noisy channel (Jat
et al. 2007; Bailey 2009). The greater value of Shannon entropy imparts higher
uncertainty in the information conveyed (Bailey 2009). High Entropy leads to high
occurrence of phenomena that contributes to disorder. This is probably same for
urban sprawl. Thus, Shannon entropy has been computed to quantify the decay of
sprawl. The Shannon entropy Hn is given by (Yeh and Li 2001).

n
1
Hn = Pi loge (17.1)
i
Pi
where, Pi is the proportion of occurrence of a phenomenon ith spatial zone out of n

zones (wards). This is given by
xi
Pi = n (17.2)
i xi
where, xi is the area of built up at the ith zone.

The value of entropy varies between 0 to loge n. The value closer to 0 indicates
concentrated or compact distribution of the built up while value closer to loge n
revels dispersed distributed pattern. However, high value of entropy indicates the
occurrence of sprawl.
Apart from the whole study area, entropy model has been also applied to different
administrative wards in the study area to detect the form and type of urban growth
phenomena (Punia and Singh 2011). For ward wise calculation of Shannon entropy,
each ward has considered as an individual spatial unit, and is given by

n
1
Hin = Pi loge (17.3)
i
Pi
where,Pi represents proportion of land use/land cover class in ith ward, n denotes
total number of land use/land cover classes. The range of Entropy values is minimum
of 0 to loge n representing upper limit of entropy which is equal to log 25 = 1.3413.
In developing the relationship of percentage built-up (dependent variable) with
causal factors (independent variables) of sprawl, Stepwise Regression analysis was
carried out. In this study, independent variables are Population Density (PD), α-
Population Density (α-PD), β-Population Density (β-PD), Total workers (TW), Road
density (RD), Female literacy rate (FLR), Sex ratio, (SR) and No of Household’s
(HH). In order to identify the probable relationship of percentage of built-up (PB)
(dependent variable) and individual causative factors, different distributions (Linear,
Polynomial, Logarithmic, and Exponential) have been calculated and documented.
In present study, eight spatial metrics indices, i.e., Class Area (CA), Number of
Patches (NP), Largest Patch Index (LPI), Edge Density (ED), Euclidian Mean Near-
est Neighbour Distance (ENN_MN), Area Weighted Mean Patch Fractal Dimension
(AWMPFD) and Contagion (Table 17.10), were used for quantify the spatial char-
acteristics of urban landscape. The changes in urban landscape were measured and
analysed using the FRAGSTATS software. The process of urban expansion in the
study area during the period of two decade (1991–2011) was examined by evaluating
a distance decay concept from major roads. In an obvious phenomenon like density of
land development declines rapidly as the distance from roads increases, the National
Highway No.—NH 22, National Highway No.—NH 88, summer hill roads, Bharari
road, Mall road and Ridge road, etc., have been considered for present urban sprawl
analysis, where four buffer zone were created along the roads with 0–50 m each.
17.4 Result and Discussion
17.4.1 Image Analysis
The spatial analysis was performed beyond the Shimla Municipal Council’s admin-
istrative boundary. The classified images for land use/land cover in 1991, 2001 and
2011 are shown in Figs. 17.2, 17.3 and 17.4 respectively. The extent of land use/land
cover during 1991, 2001 and 2011 comprised built-up area with 361.05 ha, 646.92 ha,
890.7 ha respectively. Similarly, the extent of non-built-up area comprising open land,
forest area and water bodies were 2329.47 ha, 2106.72 ha and 1968.12 ha during
1991, 2001 and 2011 respectively. The LULC change analysis was carried out based
on the differences in land use/land cover on spatial scale and temporal variation.
During 1991–2011, it was observed that the extent of built-up area has increased
by 26.48%. Here, the extent of increase in built-up area only describes the magni-
tude of change but without the pattern of this transition. The cross-tabulation for
the studied classified images was performed in order to analyze the probable LULC
change from various non-built-up classes to Built-up class. It was found that during
1991–2011, the land use change from open land into Forest area was significant. The
open land-use class was found to be a major land use that contributed to the increase
of built-up area. Similarly, during 1991–2011, the Forest Area was the major land
use/land cover that was lost (by almost 361.71 ha) due to changes into built-up areas.
The overall accuracy and Kappa coefficient for all the classified images are pre-
sented in Table 17.3. For better classification results, random sets of 200 samples
were generated and classification results were compared with the true information
classes in the reference image. The high level of accuracy was obtained in the present
Fig. 17.2 Land use/cover classification of Shimla City (Source Landsat TM 1991)
study could be the result of the coarse classification, since only five classes are used.
The classified image of original bands using Support Vector Machine (SVM) of
Landsat TM (1991 and 2011) and Landsat-7 ETM+ (2001). From the image it is
seen that most of the forest area is classified as vegetation due to similar spectral
reflectance.
Table 17.4 and Fig. 17.5 reveal that both positive and negative changes occurred
in the land use/cover pattern of Shimla city. According to the land use/cover maps
produced, the total built-up area for 1991 was 361.05 ha (11.78%). This has increased
to 646.92 ha (21.16%) by 2001, and finally reached 890.7 ha (29.06%) in 2011. These
figures represent about 26.48% growth in built-up area over a period of time from
(1991 to 2011). With respect to forest cover, it is clear that in 1991 it was 2325.6 ha
and decreased to 1963.89 ha by 2011. Likewise, open space was about 296.19 ha in
1991 and decreased by 118.17 ha in 2011. The total decrease in forest area and open
space during the study period was 18.09% and 8.90% respectively. The decrease in
both the land use/land cover is mainly due to over exploitation of land for built-up
purpose.
During this period, forest area decreased from 2325.6 ha in 1991–1963.89 ha in
2011 which accounts for −18.09% change (−361.71 ha) of total land cover area. The
open space decreased from 296.19 ha in 1991 to 118.17 ha in 2011 which accounts
for −8.90% change (−178.02 ha) of the total area. Forest area is decreasing due to
Fig. 17.3 Land use/cover classification of Shimla City (Source Landsat ETM+ 2001)
increasing population of the city which required more land for new settlers. Forest
land which included both land of different vegetation and also included the grass park
and green grass land. The built-up area has increased from 361.05 ha in 1991–890.7 ha
in 2011 which accounts for +26.48% (529.65 ha) of the total area (Table 17.5).
Built-up area which included both playground and stadium. This dramatic increase
in built-up area is due to migrated population problem, rapid growth of local popula-
tion, tourism development, continuous establishment of national/multinational com-
panies, and development of major and minor’s roads, etc. During the study period,
it is observed that the fringe area, forest area and open space has change to built-up
area in 1991–2011, decrease the forest area and open space is due to increase in the
built-up area.
In order to understand the land conversion into different land categories in two
decade (i.e., 1991–2011) a change detection matrix (Table 17.6) was prepared that
reveals about 362.52 ha area of forest cover has been converted into built-up area,
48.06 ha into agriculture area, 30.69 ha into open space and 3.78 ha into water body.
Similarly, about 55.71 ha area of open space has been converted into forest area,
148.77 ha area converted into built-up area, and 6.21 ha area converted into agriculture
area. Likewise, about 24.48 ha area under agriculture area has been converted into
forest area, 18.36 ha area converted into built-up area, 1.98 ha area converted into
Fig. 17.4 Land use/cover classification of Shimla City (Source Landsat TM 2011)
Table 17.4 Status of land

Land use classes/years 1991(Ha) 2001(Ha) 2011(Ha)
use/land cover in all
categories in Ha Water bodies 3.87 1.98 4.23
Forest area 2325.6 2106.72 1963.89
Built-up area 361.08 646.92 890.73
Agriculture area 77.85 96.66 87.57
Open space 296.19 212.22 118.17
Sources Landsat TM and ETM+ satellite data for 1991, 2001 and
2011
open space. And, about 3.15 ha area open water body has been converted into forest
area and 0.27 ha area has been converted into agriculture area.
17.4.2 Population Growth and Built-up Area
The urban impervious area such as built-up land has increased from 361.05 ha in
year 1991–890.7 ha in year 2011. Results in Table 17.7 and Fig. 17.6 reveals that
Fig. 17.5 Land Encroachment of Shimla City (Sources Landsat TM and ETM+ satellite data of
1991–2011)
Table 17.5 Area and per cent changes in land use/cover categories (1991–2011)
Land Area Area Change Area Area Change
use/cover (1991) (2011) (1991–2011) (1991) (2011) (1991–2011)
categories Hectares Percent Hectares Percent Hectares Percent
Water body 3.87 0.13 4.23 0.14 0.36 0.02
Forest 2325.6 75.89 1963.89 64.08 −361.71 −18.09
Built up 361.05 11.78 890.7 29.06 529.65 26.48
Agriculture 77.85 2.54 87.57 2.86 9.72 0.49
Open space 296.19 9.67 118.17 3.86 −178.02 −8.90
Source Landsat TM and ETM+ satellite data for 1991, 2001 and 2011
the rate of land development in Shimla has exceeded the rate of population growth,
from the year 1991–2011. A compound annual growth rate for built-up area for
two decade (1991–2011) and average annual exponential growth rate for population
of Shimla city has been calculated with considering the logic of population grows
exponentially while area does not. In the description of population growth and built-
up area from, 1991 and 2001, the highest annual growth rate was observed in both
built-up area and population. However, the built-up area growth is much higher
Table 17.6 Land use/land cover change matrix (Ha) of Shimla city
Land use/land cover Year 1991 2011
categories Water Forest Built Up Agriculture Open Total
body Space
Year Water body 0.45 3.78 0 0 0 4.23
2011 Forest 3.15 1880.55 0 24.48 55.71 1963.89
Built up 0 362.52 361.05 18.36 148.77 890.7
Agriculture 0.27 48.06 0 33.03 6.21 87.57
Open space 0 30.69 0 1.98 85.5 118.17
1991 Total 3.87 2325.6 361.08 77.85 296.19 3064.56
Source Landsat TM and ETM+ satellite data for 1991, 2001 and 2011
Table 17.7 Urban growth statistics for Shimla city 1991–2011

Years Built-up area (Ha) Percentage increase Projected Percentage growth
in built-up area (%) Population in population (%)
1991 361.05 – 102,186 –
2001 646.92 79.18 142,555 39.51
2011 890.73 37.69 169578 18.95
Source Landsat TM and ETM+ satellite and census data for 1991, 2001 and 2011
Fig. 17.6 Growth of population and built-up area of Shimla city in last 20 years, 1991–2011
(Sources Landsat TM and ETM+ satellite data and Census of India, 1991, 2001 and 2011)
(6.02%) than the growth rate of population (3.39%). This denotes the higher per
capita land consumption and the city has been expanded physically with high rate
of expansion. In the next period of 2001–2011, it is also observed that built-up area
is growing much higher (3.22%) than the growth rate of population (1.75%). It is
noteworthy here that with this high base, growth rate of the city is very significant
that indicates spatial and temporal growth of the city.
Shimla city is growing fast in the pattern of construction of new building and others
factors. Since the inception of Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC), small pockets
of land in parts of the villages were added increasing the area within the jurisdiction
of SMC. The border area growth has resulted into the increased residential areas
and other facilities such as transportation nodes. The population of Shimla city has
increased manifold in the last 20 years and the rate of increase has been very speedy
after 1991. The continually increasing population pressure has led to the growth of
the adjoining areas and the city has extended outwards filling in spaces between
it and the suburbs. The urban expansion has taken place in all directions but more
extensively in the eastern, southern and south-western directions. Spatial distribution
of ward-wise urban sprawl in last 20 years from 1991 to 2011 is shown in Fig. 17.7. It
was found that urban sprawl is faster in outer area of (ward number 20–23) and inner
area of (ward number 9–13) along the major roads of the city as compared to central
Fig. 17.7 Urban growth of Shimla city from 1991, 2001 and 2011 (Sources Landsat TM and
ETM+ satellite data for 1991, 2001 and 2011)
Fig. 17.8 Ward-wise urban growth of Shimla City from 1991 to 2011 (Sources Landsat TM
and ETM+ satellite data for 1991, 2001 and 2011)
portion, which is also validated by landscape metrics. This is in accordance to the

hypothesis which stated that increase in economic conditions among the population
and development relates to urban sprawl (Census of India 2011). Highest built up
growth was observed in ward number 23 and lowest in ward number 12 (Fig. 17.8).
17.4.3 Metrics of Urban Sprawl
17.4.3.1 Shannon’s Entropy (Hn )
In the present study, Shannon’s entropy was used in order to measure the extent of
spatial concentration or dispersion (homogeneity) of a geophysical variable, imper-
vious (built-up area) among ‘n’ spatial units/zones (wards).The entropy indicates
that there was substantial internal variation in the patterns of urban sprawl among
the wards of the study area. Shimla municipal area grew in all the wards has almost
reached the threshold value of growth (log (n) = log, (25) = 1.34). The value of
entropy varies between 0–log n. Entropy closer to zero correspond to compact distri-
bution or homogeneity of urban growth; whereas, entropy closer to log n signify the
Table 17.8 Values of

Years Values of Shannon’s entropy
Shannon’s entropy: Shimla
city (1991–2011) 1991 1.30
2001 1.32
2011 1.34
Source Landsat TM and ETM+ satellite data for 1991, 2001 and
2011
dispersed distribution of urban sprawl (specially built-up area). Entropy values have
been calculated across all wards, and were summed-up to represent the entropy for
the whole urban area. The change in entropy helps identifying whether land develop-
ment is towards the more dispersal or in compact pattern. For ward wise calculation
each ward has considered as an individual spatial unit.
Hn ithΣ pi log(1/ pi ) (17.4)
Pi represents the proportion of land use/cover class in ith ward.

n denotes total number of land use/cover classes.
Log n represents the upper limit of entropy, i.e., equal to log 1.3413
Relatively lower value of Shannon’s entropy (1.3092) in the year 1991 indicates
the compact and homogeneous distribution of the built-up area. Entropy value has
increased from 1.3092 in year 1991 to 1.3276 in year 2001. Further, value of Shan-
non’s entropy has increased from 1.3276 in year 2001 to 1.3413 in year 2011. This
increase in value of entropy indicates increase in dispersion of built-up area, which
indicates urban sprawl. The entropy values obtained during 3 years (1991, 2001 and
2011) are closer to the upper limit of log n, i.e., 1.3413, showing the degree of dis-
persion of built-up area in the region. Higher value of overall entropy for the whole
urban area represents higher dispersion of built-up area, which is an indication of
urban sprawl. Lower entropy values of wards (given in table), during 2011 shows an
aggregated or compact growth in the whole region. However, the wards under Shimla
city, grew phenomenally with dispersed growth during the study period (1991, 2001
and 2011) and reached higher value of entropy (Table 17.8) during 2011.
17.4.3.2 Urban Map Density
In present study Urban map density parameter was used to determine the compact-
ness/dispersion of spatial occurrence of urbanization. Distribution of built-up areas,
as an indicator of urban sprawl, has been studied using density metrics. Map density
values were estimated by determining the number of built-up area pixels out of the
total number of pixels in a 3 × 3 kernel. In this analysis, again size of kernel has
been used as per the maximum number of land use/cover categories available in a
specific classified image. There are five land use/cover categories available in most
Fig. 17.9 Density of Urban Area of Shimla for 1991 (Source Landsat TM 1991)
of the classified images, which is less than the number of pixels in a 3 × 3 size ker-
nel. Therefore, kernel of 3 × 3 size has been use in the present analysis. This when
applied to a classified satellite image of 1991, 2001, and 2011, converts land cover
classes to density classes. Depending on the map density levels, it was categorized
as Low, Medium and High density (Figs. 17.9, 17.10 and 17.11). Further, the relative
share of each category was computed (area in percentage). This helps in identify-
ing the different urban growth centres which then subsequently assist in correlating
the results with Shannon’s Entropy. The calculation of built-up density gave the
distribution of the High, Medium and Low-density built-up clusters as categorized
in the study area. High density of built-up refers to compact nature of the built-up
theme, while medium density denotes relatively lesser compact built-up; whereas,
low density referred to sparsely spread built-up areas. This revealed that the study
area comprised of a smaller area (of more compact or highly dense in nature); and
more dispersed or least dense built-up area. Results showed that the high and medium
map density was found all along the highways and in the city centres. High map den-
sity was found within and closer to the cities; whereas, medium density was found
mostly around the city periphery and along the highways. Further, the distribution
of low density was observed in the study area due to the higher dispersion of the
built-up in the study area. This further confirms the results of Shannon’s Entropy,
which denotes a high dispersion of the built-up feature in the study area.
Fig. 17.10 Density of Urban Area of Shimla for 2001 (Source Landsat ETM+ 2001)
Fig. 17.11 Density of Urban Area of Shimla for 2011 (Source Landsat TM 2011)
17.4.3.3 Spatial Dynamics of Urban Sprawl
The modeling of dynamic urban sprawl and its future prediction is a greater challenge
rather than its quantification; which gives ways to policy planning for city develop-
ment. Although, different sprawl types were identified here, still there is inadequacy
in developing mathematical relationships to define them. This necessitates the char-
acterization of urban sprawl. This exercise helps in city planning and development
of water resources projects and/or designing of urban drainage infrastructure along
with other facility within and around the city area. In the present study, population
and related densities were used as independent variables for simulation modelling
of the urban sprawl. The Shimla Municipal Corporation is known to have undergone
extremely fast area expansion in recent years due to an unprecedented population
growth over a period of 20 years. Shimla is heavily built up across the hill slopes
and characterized by mixed commercial and transports related activities. The public,
semi-public, residential and other land use activities in the city have been mostly
concentrated in the South. On comparing the satellite data sets of 1991–2011, it
was found that the built up area in and around the Shimla Municipal Corporation
has increased by 529.65 hectares (26.48%) over the period of 20 years (1991–2011).
Urban expansion processes in the Shimla Municipal Corporation during the period of
20 years (1991–2011) were further evaluated by analyzing a distance decay concept
from major roads (Table 17.9 and Fig. 17.12). For this purpose National Highway
No.—NH 22, National Highway No.—NH 88, Summer hill road, Bharari road, Mall
road, Ridge road, etc., have been taken for analysis. Urban expansion and four buffer
zones were created along these roads with 0–50 m each. The result of the present
analysis indicated that the area and density under urban land was decreasing while
going the away from major roads.
Table 17.9 Urban Expansion along a major road of Shimla city in 1991–2011
Proximity to 1991 2011 Change During
road (mts) 1991–2011
Urban Urban Urban Urban Urban Rate of
area density area density area expansion
(km2 ) (urban (km2 ) (urban (km2 ) of urban
area km2 ) area km2 ) area
(km2 /Year)
0–50 1.25 0.21 2.74 0.46 1.49 0.07
50–100 0.79 0.18 1.80 0.41 1.01 0.05
100–150 0.44 0.14 1.09 0.34 0.65 0.03
150–200 0.30 0.12 0.70 0.28 0.40 0.02
Sources Landsat TM and ETM+ satellite data (1991, 2011) and Google Earth Engine for roads
(2011)
Fig. 17.12 Buffering along Major Roads of Shimla City (Source Landsat TM and Google Earth
Engine of 2011)
17.4.4 Analysis of Landscape Metrics
Landscape metrics were used to quantify and measure the spatial patterns and struc-
tures of urban sprawl. Eight landscapes indices were used to quantify urban structure
and form (Table 17.10). Class Area (CA) measures the total built-up growth of an
area. It basically measures the amount of built-up pixels per time step. It is also
possible to measure the percentage of the total area covered by the built-up class, by
dividing the class area by the total area (Alexakis et al. 2011; Araya 2009; Herold
et al. 2002; Xi et al. 2009). Spatial metrics and their variation were calculated for the
built-up area (urban impervious area), which increased by 79.16% between 1991 and
2001. Similarly, Built-up growth was also increased by 37.68% from 2001 to 2011;
however, the rate of growth was slower compared to previous decade. The Number of
Patches (NP) is a simple quantification of the amount of individual built-up patches.
It does not contain any information about the area, or the disparity of patches, or the
density. However, it does provide information on the amount of new created patches
in time (Alexakis et al. 2011; Araya 2009; Herold et al. 2002; Xi et al. 2009; Yu
and Ng 2007). The NP in a landscape analysis indicates the aggregation or disag-
gregation in the landscape, while Large Patch Index (LPI) measures the proportion
of total landscape area comprised by the largest urban patch. The NP (i.e., built-up
Table 17.10 Landscape indices and their percentages of changes of Shimla city from 1991–2011
Metrics 1991 2001 2011 %1991–2001 %2001–2011 %1991–2011
Class Area 361.080 646.920 890.730 79.162 37.687 146.684
(CA)
Number of 696.000 932.000 784.000 33.908 −15.879 12.643
patches (NP)
Largest patch 38.2263 38.227 38.226 0.002 −0.002 0
index (LPI)
Edge density 34.1856 42.449 42.153 24.174 −0.698 23.307
(ED)
Euclidian 117.791 104.045 108.588 −11.669 4.366 −7.813
mean nearest
Neighbour
distance
(EMN_MN)
Area 1.135 1.138 1.141 0.246 0.2811 0.528
weighted
mean patch
fractal
dimension
(FRAC_AM)
Contagion 69.863 68.044 68.155 −2.604 0.1638 −2.445
blocks) increased (33.90%) between 1991 and 2001, which depicts the dispersed
pattern of urban growth. The development of a number of isolated, fragmented, or
discontinuous built-up areas occurred in the first period while in the second (i.e.,
2001–2011) it was decreased by −15.87%. This suggests that small patches were
transformed into larger patches and urbanization is made in agglomerated form.
Largest Patch Index is the ratio of the area of the largest patch in the landscape
and the total landscape area. When the largest patch in the landscape is increasingly
small, LPI approaches 0%. It reaches 100% when the complete landscape consists
of a single patch. LPI increased by 0.002% between 1991 and 2001, thus indicating
significant growth within the historical city core. Edge Density (ED) does in contrast
to number of patches and patch density take into account the shapes of patches,
the complexity of the shape of a patch. When new built-up areas emerge the edge
density of the urban land use class should increase, a decrease is possible when areas
agglomerate (Araya 2009; Alexakis et al. 2011; Eiden et al. 2012; Herold et al. 2002).
ED increased by 24.174% and −0.698% between 1991–2001 and 2001–2011 period
respectively, thus indicating an increase in the total length of the edge of the urban
patches, as due to disintegration of land use pattern. The increasing trend in first two
periods demonstrated the strong urban sprawl phenomena.
A decreasing trend in Euclidian Mean Nearest Neighbour Distance (ENN_MN)
was −11.669% seen from 1991, which shows a reduction in the distance between
the built-up patches, thus suggesting coalescence. The Area Weighted Mean Patch
Fractal Dimension (AWMPFD) measures the shape of urban patches. Whereas, the
edge density takes the complexity of the shapes of the patches into account. Relatively
higher values were estimated during first phase of urban development (i.e., 2001–
2011). Contagion index measures the extent to which a landscape is aggregated or
clumped (dispersed or interspersed). The value of the contagion index ranges between
0 and 100. A value of 0 is obtained when patch types are well interspersed, scattered
and not aggregated, referring to many small and dispersed patches. A value of 100
is obtained when maximum aggregation of patch types is witnessed, i.e., only a few
large contiguous patch types do exist (Weijers 2012). Relatively high Contagion
index values during first decadal period were obtained which depicts the landscape
with few large, and contiguous patches (contagion is high because many cells are
adjacent to each other in large and contiguous patches (many internal cells)) while
lower values was obtained during the second decadal period. During this period
the development was taken place in scattered and not aggregated form, referring to
many small and dispersed patches. But during second period again relatively high
contagion index values was seen because of conversion of small patches into large
and contiguous patches.
17.4.5 Modelling of Urban Sprawl
Urban sprawl dynamics was modelled using the causal factors (Independent vari-
ables) such as Population Density (PD), α-Population Density (α-PD), β-Population
Density (β-PD), Total workers (TW), Road density (RD), Female literacy rate (FLR),
Sex ratio, (SR) and No of Household’s (HH). The percentage built-up is the propor-
tion of the built-up area to the total area of the ward. The α-population density
denotes the proportion of the population in each ward to the built-up area of the
respective ward. The β-population density (often referred as population density) is
the proportion of population in each ward to the total area the respective ward. Since
the present study mainly concentrated on built-up area, the percentage built-up, α
and β population densities were computed and analyzed ward-wise. Ward-wise pop-
ulation data includes the information of some of the key factors of urban sprawl
like total workers in secondary and tertiary sectors, and female literacy rate. The
physical growth of city is mostly driven by its secondary and tertiary sectors. Hence,
ward wise total worker in secondary and tertiary sectors were calculated. When the
population of any region grows and become urbanized. Urban growth follows the
major transportation nodes. So as to calculate the road density, ward wise road net-
work has been digitized in GIS platform. With the help of these underlying factors,
modelling of urban sprawl was carried out. To explore the possible relationship of
percentage built-up (dependent variable) with causal factors of sprawl, regression
analysis was carried out. Various regression analyses (Linear, Polynomial, Expo-
nential and Logarithmic) were undertaken to determine the nature of significance of
the causal factors (independent variables) on the sprawl, and quantified in terms of
percentage built-up. The Regression analyses disclose the individual contribution of
causal factors on the nature of urban sprawl. A variety of relationships and corre-
sponding statistical parameters have been presented in Appendices 1–5. Some of the
significant relationships are,
Population
y = − (0.098) x 2 + (1.436) x + 0.100 (17.5)
y = percentage built-up, x = Population

Road Density
y = − (0.207) x + 4.826 (17.6)
y = percentage built-up, x = RD
α-population density
y = (0.123) x 2 − (1.686) x + 8.408 (17.7)
y = percentage built-up, x = α − opulation density

β – population density
y = (0.029) x 2 − (0.551) x + 5.473 (17.8)
y = percentage built-up, x = β − P
Female Literacy
y = − (0.125) x 2 + (1.742) x − (0.601) (17.9)
y = percentage built-up, x = Female Literacy

Total Workers
y = − (0.037) x 2 + (0.819) x + 1.407 (17.10)
y = percentage built-up, x = Total Workers

Sex Ratio
y = − (0.086)x 2 + (1.546)x − 0.775 (17.11)
y = percentage built-up, x = Sex Ratio

No of household’s (HH)
y = − (0.072) x 2 + (1.127) x + 0.909 (17.12)
y = percentage built-up, x = No of household’s (HH)

Linear regression model evaluated here has been found to be the lower correlation
coefficient Eq. (17.6) (R2 = 0.101) to show the relationship between % built-up and
road density as compared to linear, polynomial, logarithmic, exponential, distribu-

tions. Relationships between % built-up and β-population density have been found to
be polynomial. Polynomial regression results show higher correlation coefficient (R2
= 0.178). Relationships between percentage built-up and α-population density have
been found to be linear with higher correlation coefficient (R2 = 0.349). Polynomial
regression model has higher correlation coefficient (R2 = 0.325) to explain the rela-
tionship between percentage built-up and female literacy rate. Relationships between
percentage built-up area and total works have been found to be polynomial regression
with higher correlation coefficient (R2 = 0.191). Relationships between percentage
built-up area and population have been found to be linear with highest correlation
coefficient (r 2 = 0.059). The linear and polynomial regression analyses reveal that
the road density and population density have considerate influence on percentage
built-up. To estimate the collective effects of causal factors, stepwise multivariate
regression analysis was also carried out (Table 17.11). In the stepwise multivariate
regression, it is assumed that the relationships between variables are linear. Con-
sidering all the causal factors in the stepwise regression, Appendix 5 indicates the
highest correlation coefficient (R2 = 0.928) which collectively explains the 92.08%
variation in the urban growth. The α-population density of 90.04% represents the
distinctive characteristic of Shimla city development.
Table 17.11 Model summary of stepwise regression

Model R R square Increase in R Adjusted R Increase in Std. error of
square square adjusted R the estimate
square
1 0.540 0.291 – 0.260 – 1.497
2 0.953 0.908 0.617 0.900 0.640 0.551
3 0.957 0.915 0.007 0.903 0.003 0.542
4 0.960 0.921 0.006 0.905 0.002 0.535
5 0.963 0.928 0.007 0.908 0.003 0.527
6 0.963 0.928 0 0.904 −0.004 0.540
7 0.963 0.928 0 0.899 −0.005 0.554
8 0.964 0.928 0 0.893 0.006 0.571
a. Predictors: (Constant), α-PD
b. Predictors: (Constant), α-PD, P
c. Predictors: (Constant), α-PD, P, No HH
d. Predictors: (Constant), α-PD, P, No HH, SR
e. Predictors: (Constant), α-PD, P, No HH, SR, FLR
f. Predictors: (Constant), α-PD, P, No HH, SR, FLR, β-PD
g. Predictors: (Constant), α-PD, P, No HH, SR, FLR, β-PD, RD
h. Predictors: (Constant), α-PD, P, No HH, SR, FLR, β-PD, RD, TW
17.5 Summery and Conclusion
Shimla city had experienced a tremendous rate of growth over the period of two
decade. Satellite Remote Sensing is crucial in dealing the dynamic event, like urban
sprawl phenomena. Without past remote sensing data, one may not be able to mon-
itor past urban growth events and compare with the recent trend and predict the
future growth pattern effectively over a time period at less time, in low cost and with
better accuracy which is otherwise not possible to attempt through conventional map-
ping techniques. The application of Remote Sensing, GIS, spatial metrics and urban
growth models provides novel approach for the study of spatio-temporal dynamics of
urban sprawl. Considering the availability of past data sources from Landsat archive
at medium resolution, demonstrated the capabilities for improving the knowledge,
understanding and modelling of urban sprawl dynamics of Shimla city. This paper
has presented a detailed analysis of 20 years of spatial urban growth pattern of Shimla
city. The result shows that built-up area has increased from 361.05 ha in year 1991
to 890.7 ha in year 2011. This continuous increase in built-up area in Shimla city has
outstripped the rate of population growth. The Shannon’s entropy index and land-
scape metrics have quantified the urban sprawl. The entropy values obtained during
the study period are closer to the upper limit of log n, i.e. 1.3413, showing the degree
of dispersion of built-up area in the region, which is an indication of urban sprawl.
All the parameter of spatial metrics has shown their inclination towards overall urban
growth pattern in the study area. Multivariate regression analysis was performed in
order to establish a relationship between urban sprawl and some of its contributory
factors. Analysis of the contributory factors of urban growth collectively explains the
92.08% variation in the urban growth. Regression model developed here reveals that
the most reasonable variable for the variation in built up area is α population density.
These measures of spatial sprawl may even help in refining our understanding of
this phenomenon. In addition, future development of Shimla city would also influ-
enced by other contributory factors such as tourism initiatives, physical constrains,
socio-economic change, population migration, future government investments cor-
ridors, smart city plan, development of small and medium towns around vicinity,
scope of industrialization, and distances from major locations. These factors can be
considered for urban growth modeling in future research work.
Acknowledgements The authors are thankful to the Vice Chancellor, Kumaun University, Nainital,
Uttarakhand for providing facilities in SSJ Campus of University at Almora, where the present work
has been done for Master Dissertation. Authors are also like to acknowledge the Director, G. B.
Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment and Sustainable Development, Kosi-Katarmal,
Almora, Uttrakhand for providing facilities in Himachal Regional Centre of the Institute where we
could modify and finalize the present work.
Appendix 1: Coefficients of Causal Factors and Percentage

Built-Up by Linear Regression Analyses
Dependent Independent Equation (y = ax R R2 Adjusted R2 Std. error of the

variable (y) variable (x) + b) estimate
Percentage Population y = 0.460x + 0.46 0.21 0.17 1.58
Built-up 2.161
Percentage α-population y = −0.530x + 0.54 0.29 0.26 1.50
Built-up density 6.118
Percentage β-population y = −0.228x + 0.40 0.16 0.12 1.63
Built-up density 4.910
Percentage Road Density y = −0.207x + 0.32 0.10 0.06 1.69
Built-up 4.826
Percentage Total Workers y = 0.452x + 0.43 0.19 0.15 1.60
Built-up 2.193
Percentage No. of y = 0.398x + 0.45 0.20 0.17 1.59
Built-up Household’s 2.408
Percentage Sex Ratio y = 0.834x + 0.23 0.08 0.04 1.71
Built-up 0.662
Percentage Female Literacy y = 0.834x + 0.49 0.24 0.21 1.55
Built-up 0.662
Sources Landsat TM and ETM+ satellite data and Census of India (1991, 2001 and 2011)

Built-Up by Polynomial (Order = 2) Regression Analyses
Dependent Independent Equation (y = R R2 Adjusted R2 Std. error of the

variable (y) variable (x) ax 2 + bx + c) estimate
Percentage Population y = −0.098x 2 + 0.51 0.26 0.19 1.57
Built-up 1.436x + 0.100
Percentage α-population y = 0.123x 2 − 0.59 0.35 0.29 1.45
Built-up density 1.686x + 8.408
Percentage β-population y = 0.029x 2 − 0.42 0.18 0.10 1.65
Built-up density 0.551x + 5.473
Percentage Road density y = −0.018x 2 + 0.33 0.11 0.02 1.72
Built-up 0.016x + 4.351
Percentage Total workers y = −0.037x 2 + 0.44 0.19 0.12 1.64
Built-up 0.819x + 1.407
Percentage No. of y = −0.072x 2 + 0.49 0.24 0.17 1.59
Built-up household’s 1.127x + 0.909
Percentage Sex ratio y = −0.086x 2 + 0.28 0.08 −0.01 1.75
Built-up 1.546x − 0.775
(continued)
(continued)
variable (y) variable (x) ax 2 + bx + c) estimate
Percentage Female literacy y = −0.125x 2 + 0.57 0.31 −0.26 1.49
Built-up 1.742x − 0.601

Built-Up by Logarithmic Regression Analyses
Dependent Independent Equation (log y R R2 Adjusted R2 Std. error of the

variable (y) variable (x) = log(a) + b estimate
log x)
Percentage Population y = 2.105 ln(x) 0.48 0.23 0.20 1.56
Built-up + 1.250
Percentage α-population y = −2.265 0.57 0.32 0.29 1.47
Built-up density In(x) + 6.934
Percentage β-population y = −0.935 0.42 0.18 0.14 1.61
Built-up density ln(x) + 5.032
Percentage Road density y = −0.805 0.26 0.07 0.03 1.72
Built-up ln(x) + 4.984
Percentage Total workers y = 1.915 ln(x) 0.45 0.17 0.14 1.62
Built-up + 1.483
Percentage No. of y = 1.777 ln(x) 0.47 0.22 0.19 1.57
Built-up household’s + 1.723
Percentage Sex ratio y = 3.322 0.28 0.08 0.09 1.71
Built-up ln(x) − 0.571
Percentage Female literacy y = 2.268 ln(x) 0.53 0.28 0.25 1.51
Built-up + 1.043

Built-Up by Exponential Regression Analyses

variable (y) variable (x) beax ) estimate
Percentage Population y = 2.276e0.118x 0.45 0.20 0.17 0.41
Built-up
(continued)
(continued)
variable (y) variable (x) beax ) estimate
Percentage α-population y = 0.56 0.32 0.29 0.38
Built-up density 6.455e−0.143x
Percentage β-population y = 0.44 0.19 0.16 0.41
Built-up density 4.722e−0.065x
Percentage Road density y = 0.36 0.13 0.09 0.43
Built-up 4.644e−0.061x
Percentage Total workers y = 0.41 0.17 0.13 0.42
Built-up 2.328e0.112 x
Percentage No. of y = 0.45 0.20 0.17 0.43
Built-up Household’s 2.421e0.102 x
Percentage Sex ratio y = 0.29 0.09 0.05 0.44
Percentage Female literacy y = 0.45 0.24 0.21 0.40
Appendix 5: Stepwise Regression Equations
S.N. Stepwise Regression Equations R2

1 pc built-up = 6.118 − 0.530 α-PD 0.29
2 pc built-up = 4.131 − 0.921 α-PD + 0.888 P 0.91
3 pc built-up = 3.835 − 0.929 α-PD + 1.553 P − 0.583 HH 0.92
4 pc built-up = 2.790 − 0.907 α-PD + 1.563 P − 0.599 HH + 0.245 SR 0.92
5 pc built-up = 0.819 − 0.905 α-PD + 2.320 P − 0.375 HH + 0.766 SR − 1.010 FLR 0.93
6 pc built-up = 1.010 − 0.892 α-PD + 2.231 P − 0.360 HH + 0.717 SR-0.937 FLR − 0.012 0.93
β-PD
7 pc built-up = 0.783 − 0.869 α-PD + 2.256 P − 0.342 HH + 0.740 SR-0.968 FLR-0.040 β-PD 0.93
+ 0.028 RD
8 pc built-up = 0.867 − 0.874 α-PD + 2.395 P − 0.352 HH + 0.724 SR-1.024 FLR-0.041 β-PD 0.93
+ 0.030 RD-0.075 TW
Sources Landsat TM and ETM + satellite data and Census of India (1991, 2001 and 2011)
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Chapter 18
Impact of Corridor Development
on Rural Settlements Along Delhi–Jaipur
Axis
Awadh Narayan Choubey and Taruna Bansal
Abstract Over the years several scholars and philosophers have done large amount
of work on the rural—urban linkages as well as on the spatial pattern of non-
agricultural employment. This has been attempted to understand the changes that
both rural and urban settlements have witnessed over the years and to analyze the
factors responsible for these changes. The result of these modifications has been that
the line between urban and rural has not only thinned but has even blurred in some
cases. In developing countries like India, though there may be some exceptions. This
is because even today the distinction is clear when these settlements are examined on
the dimensions of economy, occupational structure, levels of education, accessibility
to services, demography, political set up and levels of migration. Here urban popula-
tion is still defined as those contained within urban administrative regions. Although
the peripheral regions are under the urban influence the degree varies from place to
place in the context of concentration and accessibility. The result is rural transfor-
mation. One needs to look into this transformation and examine the pattern as this
has lead the transition from the rural dominated to an urban dominated world. In this
context the present paper attempts to study the process of rural transformation along
the Delhi–Jaipur axis using a geospatial approach. The purpose is to understand the
impact of growth of urban centers on rural settlements along this axis from 1991 to
2017.
Keywords Rural transformation · Urban growth · Delhi · Jaipur · Geospatial

technology
A. N. Choubey · T. Bansal (B)

Department of Geography, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India
e-mail: tbansal@jmi.ac.in
A. N. Choubey
e-mail: awadhonline@gmail.com

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2097-6_18
296 A. N. Choubey and T. Bansal
18.1 Introduction
In the 1940s, the United Nations in their statistical reports adopted the categorization
of areas into either rural or urban. This approach was based on the premise that
to understand the social, economic, political, cultural and demographic processes
one has to consider the place where human beings live and work. The most basic
categorization put forward was that of rural and urban areas within the settlement
system of human beings. In recent decades, this categorization has lost its importance
as massive changes have occurred in the size, spatial extent, nature and morphology
of the settlements. For some while, these changes have been deliberated upon in
detail as because of these modifications the line between urban and rural has not
only thinned but has even blurred in some cases. In fact in present times there is no
clear dividing line between the rural and urban settlement and their dwellers. These
two have intertwined in such a manner that instead of being isolated settlements they
have become dependent on each other. Gottmann was among the first to recognize this
phenomenal change when he gave the concept of ‘Megalopolis’ in 1961. Today there
exist vast array of alternative approaches which analyze these changes to monitor,
plan and provide basic services in these settlements.
In spite of these transformations, in developing countries like India, the spa-
tial context is a matter of concern and importance in examining the demographic
characteristics of the population and their behavior. This is because even today the
distinction is clear when observed through this dichotomous approach where urban
and rural settlements are examined on the dimensions of economy, occupational
structure, levels of education, accessibility to services, accessibility to information,
demography, political set up, ethnicity and levels of migration. Here urban popula-
tion is defined as those contained within urban administrative regions. Although the
peripheral regions are under the urban influence the degree varies from place to place
in the context of concentration and accessibility. The result is rural transformation.
One needs to look into this transformation and examine the pattern as this has lead
the transition from the rural dominated to an urban-dominated world.
Rural transformation should not be analyzed only as a demographic change rather
it is a cultural phenomenon. This is because it is a form of cultural convergence and
thus has impact on both types of settlements.
18.2 Objectives
Conventional regional growth theory suggests that industrial growth in major cities
result in instrumental changes in its hinterland. The development and economic
advancements must ‘trickledown’ to rural areas which should bring dynamism in
the economic structure of the ‘traditional peripheries over time. But, this has not
occurred in India. Rather, here, cities have prospered by exploiting the resources
18 Impact of Corridor Development on Rural Settlements … 297
of their peripheries leaving them with economy characterized with backward and
subsistence activities. In this framework, this paper has the following objectives:
(a) To understand the settlement structure of the rural settlements in the Delhi–
Jaipur axis.
(b) To comprehend the process of rural transformation along the Delhi–Jaipur axis
and the reasons for the same.
18.3 Study Area
In this paper, Delhi–Jaipur axis has been analyzed from geographical point of view
considering the following factors—distribution of urban places of various orders,
levels of development and land cover changes. The details of the study area are given
below
National Highway—8
Distance (in Kms)—265
Districts—4
Villages—219 (in 2011)
Urban centers (Class I–VI)—59 (in 2011).
This paper examines the settlement structure of the rural settlements in the Delhi–
Jaipur axis and analyses how over time the process of urbanization has transformed
the nature of rural settlements in the axis. In this analysis the rural transformation has
been examined for three census years—1991, 2001 and 2011. This has been done
with the help of composite indices computed for demographic parameters, workforce
participation and infrastructural facilities. The following indicators have been used
for the above calculations.
18.4.1 Demography
(a) Density of population,

(b) Sex-ratio,
(c) Sex-ratio (0–6),
(d) Percentage of Scheduled Population to the total population,
(e) Female literacy Rate.
18.4.2 Economy
(f) Crude workforce participation rate (percentage of workers to the total

population),
(g) Crude female workforce participation rate (percentage of female workers to the
total female population),
(h) Proportion of workers in agricultural activities (percentage of workers as
cultivators and agricultural labourers to the total workers),
(i) Proportion of workers in household industry (percentage of workers in the
household industries to the total workers),
(j) Proportion of workers in non-agricultural activities {percentage of workers in
the other activities (apart from cultivators, agricultural labourers and household
industries) to the total workers}.
18.4.3 Infrastructure
(k) Availability of medical facilities in the villages (Yes/No),

(l) Presence of educational institutions (Yes/No),
(m) Accessibility to drinking water facility (Yes/No),
(n) Availability of post office facility (Yes/No).
The purpose of this exercise is to analyze the characteristics and changes that have
occurred in the rural settlements of this Axis in the last three decades. Apart from
these three indices, an index has been computed to analyse the levels of development
(taking all the fourteen indicators); to comprehend the changes that the villages
have undergone over the last three decades. The development index also has been
computed for the axis.
18.5 Analysis and Discussion
Over the past half century India’s urban system has undergone tremendous change
which has resulted in alterations within the regional urban dynamics (Denis and
Marius-Gnanout 2011). These transformations have been led by the megacities of
Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata. In the present study also the transformations have been
influenced by the dynamic character of the Delhi metropolis. But when analyzed at
the meso level that is at the level of each individual axes it becomes crystal clear
that in the present era of decentralization and economic liberalization the role of
hierarchies in the regional urban systems has diluted. Though there may be some
exceptions, especially where regional hierarchies have been perturbed by some mega
metropolises which play dominant role in the economic setting of the country as a
whole.
Whatever the case may be the process of agglomeration associated with urban-
ization extends well beyond the mega and metro cities. It has spilled to the small
and medium towns as well as to the village agglomerates located in their hinterland.
This process is changing the organization of the space as rural settlements are get-
ting access to opportunities and services due to their proximity to the urban areas.
Similarly, this axis has its own regional dynamics which have been discussed here.
18.5.1 Rural Transformation Along the Delhi–Jaipur Axis
This axis is of vital importance in present times as it is part of the ambition Delhi–
Mumbai Industrial Corridor. It is connected with National Highway 8 through four
districts—Gurgaon, Rewari, Alwar and Jaipur. The two cities of Delhi and Jaipur
are at the distance of 265 kms. The axis consists of 59 urban centres and 220 rural
settlements in 2011 (Table 18.1). The most interesting part of this axis is that it has
two primate cities at the two ends. Over time Delhi has emerged as the Primate City
in the northern part of the country. It is not surprising that the city constitutes nearly
66.2% of the population residing in the National Capital Region. The mushrooming
growth of Delhi over the years seems to be in conflict with heritage; this has in
some parts restricted the process of development in terms of land use as well as built
space. The result has been that population as well as economic activities spilled in the
nearby towns. Another important aspect is that there was government intervention in
reducing the pressure from Delhi and various towns were selected to bear this burden.
Initially these were called Satellite towns of Delhi which later were recognized as
DMA towns.
Gurgaon is one such town which is located on this axis. Over the period of time
the town has attained the position of industrial hub which holds a significant position
in the National Capital Region (NCR). This has happened basically due to its close
proximity to Delhi. Its potential gave into notice in the decade of 1980s when the
Haryana Government initiated the process of industrial development here. Moreover,
the economic liberalization brought involvement of private builders; this transformed
Table 18.1 Distribution of rural settlements in the Delhi–Jaipur axis (1991–2011)

Axis 1991 2001 2011 Number of villages transformed
into urban centers from 1991 to
2011
Delhi–Jaipur axis (NH 8) 225 225 219 (6) 6 (2.7%)*
Source Data computed from Census of India 1991, 2001 and 2011
Note The data in parenthesis denotes the number of villages that have transformed into urban
centers over the next census year and the data in the parenthesis* denotes the percentage of villages
transformed
the entire landscape of the town as now it was dotted with posh residential and com-
mercial complexes. The result was high rate of migration especially of highly skilled
professionals. In spite of these developments somehow its growth has been in the
shadow of giant metropolis, Delhi, which has witnessed dichotomous development.
On one side there is ultra modern residential and industrial development and on the
other side—especially the core areas, is plagued with the problems as these areas
could not integrate themselves with the overall process of development that Delhi
has witnessed (Denis and Marius-Gnanout 2011). As a result it has not spread growth
impulses in its neighbouring hinterland.
Jaipur also known as the ‘Pink City’ has the locational advantage as it lies approxi-
mately 250 km away from both New Delhi and Agra and forms the ‘Golden Triangle’
tourist circuit. It also has a growing IT sector with approximately 50% of its working
population engaged in the tertiary sector. Surprisingly, in spite of these advantages
the city has grown as a primate city and thus has failed to spread growth impulses in
its rural hinterland. This is evident from the fact that from 1991 to 2011 not a single
village in the vicinity of Jaipur city was transformed into an urban centre.
There have been some developments at two different stretches on this axis. One
such development has occurred near Neemrana, where Japanese Industrial Zone was
set up in 2008 under the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) scheme of the Government
of India with Japanese collaboration. Twenty seven Japanese companies specially
related to automobiles and auto ancillaries set up their industrial units and have
a future plan of developing his industrial zone by providing residential and other
services in its vicinity. This has resulted in the growth and development of some
villages in its vicinity.
The second such development has occurred near Manesar from where the Delhi
Western Peripheral Expressway or Kundli–Manesar–Palwal Expressway passes.
This expressway was first proposed in 2003 as of now the Palwal–Manesar stretch
is operational due to which some villages near this expressway have shown signs of
development. These include Ghatal Mahaniwas, Dharuhera and Maheshwari. One
can say that this stretch is also coming up as a small industrial hub as the Haryana
Government has envisaged the process of development here through various land uses
which can be aptly described as Fashion City, Knowledge City, Medi City, Leisure and
Entertainment Cities, Cyber City and Dry-Port facility. These have been put forward
and brought simultaneously with other developments in this region (Fig. 18.1).
The above account clearly depicts that the development of rural settlements in
this axis is restricted to some stretches mainly because both Delhi and Jaipur have
emerged as Primate Cities over time. Whatever changes have occurred is the result
of special incentives taken by the government.
18.5.2 Demographic Index Along the Delhi–Jaipur Axis
In this section a link has been tried to find by analyzing the basic demographic
indicators of the rural settlements and the changes they have witnessed in last twenty
In this axis neither Ribbon Neemrana Japanese Zone

nor Corridor development
has occurred as both
Delhi and Jaipur have
become primate cities
over time.
Fig. 18.1 Land cover changes along the Delhi–Jaipur axis (1996–2016). Source Landsat 1-5 MSS
C1 Level 1 1996 and Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS C1 Level 1 2016
years. Along the NH 8 the growth pattern of urban centers as well as transformation
process between Dharuheda and Amber is negligible. The development has occurred
either near Gurgaon or Manesar or Neemrana. And interestingly in all these three
cities there have been government interventions to bring growth and splurge their
spread effects in the neighbouring hinterland. Gurgaon in recent years has been
developed as DMA town; Manesar has been linked with the Kundli–Manesar–Palwal
expressway and Neemrana has developed due to the establishment of the Neemrana
Japanese Industrial Zone.
In this case the argument is rooted in the premise given by Batty (2001) who
states ‘history matters’. Most of the urban centers on this axis are still dependent on
traditional industry which leads to some kind of persistence in urban development.
The data in Table 18.2 depict similar scenario as the villages show stagnation as a
large proportion of villages (between 50 and 60%) are still in the low category of
2.51–5.00.
Table 18.2 Index of

Demographic 1991 2001 2011
demographic indicators for
index
the Delhi–Jaipur axis (NH8)
More than 10 0.00 (0) 0.44 (1) 0 (0)
7.51–10.0 1.78 (4) 1.78 (4) 2.28 (5)
5.01–7.50 44.00 (99) 36.00 (81) 36.53 (80)
2.51–5.00 53.33 (120) 61.33 (138) 61.19 (134)
Less than 2.5 0.89 (2) 0.44 (1) 0 (0)
Total 100.0 (225) 100.0 (225) 100.0 (219)
Note The data in the parenthesis denote the number of villages in
each category
18.5.3 Workforce Participation Index Along

the Delhi–Jaipur Axis
Workforce participation is an important indicator of economy, which is directly

associated with the growth of a region’s economy. In the words of Koppel (1992)
occupational segregation is an essential element of rural transformation. One should
know that rural transformation is much more than agrarian transformation. It should
be looked upon as a social, cultural and political mobilization which has cultural
expression.
Some exceptional change has occurred in the Delhi–Jaipur axis from 2001 to
2011 where some villages have moved to the higher category. This can be the result
of the growth of Gurgaon as the Delhi Metropolitan Town and establishment of
the Neemrana Japanese Industrial Zone. These two initiatives have attracted a huge
fraction of workforce from the neighbouring hinterland. The growth of service sector
in Gurgaon can be another reason for this shift (Table 18.3).
18.5.4 Infrastructural Facilities Index Along

the Delhi–Jaipur Axis
In a Socialist country like India the distribution, accessibility and availability of

social and economic overheads like medical, educational, postal, basic amenities,
transport and communication facilities is of paramount importance. The relationship
between infrastructural facilities and urbanization are a mirror of a region’s urban
environment. The development process and the growth of economy are directly linked
with these amenities. The positive relation between these two is crystal clear in the
study area. The data in Table 18.4 makes it apparent. The rural settlements in along
the axis have shown some modifications. A large number of villages in all these axes
have moved into the higher category.
Table 18.3 Index of

Workforce 1991 2001 2011
workforce participation for
participation
the Delhi–Jaipur axis (NH8)
index
More than 2.22 (5) 2.11 (7) 1.83 (4)
10
7.51–10.0 8.00 (18) 1.78 (4) 4.11 (9)
5.01–7.50 33.78 (76) 18.67 (42) 28.77 (63)
2.51–5.00 48.89 (110) 76.00 (171) 65.30 (143)
Less than 7.11 (16) 0.44 (8) 0.00 (0)
2.5
Total 100.0 (225) 100.0 (225) 100.0 (219)
Note The data in the parenthesis denote the number of villages in
each category
Table 18.4 Index of infrastructural facilities for the Delhi–Jaipur axis (NH8)
Infrastructure facilities index 1991 2001 2011
More than 10 0.00 (0) 0.00 (0) 4.57 (10)
7.51–10.0 0.00 (0) 8.89 (20) 9.14 (20)
5.01–7.50 12.00 (27) 13.33 (30) 18.72 (41)
2.51–5.00 21.78 (49) 24.44 (55) 26.48 (58)
Less than 2.5 66.22 (149) 53.34 (120) 41.10 (90)
Total 100.0 (225) 100.0 (225) 100.0 (219)
Note The data in the parenthesis denote the number of villages in each category
Table 18.5 Index of development for the Delhi–Jaipur axis (NH8)

Levels of development 1991 2001 2011
Above 25 0.00 (0) 0.44 (1) 3.18 (7)
20.1–25.0 0.89 (2) 0.89 (2) 1.36 (3)
15.1–20.0 8.44 (19) 11.56 (26) 16.82 (37)
10.1–15.0 15.56 (35) 69.77 (157) 72.27 (159)
Below 10.0 75.11 (169) 17.78 (40) 5.45 (12)
Total 100.0 (225) 100.0 (225) 100.0 (220)
Note The data in the parenthesis denote the number of villages in each category. Jaipur has emerged
as a Primate city which has hampered the development process in this axis. But still there is some
development as nearly 70% of villages have moved from lowest level to the next level (Table 18.5)
The above analysis on all the indicators through composite indices had a pur-
pose. The aim was to bring out a pattern of development as well as to understand
the performance of basic demographic indicators, workforce participation and avail-
ability of the infrastructural facilities at the village level in this axis. The analysis of
these indicators therefore shows that the process of development in this region is not
dependent on one particular factor. It is a conglomeration of all the factors which
even include their location and proximity to urban centers. Moreover, these develop-
mental indicators have a high degree of mutual inter-dependence. The development
index computed using all the 14 indicators is a step towards this understanding.
18.6 Conclusions
In older days it was easy to define city as it had a defensive wall around it. In due
course of time, the wall was diminished and the city expanded its physical limits.
In more recent times, the settlement system has evolved in such a manner that the
distinctive line between urban and rural has not only thinned rather number of rural
settlements have either merged with urban areas or have been engulfed by them. These
transformations have made distinct influence on the socio-cultural and economic
fabric of the urban areas as well as its rural hinterland. Similar transformations have
been experienced by all the villages along the Delhi–Jaipur Axis from 1991 to 2011.
Jaipur has evolved as primate city and primacy has a nonlinear relationship with
growth and development of a region. In this axes the development has only occurred
in two stretches: one near Gurgaon and Manesar (development plans initiated by
government) and another near Neemrana where Neemrana Japanese Industrial Zone
has been established. The performance of demographic and workforce participation
indicators is synchronized with these findings. In the case of infrastructural facilities
the results are varied as infrastructure is directly linked with the process of urbaniza-
tion. Since all the villages are located on National Highways they show some sort of
growth. Moreover there have been number of schemes of the government to provide
these basic amenities in the villages. Proximity to Delhi has somehow favoured these
rural settlements in gaining better infrastructural facilities. The data clearly shows
that in 2011 most of the villages had educational and medical institutions as well as
drinking water. Availability of post office was not common.
The entire analysis clearly brings out the relationship between urbanization and
rural transformation. It would be right to say that rural transformation is much more
than a demographic phenomenon. The changes are even socially and culturally
expressed through occupational differentiation and participation of females in the
labour market.
Larger cities like Delhi and Jaipur should not be ignored as they have larger
economies and are likely to produce innovations. Smaller cities must depend more
on adopting these innovations rather than diffuse from others. These innovations may
lead to urban corridors only if a city does not become a primate city.
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Denis E, Marius-Gnanout K (2011) Towards a better apprasila of urbanization in India: a fresh look
at the landscape of morphological agglomerates. Working Paper Series 2, USR 3330, Savoirs et
Mondes Indiens, Institut Francias de Pondicherry, Pondicherry and Centre de Sciences Humaines,
New Delhi
General R (1991) Census of India 1991. Provisional population totals. New Delhi: Government of
India
India
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Koppel B (1992) The rural–urban dichotomy reexamined: beyond the ersatz debate. In: Ginsburg
N et al (eds) The extended metropolis: settlement transition in Asia. University of Hawaii Press,
Honolulu, pp 47–67
Priemus H, Zonneveld W (2003) What are corridors and what are the issues? Introduction to special
issue: the governance of corridors. J Transp Geogr 11:167–177
Chapter 19
Analysis of Land Use/Land Cover
Change Detection Using Remote Sensing
and GIS of Fatehgarh Nau Abad Village,
Bathinda, Punjab
Balwinder Singh and Chander Gagandeep Singh
Abstract Most of the Indian population is residing in villages to meet their basic
necessities by cultivating agriculture as their main occupation. Land witnesses
changes due to population increase and socio-economic activities, along with show-
ing the sphere of influence of an urban centre on the nearby areas with the passage
of time. As land use/land cover is dynamic in nature so, it becomes very important
to understand how villages have changed and are changing its land use/land cover
pattern at the micro-level. This research paper applied the potentiality of Remote
Sensing and GIS to map, detect and quantify spatio-temporal land use/land cover
changes by using the satellite images of Land sat (TM) of 1988, 1998 and high res-
olution images of 2008 and 2018 downloaded from Google Earth. The study was
carried out in the village namely Fatehgarh Nau Abad of Bathinda District in Punjab.
The different land use and land cover maps were prepared to analyze change detec-
tion of land use and land cover for the 4 distinct years covering the time period of
30 years, i.e. 3 decades. The result shows the decadal changes of land cover that the
area under built up has increased from 16 (2.78%) to 39.51 (6.8%) in ha on non-built
up land but there were also interchange of land between different land use and land
cover categories in the study area. The developed spatial data base at the village level
can be useful for rural planning, agriculturalists, and natural resource management.
Keywords Remote sensing · GIS · Land use · Land cover · Change detection
B. Singh (B)
Department of Geography, Punjabi University Guru Kashi College, Talwandi Sabo, Bathinda,
Punjab, India
e-mail: balwindersidhu67@gmail.com
C. G. Singh
Maharaja Ranjit Singh P.T.U., Bathinda, Punjab, India
e-mail: cgs.patiala87@gmail.com

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2097-6_19
308 B. Singh and C. G. Singh
19.1 Introduction
Agriculture is the main profession of the rural population residing in India to meet
their basic needs. Increase in population and socio-economic activities are putting
a burden on the land with the passage of time. It has become very important for
properly planning, rational assessment and scientific utilization of every parcel of
land. It becomes possible only if the whole complex of land use is studied at the
district, tehsil or even village level by considering the conditions of local physical
and socio-economic (Mohammed 1978). “The term land cover relates to the type of
features present on the surface of the earth. The term land use relates to the human
activity or economic function associated with a specific piece of land” (Lillesand
et al. 2008). In other words, land use is the inclusive of natural environment for
socio-economic purposes is changed, managed and modified into built up; while land
cover is defined as the physical material (grass, tree, bare ground, etc.) at the earth
surface. The interactions between land use and land cover attract the geographers
to know it for longstanding time (Meyer and Turner 1996). The primary concern
relevant to the geographer is to have insight of the prevalent relationship between
the natural environment and the human being (Kumar 1986). The importance of land
use mapping is felt in concern with evolution, better management, preservation, and
conservation of natural resources of any area (Gangaraju et al. 2017). So, it becomes
essential to know, to show and monitor the occurring trends in land use/land cover
at the village level. For this, the modern technology of Remote Sensing and GIS is
very effective, useful tool to analyze, detect the changes in land use/land cover by
taking spatio-temporal data for the future planning of sustainable and management of
natural resources. Application of remotely sensed data taken at different times made
possible to study the changes in land use and land cover in less time, at low cost and
with better accuracy (Kachhwala 1985) along with GIS software that provides the
facility to analysis, update and retrieve data (Chilar 2000). This is better assessed
as change detection is the process to identify differences in the state of any object
or phenomenon by observing it from time to time (Singh 1989). It requires the
comparison of two images of an area taken at different times for drawing land use and
land cover changes. Prasoon and Pushpraj (2015) have analysed spatial and temporal
distribution of land utilisation in Mopka village of Bilaspur city for studying changes
in land use. Gangaraju et al. (2017) studied land use/land cover change detection in
Pindrangi village. Rao et al. (2003) identified aquaculture hotspots at the village
level. Mitra and Singh (2014) did land use/land cover mapping and change detection
for a village. Wang et al. (2017) also used Remote Sensing and GIS to quantify
changes of villages in the urbanizing Beijing metropolitan region.
19 Analysis of Land Use/Land Cover Change Detection … 309
Fig. 19.1 The study area. Source India Map (www.dreamstime.com), Punjab Map (webindia123.
com), Bathinda Map (onefivenine.com), and Study Area Map (by the authors)
19.2 Study Area
This present study was carried out in Fatehgarh Nau Abad village (Fig. 19.1), which
falls under Bathinda District of Punjab state. It is located between 29° 58 32 N
Latitude and 75° 07 19 E Longitude. It has total geographical area of 577.0 in ha.
The population in the village is 1748 according to 2011 census. The village revenue
boundary is surrounded by town Talwandi Sabo in the north, and by villages namely,
Seikhpura in the east, Jaga Ram Tirth in the south, and Gurusar Jaga in the west.
The main occupation of the village is agriculture. It is located four kilometres away
south of Talwandi Sabo tehsil along the state highway. The town is a religious place
and emerging as an educational hub having one private university and another in
the study area with influencing socio-economic activities on the surrounding village
land.
19.2.1 Objectives of the Study Area
The objectives of the study are

(i) To prepare the different land use and land cover maps at the different time
periods.
(ii) To analyse the change detection.
19.3 Methodology
19.3.1 Data Base
For the present study, the two images of Landsat (1988, 1998) and two of high
resolution (2008, 2018) were downloaded from Google Earth in distinct years on
decades. A Sentinel satellite image georeferenced (10 m spatial resolution) geocoded
with WGS 1984, UTM zone 43 was also acquired from USGS earth explorer.
19.3.2 Ancillary Data
The Survey of India toposheet numbered 44 o/1 on the scale of 1:50 000 and cadastral
map of the village Fatehgarh Nau Abad taken from concerned authority was also used.
19.3.3 Methodology
GIS open free software QGIS version 2.18.12 with GRASS 7.2.1 was used to geo-
reference the Google earth data and cadastral map with the help of Sentinel georefer-
enced image and to extract village revenue boundary. Digitization-based on-screen
and visual interpretation was performed to map land use/land cover in the form of
polygons based on the geometric boundaries of each features and followed by field
observation. Linear features such as road, branch of canal were shown as a buffer.
As the spatial resolution of the Landsat images of 1988 and 1998 is poor and coarse.
So, for the preparation of land use and land cover maps for 1988 and 1998, the infor-
mation related to some features was collected by asking the information from the
people of this village such as where and when was the area under sand dunes and
orchards, when did they built their (isolated) houses and in which year religious, edu-
cational institute, water works, dharmshala (community hall) and marriage palace
came into existence by showing them high-resolution images of 2008 and 2018 to
mark polygons on the map during the field verification. The two images of differ-
ent time periods were superimposed to show the changes in land use/land cover.
The digitised data was quantified to get the area of each polygon. To show change
detection during 1988–2018, the change matrix was also prepared for the study area.
19.3.4 Land Use and Land Cover Classification
The scheme for land use and land cover classification was devised to classify land use
and land cover (Anderson et al. 1976; NRSA 2006). The adopted land use and land
cover classification scheme for this study identified the 20 categories of land use/land
cover namely crop land, orchard, vegetation, sand dunes, vacant land, branch of canal,
pond, residential, educational institution, religious place, dharamshala (community
hall), cremation/buried ground, water works, marriage palace, factory, shops, petrol
pump, cart track (locally known as pahi leading to agricultural field), main road and
link road.
19.4.1 Land Use and Land Cover
Land use and land cover for the different years was mapped to know the existing
features related to 1988, 1998, 2008 and 2018 (Figs. 19.2, 19.3, 19.4 and 19.5).
19.4.2 Change Detection for Land Use and Land Cover
Change detection simply means to demarcate and determine an area of what is

changing actually to what extent, by which one class of land use is changing into
another over time period. The information extracted from the different four land use
and land cover maps was analysed to show land use changes in the study area. There
were no changes detected for the categories such as branch of canal 0.82 (0.14%),
followed by pond 1.0 (0.17%), religious place 0.2 (0.03%), water works 1.6 (0.3%),
cremation ground 0.69 (0.12%), main road 2.5 (0.43%), link road 4.15 (0.72%), and
cart track 4.35 (0.75%) in ha.
Fig. 19.2 Land use and Land cover map of 1988. Source prepared by the authors from Landsat
(TM) Google Earth
Fig. 19.3 Land use and Land cover map of 1998. Source prepared by the authors from Landsat
(TM) Google Earth
Fig. 19.4 Land use and Land cover map of 2008. Source prepared by the authors from Google
Earth (High Resolution)
Fig. 19.5 Land use and Land cover map of 2018. Source prepared by the authors from Google
Earth (High Resolution)
19.4.3 Change Detection for Land Use/Land Cover

(1988–1998)
The categories of land use and land cover in the study area showed both increase
and decrease in the total geographical area of 577 in ha (Table 19.1, Fig. 19.6). The
total built up area in 1988 occupied an area of 16.0 ha (2.78%) consisting of residen-
tial (2.07%), dharamshala (0.01%), educational institution (0.24%), religious place
(0.03%), water works (0.3%) and cremation/buried ground (0.12%). It increased to
21.09 ha around3.66% in 1998. It is the addition/inclusive of the area under res-
idential (2.07%–2.5%), educational institution (0.25–0.54%), marriage palace (0–
0.15%), and along with the plus of the percentages of the rest categories in built
up 1998. The area of crop land also showed an increase of 88.86–90.4% from the
conversion of vacant land, sand dune and orchard land. While the other categories
such as orchard (0.7–0.53%), vacant land (3.96–2.23%) and sand dune (0.63–0.12%)
showed a decrease under their respective area during the time period of 1988–1998.
In the change detection of land use and land cover, the total built up showed an
increase of 0.87% with the addition/plus of residential (0.43%), educational institu-
tion (0.29%) and followed by marriage palace (0.15%). The area of crop land also
increased (1.52%). Whereas the area under orchard (0.16%), vacant land (1.72%)
and sand dune (0.51%) decreased.

(1998–2008)
and decrease in the total geographical area of 577 in ha (Table 19.1, Fig. 19.7). The
total built up area in 1998 occupied an area of 3.66% (21.09 ha) consisting of resi-
dential (2.5%), dharamshala (0.01%), educational institution (0.54%), religious place
(0.03%), water works (0.3%), cremation/buried ground (0.12%), and marriage palace
(0.15%). It increased to 33.04 ha around 5.7% in 2008 due to construction for educa-
tional purposes, economic activities and isolated settlements showing expansion of
the village and the socio-economic influence of the nearby town on the village land.
It is the addition/inclusive of the area under residential (2.5–2.93%), dharamshala
(0.01–0.02%), educational institution (0.54–2.08%), factory (0–0.09%), shops (0–
0.01%) and along with the plus of the percentages of the rest categories in built
up 2008. The area under orchard also showed an increase of 0.53–2.74% from the
conversion of crop land into orchard. While the other categories such as crop land
(90.4–87.73%), vacant land (2.23–0.72%) and sand dune (0.12–0.006%) showed a
decrease under their respective areas during the time period of 1998–2008. In the
change detection of land use and land cover, the total built up showed an increase of
2.1% with the addition/plus of residential (0.43%), dharamshala (0.003%), educa-
tional institution (1.54%), shops (0.01%) and followed by factory (0.09%). The area
Table 19.1 Classification of land use/land cover and change detection
LU/LC categories 1988 1998 2008 2018 Change Detection
1988–1998 1998–2008 2008–2018
Hectares % Hectares % Hectares % Hectares % Hectares % Hectares % Hectares %
BUILT 16.0 2.78 21.09 3.66 33.04 5.73 39.51 6.8 5.09 0.88 11.96 2.1 6.54 1.1
UP(1–10)
1 Residential 11.96 2.07 14.44 2.5 16.92 2.93 19.12 3.31 2.48 0.43 2.48 0.43 2.2 0.38
2 Dharamshala 0.11 0.01 0.11 0.01 0.13 0.02 0.13 0.02 0.02 0.003
3 Educational inst. 1.44 0.25 3.14 0.54 12.03 2.08 14.4 2.5 1.7 0.29 8.9 1.54 2.4 0.4
4 Religious place 0.2 0.03 0.2 0.03 0.2 0.03 0.2 0.03
5 Water works 1.6 0.3 1.6 0.3 1.6 0.3 1.6 0.3
6 Cremation/Buried 0.69 0.12 0.69 0.12 0.69 0.12 0.69 0.12
ground
7 Marriage palace 0.91 0.15 0.91 0.15 1.3 0.23 0.91 0.15 0.4 0.07
8 Factory 0.5 0.09 1.7 0.3 0.5 0.09 1.2 0.21
9 Shops 0.06 0.01 0.23 0.04 0.06 0.01 0.2 0.03
10 Petrol pump 0.14 0.02 0.14 0.02
11 Crop land 512.74 88.86 521.49 90.4 506.18 87.73 516.4 89.5 8.75 1.52 −15.31 −2.65 10.22 1.8
19 Analysis of Land Use/Land Cover Change Detection …
12 Orchard 4.0 0.7 3.08 0.53 15.8 2.74 0.56 0.09 −0.92 −0.16 12.72 2.2 −15.24 −2.6
13 Vacant land 22.84 3.96 12.9 2.23 4.14 0.72 2.7 0.47 −9.94 −1.72 −8.8 −1.52 −1.44 −0.25
14 Sanddune 3.64 0.63 0.7 0.12 0.04 0.006 0.04 0.006 −2.94 −0.51 −0.66 −0.11
15 Vegetation 4.98 0.86 4.98 0.86 4.98 0.86 4.98 0.86
16 Branch of canal 0.82 0.14 0.82 0.14 0.82 0.14 0.82 0.14
17 Pond 1.0 0.17 1.0 0.17 1.0 0.17 1.0 0.17
(continued)
315
316
LU/LC categories 1988 1998 2008 2018 Change Detection

1988–1998 1998–2008 2008–2018
Hectares % Hectares % Hectares % Hectares % Hectares % Hectares % Hectares %
18 Main road 2.5 0.43 2.5 0.43 2.5 0.43 2.5 0.43
19 Link road 4.15 0.72 4.15 0.72 4.15 0.72 4.15 0.72
20 Cart track 4.35 0.75 4.35 0.75 4.35 0.75 4.35 0.75
Total 577.0 100 577.0 100 577.0 100 577.0 100

B. Singh and C. G. Singh
Fig. 19.6 Land use changes (1988–1998) in the study area. Source prepared by the authors from
Google Earth (Landsat TM)
Google Earth (High Resolution)
of orchard also increased (2.2%). Whereas the area under crop land (2.65%), vacant
land (1.52%) and sand dune (0.11%) decreased.

(2008–2018)
and decrease in the total geographical area of 577 in ha (Table 19.1, Fig. 19.8).
The total built up area in 2008 occupied an area of 5.73% (33.04 ha) consisting of
residential (2.93%), dharamshala (0.02%), educational institution (2.08%), religious
place (0.03%), water works (0.3%), marriage palace (0.15%), factory (0.09%), shops
(0.01) and cremation/buried ground (0.12%). It increased to 39.51 ha around 6.81% in
2018 due to construction for expansion of educational institution, economic activities
and isolated settlements showing the socio-economic influence of the nearby town on
the village land. It is the addition/inclusive of area under residential (2.93–3.31%),
educational institution (2.08–2.5%), marriage palace (0.15–0.23%), factory (0.09–
0.3%), shops (0.01–0.04%), petrol pump (0–0.02%) and along with the plus of the
percentages of the rest categories in built up 2018. The area under crop land also
showed an increase of 87.73–89.5% from the conversion of orchard and vacant land.
Google Earth (High Resolution)
Some of the vacant land was utilized for residential areas. While the other categories
such as orchard (2.74%–0.09%), vacant land (0.72%–0.47%) showed a decrease
under their respective areas during the time period of 2008–2018. In the change
detection of land use and land cover, the total built up showed an increase of 1.1% with
the addition/plus of residential (0.38%), educational institutions (0.4%), marriage
palace (0.07%) and followed by factory (0.21%). The area of crop land (1.8%) also
increased. Whereas the area under orchard (2.6%) and vacant land (0.25%) decreased.
19.5 Conclusion
This study carried out for analysis, monitoring of land use/land cover change detec-
tion in Fatehgarh Nau Abad village using Landsat and high resolution images of the
different years like 1988, 1998, 2008 and 2018 download from Google earth reveals
the result of important land use and land cover changes from 1988 to 2018 in the
study area. The generated statistical data shows the changes of sand dunes, vacant
land into crop land and crop land into orchard, vacant land and built up area. The
total built up has increased from 16 ha (2.78%) in 1988 to 39.51 (6.8%) in 2018
for meeting the socio-economic needs of the area and is responsible for major land
use/cover changes leading to encroachment on the village land toward or along the
state highway (main road) due to expansion of the village and Talwandi Sabo town.
This comprehensive spatio-temporal data can be useful for rural-planning, natural
resources management at the micro-level.
References
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system for use with remote sensing data. Geological Survey Professional Paper 964
Chilar J (2000) Land cover mapping of large areas from satellites: status and research priorities. Int
J Remote Sens 21(6–7):1093–1114
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cover of Pindrangi village using high resolution satellite imagery. J Remote Sens GIS 6(2):1–4
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mapping through satellite remote sensing. In: Proceedings of the 6th Asian conference on remote
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New Delhi, India
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10(6):989–1003
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Chapter 20
Sustainable Energy Development
and Participatory Management Scenario
in the Sundarban: A Case Study
in the Sagar Island, West Bengal, India
Anwesha Haldar and Ajanta Bhattacharya
Abstract The Sundarban is an ecologically sensitive region with the inhabitants

lacking in proper basic amenities, purchasing power, technological awareness and
capacity generation for sustainable development of the community. The Sagar Island
has been facing the constant wrath of environmental disasters and damage due to their
poor adaptive technologies offered by the planners and policy makers. Even though,
the introduction of renewable technologies as an alternative source of power has not
been equally welcomed everywhere nevertheless the dependence on forest wood as
the prime fuel is no longer prevalent and people have voluntarily involved themselves
in forest conservation. This paper tries to make a contribution by upholding the
dualism in the society between direct gains and selfless sustainability; whereby an
integrated framework can be formulated for a comprehensive developmental goal.
To understand the scenario, the awareness and perception study of the inhabitants
towards social forestry and renewable energy sources have been carried out. From
the results, it is found that even though Indian energy policy encourages renewable
energy but it is mostly controlled by the supply channel and public demand leading
to more reliance on conventional thermal gridded electricity. Thus, public awareness
and participatory management of locals can ultimately provide a sustainable way to
in situ resource management in the Sagar Island.
Keywords Capacity building · Solar power · Social forestry · Sustainability ·

Participatory management
A. Haldar (B) · A. Bhattacharya

Department of Geography, University of Calcutta, Calcutta, India
e-mail: ahgeog_rs@caluniv.ac.in
A. Bhattacharya
e-mail: bhattacharya.ajanta@gmail.com

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2097-6_20
322 A. Haldar and A. Bhattacharya
20.1 Introduction
The increase in awareness about the state of environment caused by over-exploitation

of natural resources for economic development has evoked major discussions and
debate worldwide. This has led to the concept of Sustainable Development that cut
across ecological, economic, social and cultural dimensions (Ramakrishnan 2008).
Environmental and societal degradation has been further exacerbated by human-
induced ‘global change’ which is a collective term for climate change, land use
changes, impacts of globalization, population change, economic and resource alter-
ations, land degradation and desertification, biological invasion by exotics and bio-
diversity depletion. The dynamics consequently, interact among themselves to leave
a lasting impact on the affected communities and in turn affects the entire nation
in terms of economic losses, migrations, social conflicts, risks to human health,
compromise on energy, food, and water security, loss of ecosystem services, reduced
resilience of human societies and a decline of the environmental health which is basis
of our well-being (Duarte 2012). This paper deals with the two major thrust areas of
Sustainable Development Goals (SDG, 2015) namely affordable and clean energy
(7th SDG), and life on land (15th SDG), i.e. protecting, restoring and promoting
sustainable management of forests to reverse land degradation.
The estuarine system of the Ganga-Brahmaputra deltaic region forms the largest
mangrove eco-system in the world shared between India and Bangladesh and the
extension of the region within India is roughly between 21º 30 N to 22º 30 N and
88º 05 E to 89º 05 E (Fig. 20.1). India being the largest democracy and with more
than 1.3 billion residents, is faced with numerous challenges to provide even the
Fig. 20.1 Location of the Sagar Island

20 Sustainable Energy Development and Participatory Management … 323
bare necessities of life to its people. At this conjecture it is certainly a sensitive

issue to introduce experimental technologies in renewable resources when people
are deprived from basic food, clothing and shelter. At present the Indian Sundarban
covers an area of about 4,266.6 km2 and over 4.4 million of the most impoverished
and vulnerable people in India. About half of this population lives below the poverty
line (BPL), with poverty incidence highest in the Administrative Blocks close to
the vast mangrove forest (Planning Commission of India 2013; World Bank 2014).
Over and above the region is frequently plagued with climatic hazards such as storm
surge, cyclones, erosion, embankment breaching and saline water ingression. Hunter
(1875) and Ghosh et al. (2018), presents a case study of South 24 Parganas district that
focuses on the traditional adaptation practices used by the susceptible communities
in this vulnerable area. It was also as a potential decision-making ground to formulate
any policy and financial intervention.
Geo-hydrologically, it is separated from the mainland of West Bengal by a 3.5 km
stretch of the “Muri Ganga” river. The total area of the Sagar Island is around
286.03 km2 . Even though the physical and social characteristics of the Sagar Island
are almost similar to that of the other islands of Indian Sundarban region, it is rapidly
emerging as the most densely populated island. Thus with decreasing carrying capac-
ities there is a marked increase in its natural and social vulnerabilities. In this study,
the Sagar island (Fig. 20.1) in the south-western most part of the Sundarban is one
such place were majority of the population face scarcity from safe drinking water,
healthcare facilities, proper sanitation, electricity connection, educational institu-
tions and job opportunities (Haldar 2014). Thus, resulting in poor resilience and low
capacity generation of the locals to attain sustainable development.
20.2 Objectives of the Study
The present era witnesses the importance of participatory planning all over the world.
Participatory approach is now an integral part of conservational planning and manage-
ment of the different sectors of the society. In energy sector, participatory planning
enhances conservation of energy and community renewable energy use has been
observed worldwide. In India, the present scenario encourages the rapid and cost-
effective developments in the field of renewable technologies. As we all know India
has made some progressive technological innovations and administrative policies
towards promoting renewable power systems especially solar power; but unfortu-
nately some pockets still exists and majorly in the Sagar Island, it is observed that
renewables have failed miserably. The mal practices in participatory management
for not being able to conserve the solar plants, standalone batteries being one of
the direct problems. However, it is observed that people have readily come forward
to conserve the mangroves in Sagar and here participatory management have been
hugely successful. This dichotomy has raised the question on human behaviour and
responses towards non-conventional infrastructure and environment. Thus a proposi-
tion can be assumed that low awareness regarding energy technologies has prevented
mass propagation of solar sources while high awareness regarding forestry and bio-
diversity improves participatory management results. The paper aims to critically
address the proposition, attend to the possible issues and decide whether the renew-
able power source is supposed to bring in more development or development harbours
in acceptance of a new technology. In this discussion, the changes of perspective of
participatory management planning in different fields of the environment manage-
ment have been focused. The top-down management system has failed to realise the
true sustainable indicators. Thus, the planning of this area needs reformulation of
present management policy by introducing the local know-how in development of
the area. The participatory management has become successful in different countries
as a new paradigm for sustainable development and regional management planning,
and this participation of locals mainly helps in recognising and combining of social,
economic and ecological values. This study aspires to discuss the present manage-
ment strategies in utilisation of energy and forest resources and implementation of
participatory management with the involvement of local people.
20.3 Methodology
The work has been done through qualitative analysis of information from available
literatures to identify the problem areas. Field surveys by purposive random sampling
in questionnaire surveys in households and target group discussions in the villages
of the Sagar Island have been carried out to understand and record their experiences
and perceptions. The respondents all had given verbal consent in participating in
the questionnaires surveyed and confirmed that they answered to the best of their
knowledge. An ethical committee supervised the authenticity of data and information
in University of Calcutta. Visit to solar plants in Sagar and several plots where social
forestry was done and discussions with the erstwhile beneficiaries were carried out.
Census of India (2011) data has been analysed. Livelihood susceptibility index is
computed to determine by various factors such as physical, social, economic and
environmental processes, which increase the susceptibility of a community to the
impact of hazards. This was also computed with the help of census data by compound
score method following UNDP (1990, 1992). This was followed by data processing
in Microsoft-excel, maps were created on the remote sensing and GIS based software
Q GIS 2.8.7 and Geomatica 15. Finally the information collected was tabulated for
interpretation and reporting.
20.4 Livelihood Susceptibility of the Study Area
Poverty, occupation, caste, ethnicity, exclusion, marginalization and inequalities in

material consumption of a society or community affect on the livelihood suscepti-
bility. Livelihood susceptibility study refers to the resilience of communities when
confronted by external stresses on our lives. These stressors in the form of both natural
or anthropogenic disasters, or disease outbreaks create livelihood maladjustments in
the society. The study accounts for deprivation in income generation, physical habi-
tat and infrastructure as well as access to state provided resources, political power
and governance and provide a better understanding of household conditions as well
as local planning strategies for development of an area (McGee and Broke 2001).
For this reason, all the parameters are taken for analysing the quality of life. These
parameters are ownership and permanency of household, quality and distance from
source of drinking water, use of electricity, latrine facility, presence of waste water
outlet, use of banking service and other different assets derived from Census of India
(2011) data. For the evaluation of the index, the relative approach of UNDP for
developing HDI (UNDP 1990, 1992) is applied. The analytical approach essential
for the calculation of the index and this index is calculated with site specific data of
the study area (Fig. 20.2).
For this study the livelihood study is calculated of the above said indicators in the
following manner

VIi jk = Xi jk − MINi jk / MAXi jk − MINi jk
where, i = Variables (1, 2, 3, … I), j = Components (1, 2, 3, … J), k = Blocks (1,

2, 3, … K).
In the study the score varies from 2.20 to 5.40. This score is proportionate with
the development in services and other infrastructure. In this case, the livelihood
index is found to be more in developed mouzas which is near the central part of the
island. Rudranagar being the most developed town here has the highest developmental
scores than others. Rudranagar, Radha Krishnapur, Kamalpur, Khan Saherber Abad,
etc. shows high scores while Bakimnagar, Naraharipur shows lower value, which
represents that livelihood services are yet to be delivered in the lower value areas.
Comparing with the density of population it is found that the denser areas of Sagar are
enjoying more services than others (Fig. 20.3) or it may be interpreted that amenities
have attracted people from the surrounding areas to cluster in these villages.
20.5 Participatory Management in the Renewable Energy

Sector in Sagar Island
Electricity is a basic service now for sustaining life. It is of great responsibility for the
local governing bodies to provide 100% rural electrification as it not only raises the
well-being of the people but also opens up to a wide range of opportunities to improve
their social, economic and environmental livelihood. The Sundarban are an energy
deficient region. Most reclaimed villages on the islands and at the fringes of the
densely populated mainland are yet to be connected to the conventional power grid.
According to the Census of India (2011) the power scenario (Fig. 20.4, 20.5 and 20.6)
Fig. 20.2 The livelihood vulnerability index of Sagar block (Census of India 2011)
of Sagar island has been mapped. It is generally noticed that for lighting, kerosene
dominated the sector with high solar power prevalence in few mouzas of Muriganga,
Gobindapur, Dhablat and Kirtankhali. The total energy expenditure surveys in the
Sundarban in 2014 showed the dominance of biomass (73%), followed by kerosene
(14%), electricity 4%, and diesel 4% (World Bank 2014).
Regardless of the gradual fall in capital costs behind solar energy technologies and
steady rise in fossil fuel prices and depleting reserves, solar powered electricity can-
not compete with the strong conventional electricity market. Besides the economic
disadvantage, solar energy technologies face a number of technological, financial and
institutional barriers that further constrain their large-scale deployment. It is also to
Fig. 20.3 Block Map of Sagar showing the Mouza-wise population density (Census of India 2011)
be noted that even though large programs and projects have been sanctioned by the
Union and State Governments, almost negligible amount of subsidy or awareness
have been reached to the remote islands (Haldar 2015).
Almost 20 years ago, the Sagar Island in the Bay of Bengal became a prominent
example of India’s efforts to power the rural, remote, impoverished areas with solar
energy. Between 2000 and 2008, renewable power technologies, including household
photovoltaic panels, solar home and street lighting, wind power generating stations
and mini grids, were installed by WBREDA on Sagar with large state subsidies. The
government helped cover generation and distribution expenses at a cost of around
15 crores rupees. The solar and wind—generation plants were generating close to 1
Fig. 20.4 Dominance of grid electricity as the main energy source. Source Census of India (2011)
data
megawatt (MW) of electricity, distributed through mini grids to about 2,000 house-
holds. But a government decision to pull off all renewable energy subsidies and to
hook up the island with the electric grid has left the solar schemes in tatters.
Sagar is now connected with the grid under the erstwhile ambitious national
scheme of Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyutikaran Yojna (RGGVY) and later the Deen
Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana since 2015, both of which aimed to bring
electric power to all villages by 2020. People below the poverty line to get free
electricity and pay rates as low as 3.5 rupees per unit. As broadly estimated the
present average domestic load in Sagar Block is 140 kW per consumer and average
Fig. 20.5 Dominance of solar system as the main energy source. Source Census of India (2011)
data
commercial load is 620 kW per consumer, and accounting with the ever increasing
demand of power in the island, the requirement of power is estimated to rise to about
9.5 MW by 2020. This is very difficult for the solar plants to generate continuous
good quality power of this amount for the entire island.
Initially, Sagar had been excluded from the national grid scheme due to technical
unfeasibility but was reversed largely for business, political and also for religious
reasons electricity development even at the cost of environmental conservation. The
Sterling and Wilson company, a Shapoorji Pallonji Group owned engineering firm,
was able to complete the commissioning of the entire grid-connected electrification
Fig. 20.6 Dominance of kerosene as the main energy source. Source Census of India (2011) data
project by January 2016 in Sagar Island which proposes to benefit 2,26,000 people
across 43,000 households in the area (Business Standard 2016). Now the same inhab-
itants, who had previously whole heartedly welcomed solar systems, are leaving the
connection and moving away to grid connections.
Since the time Sagar Island started to access power from the grid, most islanders
have gradually moved away from using solar energy, and the solar plants are left
at the mercy of the nature. Thus the generation solar capacity in the District of
South 24 Parganas is rapidly declining and the state of the generation equipments are
deteriorating, a trend that will continue if demand for solar power declines further,
experts have warned (Haldar 2014). Local consumers in Sagar may be pleased with
No Expenditure
0%
Using Solar
23%
11%
49% Unsure
Incurs
24% Expenditure
Kerosene
14% Firewood
20%
8% Electricity Bill
Fig. 20.7 Monthly expenditure on power. Source Primary survey by authors
the policy U-turn, as they will get somewhat cheaper compared to the solar-diesel
hybrid systems and perhaps more reliable electricity, but the side-effects are many.
Sagar’s solar energy facilities are being neglected, and are already defunct, hindering
the India government’s target of installing 20,000 MW of solar power capacity by
2020. Electricity poles and overhead lines are at a major treat during the monsoons
and especially during cyclonic storms which are recurrent in Sagar for its geographic
location at the head of the vast Bay of Bengal.
Presently more than 40% of the inhabitants are still without any type of power
connections on the island therefore a large part of the population is solely dependent
on kerosene for lighting, cooking and other domestic needs. Kerosene is presently
being disseminated at 500 ml to 1 L per ration card in the public distribution system
stores every fortnight at 25 rupees per litre. Most of the time this fuel is not sufficient
for those who are also using kerosene for lighting along with cooking, hence they have
to resort to the kerosene from ‘black market’ which is sold at prices exceeding INR.
50/- per litre. An average power expenditure break-up of the surveyed population
has been shown (Fig. 20.7).
Electricity is mostly of use to women for comfort and entertainment and to children
for education after the Sun sets, while men remain mostly out of the house thus
enjoying the benefits less. Televisions are the only source of entertainment in these
remote villages. Children can study for the extra few hours and fan has brought in
much comfort in their lives for all (Fig. 20.8). The Government is trying to bring in
development through rural electrification whereby people can engage in alternative
occupations, run small cottage or agro-industries, diversify income opportunities,
ensure higher educational standards, better standard of living and thus social equity
and stability in the society.
From our recent field studies at the Sagar Island it is observed that electric-
ity has only reached the major connecting points of the island and lighting is
majorly tourism based i.e. only those places have electric connection where pil-
grims, tourists or government officials do access. This leaves thousands of marginal
Fig. 20.8 Perceptional benefits of electricity. Source Primary survey by authors
dwellers in the interiors of the island without proper access to power. These regions
are the Manasadwip-Jibantala colonies, Bisalakhipur-Botkhali area and Chandipur-
Mahisamari area. When rough weather persists for more than 3 h, for regions that
are remotely located or are separated by natural barriers, grid connectivity becomes
a great problem.
The major factors of concern for lighting up Sagar C.D. Block are feasibility of
electricity distribution and placing of poles across creeks and wide river networks of
the Sundarban, environmentally stable connection lines that can withstand natural
hazards and cost effective supply to individual homes so that it does not become an
economic burden on the population. As surfaced from the surveys and interviews,
almost no subsidy on solar connection is available from the government now but the
local cooperative banks have certain schemes and in turn are making small business
for themselves. The scheme is that a certain percent of the down payment is waivered
and the equal monthly installment facility is provided to clients having their own bank
account in that branch and buying more than 40 W solar panels. As most of the poor
farmers do not have a bank account or are reluctant in using larger solar panels, they
cannot avail this subsidy hence wide spread use of solar lags behind still today.
The other drawbacks are frequent mal practices and tampering with the solar
batteries and funds in the community based solar plants has been reported by the
locals. The ill maintenance of the batteries has led to poor performance and therefore
needs frequent changes (Fig. 20.9). The gridded solar plants and diesel generator
cooperatives in the favourable climatic season could only provide 6–8 h of electricity.
Hooking, illegal connections, theft from solar plants was a common scenario, local
caretakers were bribed and threatened not to take any legal step. The nonchalant
attitudes of the panchayat and solar plant engineers posted there have led to the
consecutive closure of the solar power plants.
Fig. 20.9 Frequency of FREQUENCY OF SOLAR BATTERY

solar battery PROBLEM/DISRUPTION
problem/disruption. Source
Primary survey by authors Never
After 5 years
After 2-3 years
Every Year
Every Month
Every Week
0 10 20 30 40
% of Respondants
An off-grid/decentralized solar collection scheme is far more energy efficient than

a grid-connected or centralized one as they conserve more than 30% of the electricity
that is lost in transmission and distribution in the current system. An off-grid solar
system is also far more resilient to natural disasters as there is no single point of fail-
ure that can bring down the whole grid, as is the case with grid-connected/centralized
power generation and also saves a lot of space which is required to build stations.
Although decentralized off grid power generation is the most feasible and only option
in these locations (Haider 2012), locals have no urge to voluntary come together and
revive the community renewable energy plants. Respondents here seem to have a
good knowledge about the pollution caused from burning fossil fuels like kerosene,
diesel, etc., but not all realise the importance of using an energy and non-polluting
power supply (Fig. 20.10). In a similar way perceptions are clear in case of renewable
being eco-friendly source but their tendency to continue and personal satisfaction
level with solar is low compared to thermal grids (Fig. 20.11). Solar must be properly
advertised to increase awareness and attract more users into the renewable sector.
People’s participation in developing and continuing with the solar systems failed.
Even though community lighting services in panchayats, schools, clubs and market
Fig. 20.10 Environmental ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS

awareness level in Sagar LEVEL IN SAGAR ISLAND
block. Source Primary 160
Number of respondents
survey by authors 140

120
100
80
60
40
20
0
Yes No Yes No
Environmental hazards from Environmental advantages from
traditional burning of biomass using renewable, energy-
and fossil fuels efficient fuel sources
Fig. 20.11 Perceptions PERCEPTIONS REGARDING ENERGY

regarding energy sources in SOURCES IN SAGAR ISLAND
Sagar block. Source Primary 150
Number of Respondents
survey by authors 125
100
75
50
25
0
Unsure
Unsure
Unsure
Thermal Grid
Thermal Grid
Thermal Grid
Solar
Solar
Solar
Eco friendly Future source Personally satisfied
places was successful but where vigilance and direct gain of individuals were negli-
gible such as for street lighting and solar plants, renewable failed miserably. People
was solely profit minded and calculated only personal benefits in the solar sector as
can be seen with the overwhelming success of standalone solar panel home lighting
systems (Fig. 20.12). Hence local awareness, collective responsibility and peoples’
participation can only revive the renewable power sector on the island.
RESPONSE TO PARTICIPARTORY MANAGEMENT

IN ENERGY SECTOR OF SAGAR ISLAND
150
125
100
75
50
25
0
Failure
Failure
Failure
Failure
No change
No change
No change
No change
Successful
Successful
Successful
Successful
Community Lighting Street Lighting by Solar Plant System Solar Home-lighting

Services Solar System
Fig. 20.12 Response to participatory management in energy sector of Sagar Island. Source Primary
survey by authors
20.6 Social Forestry and Participatory Planning

in Environmental Conservation
After 40 years of state owned conservative management of mangroves, India has

emerged with the concepts of community based management of mangrove resources,
better known as ‘Joint Mangrove Management’ (JMM), since the last decade. One
of the aims of JMM is the involvement of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)
and Community Based Organizations (CBOs) in development, conservation and
restoration of mangrove resources which has been largely described as an amelio-
rative management of these exclusive coastal resources. Under this backdrop, this
study observed that with the generous participation of NGOs and CBOs in JMM,
sustainable development of forestry especially of the mangrove species proved more
successful than the energy sector. In case of Sagar Island, NGO’s as well as local
governance play an important role building a comprehensive relation with the local
people whereby both are benefitted. The panchayats and NGOs can showcase these
endeavours, funded by both governmental and non-governmental agencies and the
locals are relieved from recurrent land erosions and get steady supply of forest-based
resources. From the surveys, it was observed that 84% of the respondents in Sagar
island were willing to continue with social forestry, among them 71% said that they
conscious about the importance of planting saplings while the rest 29% responded
that they first joined this interest group due to the wages but after attending meetings
of NGO and local panchayats they are now aware about its importance (Fig. 20.13).
Most depend on these forests for honey collection, dry timber gathering and for
conservation of land from erosion and storm surges. Hence conserving these forests
meant a sustainable addition to their livelihood. Apart from material gains, these
RESPONSE TO PARTICIPARTORY MANAGEMENT

IN SOCIAL FORESTRY SECTOR OF SAGAR ISLAND
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Yes No Unsure Yes No Unsure Yes No Unsure Yes No Unsure
Awareness about Voluntary Direct Benefits from Indirect Benefits from

Social Forestry Participation Forestry Forestry
Fig. 20.13 Response to participatory management in social forestry sector of Sagar Island. Source
Primary survey by authors
Fig. 20.14 Changing Coastline of Sapkhali Mouza, after Mangrove Plantations. Map source
Google Earth Images © 2010–2018
Fig. 20.15 Changing Coastline of Chandipur-Mahisamari beach. Map source Google Earth Images
© 2010–2018
forests save the area from the cyclonic storms which has devastating effects on the
entire region if the coastal fringes are left barren.
Significant interference was faced when people were unaware of the benefits of
JMMs. But presently in the coastal edges of Sagar island, where the erosion is much
more, NGO’s and local governance started giving special importance to protect the
soil and showed how social forestry can not only save the eroded areas but also reclaim
the accreted and newly formed ‘chars’. Since this time, larger number of people
started showing interest in JMM and more vulnerable areas of Sagar could be brought
under the purview of social forestry on this island. Coastal zones like Chandipur-
Mahisamari beach area (Google Earth images showing the significant increase in
forest cover in Fig. 20.14), Khastala-Sapkhali area (Google Earth images showing the
beach conservation in Fig. 20.15), and coastal zones in the north of Beguakhali are the
zones where people are engaged in the social forestry with the help of the panchayat
and NEWS (Nature Environment and Wildlife Society). They mostly plant different
varieties of Mangroves species and Coastal She-Oak (Casuarina equisetifolia better
known as Jhau plantations). These help to grip the land and reduce land losses.
Peoples’ participation here is active and they are solely responsible for the main-
tenance of these forests. The awareness regarding the benefits of forestry is very
high among the local people through different awareness campaign of panchayat
and some NGOs. However it is to be also noted that despite CBOs and NGOs being
the two major stakeholders in JMM that showed significant results, the work is often
hindered due to lacking of legal and tenure rights, local workforce and know-how of
the technicalities.
It was also found that the effectiveness of the participatory approach with the
inhabitants and local governance was more effectual from the vegetation cover figures
which showed a sharply decline with rapid reclamation until 2011, after which it
significantly increased when the JMM was implemented in the Gram Panchayats of
Sagar C.D. Block. Participatory planning of the area witnessed a significant change
in livelihood and land conservation due to community involvement. The Sundarban,

being multi-dimensional in nature, has increasing pressure on land that needs to be
rearranged for the planning policy at the bureaucratic levels. Local people are the
prime beneficiaries of the resources and also the worst affected by the exploitation of
the resources. Over the years of intense and regular observation of the environmental
processes, they have gained immense expertise and experience to plan for land and
forest conservation and other local resource managements that will eventually reduce
land degradation, soil erosion and other social malpractices like poaching, illegal
felling etc. in the targeted areas of the Sagar Island.
20.7 Social Dualism in Participatory Planning
The prime global focus of the 1970s was on the relationship between energy and
economics, and at that time researchers and policy makers were not much concerned
with the implications this would have on the environment. The global awareness and
uproar over rising carbon and other fossil fuel emissions, environmental pollution
and wasteful use of natural resources came about in the 1980s when sustainability
in developmental strategies was first brought into focus. In this study area it was
observed that the introduction of grid electricity reduces the use of solar energy
and people are reluctant in welcoming the sustainable modern technologies inspite
of the initial public participation to bring in electricity to the villages. Being one
of the densely populated areas, the Sagar Island is the foremost of the Sundarban
islands to start social forestry for environmental conservation (Mondal 2013). The
top-to-down approach started this conservational practice but with the advent of
participatory approach through Joint Forest Management, the progress of work have
rapidly enhanced and such practices have become more realistic when done in an
environment-friendly way (Dev Roy and Alam 2012). Participatory management
plays a very important role in the enhancement of local people’s awareness for the
social forestry (Tmang 1994) and also the conservation of mangroves (Safa 2005).
But this awareness building method is missing in the use of community solar power
plants in the study area. There are some financial supports and subsides for the forestry
development but the same is absent in the case of solar energy planning for this area.
The Government of India, in their new agenda, have emphasised on the importance of
renewable and afforestation programmes but here the use of solar power is reducing
day by day while afforestation and social forestry for both species valuation and
economic importance is on the rise. Thus the planning in more participatory ways
and involving local expertise, skill and workforce in the planning avenues are needed
to overcome these challenges.
20.8 Conclusion
As the concept of sustainable development took a realistic stance, it shifted focus on

economic development rather than having only a welfare approach towards societal
and environmental conservation. Sustainable Development Goals of 2015 addresses
these changing concerns for nations to act conforming the new guidelines. The new
planning interventions should aim at micro level problems and improving the basic
social conditions together with education, health and nutrition, and focus on provid-
ing sufficient sustainable livelihood opportunities to increase individuals’ adaptive
capacity. This study on the awareness and perception of the inhabitants towards
renewable energy sources and social forestry attempted to make a comprehensive
analysis of the impact of the resources on local sustainability and its control by the
supply channel and public demand.
With the constant rise in population density, sustainable energy and social forestry
seems the most eco-friendly way of conserving our resources in the Sundarban region.
But no technology, however effective, can be imposed on a community. It takes time,
experience and level of development in accepting them. Energy consumption is inti-
mately bound up with the natural environment and the environmental consequences
of the growth in world energy demand would be catastrophic with far-reaching con-
sequences. The resultant climate change with intensified cyclonic storms causes
mass coastal damage and human destructions both physically and psychologically.
The gradual transition from non-renewable to renewable resources should be done
through encouragement and enhancing public awareness towards resource conserva-
tion. According to the planners and researchers, the use of non-renewable energy can
be maximised by involving the local people in a small area. Likewise, for increasing
the forested zone, location identification and sapling plantations can be best done
with local help. Therefore, to achieve our sustainable development goals it is very
much necessary to enhance community participation of the locals and incorporate
their knowledge in micro-level policy building.
Acknowledgements This study was partially supported by University Grants Commission (UGC).
We are grateful to the respondents of Sagar Island who have willingly participated in the surveys. We
thank our co-scholars for helping with our field surveys and the ethics committee of University of
Calcutta for supporting our work. We sincerely express our gratitude to Prof. Lakshminarayan Sat-
pati and Prof. Sumona Bandyopadhyay, Dept. of Geography, University of Calcutta for supporting
and providing valuable advice at every phase of our study.
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strategy-report
Chapter 21
Lake Sustainability and Role
of Houseboats: Impact of Solid Waste
and Sewage of Houseboats
on the Ecology of Dal Lake
Tariq Ahmad Ganaie and Haseena Hashia
Abstract The Dal Lake is the second major freshwater Lake of Kashmir Valley
which is known for its crystal waters, scenic beauty and beautiful houseboats. House-
boats are very important for the tourism of Dal Lake. Houseboats and the Dal Lake
are widely associated together which have been known as “floating palaces” or “float-
ing hotels”. These represent cultural heritage of Kashmir Valley and serve as tourist
accommodation and add to the natural grandeur of Dal Lake. Solid waste and waste
water together have severely polluted the Lake. The generation of solid waste and
sewage from the houseboats and boatmen community are contributing to the pollution
of the Lake which results in deterioration of overall ecology of Dal Lake and decreas-
ing occupancy of tourists. This is the outcome of poor management and negligence
of authorities (LAWDA) who never fulfill their responsibilities in the conservation
of the Lake, solid waste and sewage management. The study has been carried out for
estimation of solid waste generation and sewage disposal by houseboats and their
impact on the sustainability of the Lake. Consequently results in sedimentation and
growth of weeds on a large scale throughout the Lake and pose a serious threat to
its sustainability. The data was gathered through structured questionnaires by simple
random sampling technique. The impact of houseboats was observed through their
waste generation and management. It was witnessed that there is great variation in
generation from one category of houseboats to another and to households.
Keywords Houseboats · Sustainability · Solid waste · Sewage · Deterioration ·

Management
T. A. Ganaie (B) · H. Hashia

Department of Geography, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India
e-mail: tariqahmadg7@gmail.com
H. Hashia
e-mail: hhashia@jmi.ac.in

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2097-6_21
342 T. A. Ganaie and H. Hashia
21.1 Introduction
Dal Lake is a Himalayan urban fresh water Lake mainly known for its scenic beauty
from tourism point of view all over the world. Floating gardens used for growing
vegetables is another typical feature of Dal Lake. Fisheries and lotus stems are the
secondary functions associated with it. Dal Lake comprises of three main basins
(Gagribal, Lokut Dal and Bod Dal) and myriad of interconnecting channels. Dal
Lake is unique in having hundreds of houseboats which are there from the times of
Mughals and are the focus of attention of most of the tourists during their visit to the
valley. These boats are served by the shikaras which resemble gondolas of Venice but
smaller in size but decorated for tourist attraction. Houseboat is a magnificent feature
of Dal Lake and is of utmost importance from tourism point of view in Kashmir. For
the first-time houseboats were used for accommodating tourists during the Mughal
reign. These are distributed unevenly over the Lake. Since, 1990s it is being observed
that Dal Lake is not getting attention from its stakeholders. Houseboats have reduced
in number because of political instability from 1989 to 2005. But after 2005, again
increasing trend of tourists visiting the Lake has put a huge pressure on houseboats
and water body especially in the peak summer season from April to August. The
concentration of Houseboats in the Lake is one of the major causes responsible for
the decreasing depth and degrading quality of water of Lake.
Houseboats serve as a part of heritage of Kashmir and important tourist accommo-
dations. As per some studies and observations almost 60% of the tourists coming to
Dal Lake stay in houseboats. Out of total 880 registered houseboats, 638 houseboats
are in Dal Lake and Nigeen Lake only. These 638 houseboats are registered with
J & K Tourism Department and Houseboat Owners Association.
Houseboats are classified on the basis of the services they provide. There are vari-
ous types of houseboats with some modifications over one another. The classification
has been done by the ‘Department of Tourism (J&K)’ which is not justifiable on the
ground. Houseboats are classified in various categories like: Deluxe, A, B, C and D.
The income of deluxe houseboats is thrice the income of D category houseboats. It is
because of the comfortable rooms, comfortable bedding, drinking water availability,
both hot and cold water availability and other modern facilities like WiFi, telephone,
etc. present in the houseboat. Deluxe houseboats are more in number than the D
category houseboats. Deluxe houseboats have the locational advantage because they
are facing on the front of the Dal Lake along the boulevard road which givers a pic-
turesque view of Zabarwan hills, Shankar Acharya temple and Pari Mahal palace
(both located in Zabarwan hills). The other reason behind the variations in the rent
and income is because of the bureaucracy in the Houseboat Owners Association. The
members of this association are also owners of the Deluxe and ‘A’ category house-
boats who have some monopoly over the business. By other associated business,
the elite class has better accessibility to better life and other luxury gadgets. They
have employed staff to attend the tourists. They do not attend the guests themselves
and have their houses built near Srinagar city. Some of these people have settled in
21 Lake Sustainability and Role of Houseboats … 343
Europe and Australia and have hard grip in the business. On the other hand, the ‘C’
and ‘D’ category of houseboats hardly make their two meals a day.
21.2 Study Area
Dal Lake is an urban freshwater Lake located in the eastern part of Srinagar city
(Kashmir Valley, Fig. 21.1) sharing its outline with beautiful Zabarwan hills of
Greater Himalayas on the east and north-eastern side. It has both inflow and out flow
streams and is believed to be fed by a number of underground springs also (Badar and
Romshoo 2008). The major portion of the water comes via Telbal Nallah which is a
snow fed stream flowing from Marsar Lake and collects sewage from the adjoining
areas during its journey towards the Lake. It accounts for 85% of the total inflow of
the Lake while as remaining 15% is supplied by the sewage, springs and other small
inlets. It is also connected to Anchar wetland and Nigeen Lake. The water circulates
to other parts of the city and there is confluence of waters between these three water
bodies. Geographically it is located between 34° 5 and 34° 6 North latitudes and
74° 8 and 79° 9 East longitudes. It is fresh water Lake with diverse aquatic biota
and phytoplankton. It is located at an altitude of 1583 m with alpine Mediterranean
Fig. 21.1 Location map of study area

climatic conditions. The total surface area of the Lake is 10.5 km2 with a shoreline
line of 15.5 kms. The estimated volume of the water is 9.83 × 106 m3 . The volume
fluctuates with season because in the summer the Lake receives huge silt which
accumulates at the bottom and reduces its capacity to hold water. The length of Dal
Lake is 3.87 kms and breadth is 2.15 kms. It includes the marshy and swampy areas
adjacent to water body on the south and south-western side. Houseboats are mostly in
the southernmost part of Dal Lake near Lock Gate which opens to the river Jhelum.
More than 80% of the houseboats in Kashmir are placed in Dal Lake and rest in
Nigeen Lake and river Jhelum. These houseboats are spread irregularly in Dal Lake.
Almost 5% of the surface water of Lake is covered under houseboats.
21.3 Objectives
1. To analyze the impact of sewage and solid waste on the ecology of Dal Lake.
2. To analyze the sewage and solid waste management infrastructure of houseboats.
3. Assessing the quantity and magnitude of solid waste generation from different
categories of houseboats.
4. To study the impact of tourist accommodation on houseboats during peak season
of tourism.
21.4 Methodology
This study has been carried out for estimation of solid waste generation and sewage
disposal by houseboats in the Dal Lake. The methods were simple random sampling
and some statistical techniques. Generation of waste water and solid waste was
calculated from every single unit and category wise. The benchmarks were taken
from Central Public Health and Environmental Engineering Organisation (CPHEEO)
for calculation (CPHEEO, 1974). The impact of houseboats was observed through
their waste generation and management. It was witnessed that there is great variation
in generation from one category to other and to households.
The necessary data for the current study was collected through primary survey and
secondary sources. Secondary data was collected from J & K Tourism Department,
Houseboat Owners Association, and SMC, etc. History and development of house-
boats was obtained from Houseboat Owners Association. Classification criteria, fee
charges and regulations were obtained from J & K Tourism Department. Primary
survey was conducted to see the occupancy of houseboats and variation in the occu-
pancy. A systematic random sampling was carried out with 13% sample size. Out
of total 640 houseboats inside Dal Lake 65 houseboats were selected. 13 houseboats
were surveyed from each category (Fig. 21.2). Per capita solid waste generation, per
unit solid waste generation, total generation of solid waste and seasonal variations
Fig. 21.2 Location of sampled houseboats in Dal Lake
in it were calculated by statistical methods from the structured questionnaire. The

units were taken from CPHEEO guidelines that are 400 g/person and 250 g/tourist.
Sewage disposal variation in different categories and per unit disposal was also cal-
culated by using CPHEEO guidelines. The per capita sewage disposal taken is 80%
of the water supplied.
21.5 History and Development of Houseboats in Kashmir
History reveals that British sold Kashmir to Maharaja Gulab Singh 1846–47 as
per Treaty of Amritsar. Kashmir was sold only to 75 Lakhs only (Madhok, 1992).
Maharaja Gulab Singh was general of army of British and purchased for mere sum of
money with rivers, lakes, resources and people. Maharaja Singh made it a point that
British will try to come back and reside as a state subject or construct any concrete
building or purchase a piece of land. Thus, Britishers were kept away from Kashmir
during the treaty and the king became the ruler of Kashmir and took its ownership as
well. Because of this British people were given the tented accommodation at Chinar
Bagh and Sheikh Bagh at present day near Tyndale Biscoe School, Srinagar. The king
did not allow them to make their own camps but later they did with their military
might. During this period the only and cheapest mode of transportation was boat till
1923 when car came to Kashmir for the first time. These boats were running from
north to south in river Jhelum. All rivers and lakes acted as a medium of transportation
including Dal Lake and Nigeen Lake. Dal Lake became the hub of boats and small
dongas to transport vegetables, grocery, fruits and people in Srinagar city.
The boatmen formed donga boats which they would move to and fro from Khanbal
(Anantnag) to Khadinayar (Baramulla). Since English people came from Rawalpindi
via bull carts and horses etc. and transferred via carno type of boats called Donga
boats. Where in the half of the family can reside and English people will spend the
time. They also resided in tents in Baniyari, Ningli, Shadipur, Sumbal, Manasbal,
Ganderbal, Shalteng and rest of the city, which continued to the Anantnag. Then
with the passage of time the English men with the help of boat men of the time
modified the boats. They increased the length, breadth and height of the boat. They
also modified the furnishing and architecture of the boats. Then in the later stage after
the Victoria fashion of 1880s–1940s the boats were further modified with carvings
and modern amenities till present day houseboats came into existence.
21.6 Houseboat and Tourism
Houseboat is a novel idea and heritage of Kashmir. The type of houseboat found in
Kashmir is nowhere found in the world (Shah and Shabana 2013). It is famous for
its architecture, furnishings, amenities, services, etc. There are five-star- and seven-
star houseboats in the world but the stay in Kashmiri houseboats is incomparable
as per the tourists. The houseboat is made of Deodar timber. Its floor and roof
are also wooden. The roof is decorated with Kashmiri art of Khatambandh with
different decorations presenting Kashmiri culture and history. Generally, houseboats
have dining halls, lobby or sitting rooms, bedrooms, kitchen and washroom. The
cost of houseboats ranges from 50 lakh to 2 crores depending upon the age, type
and amenities etc. present. They are well decorated with wooden furniture, paper
mashie, etc. and are provided with 24 h water supply and electricity. The owner of
the houseboat gives a personal touch and family takes care of tourists by way of
guiding them and exploring the far off places, cooking their food and washing their
clothes and create friendly atmosphere by remaining duty bound to them. There were
1107 houseboats in 1946 but with the passage of time, taming disaster in tourism,
lack of infrastructure resulted in almost lost of 200 houseboats till date. There is an
apprehension that more house boats will vanish in coming years because of non-
availability of deodar timber, neglectable financial support by the government, ban
on reconstruction and repair of houseboats. As per the estimates and reports it is

believed that at least 400 houseboats are expected to be lost in the next 20–30 years.
21.6.1 Classification of Houseboats
Houseboats are classified based on the basis of services they provide. There are vari-
ous types of houseboats with some modifications over one another. The classification
has been done by the ‘Department of Tourism (J&K)’ which is not justifiable on the
ground. Houseboats are classified as follows:
• Category-Deluxe
• Category-A
• Category-B
• Category-C
• Category-D.
Different categories of houseboats are randomly placed in the Lake (Fig. 21.3).
Different rents and service charges are charged depending upon the category. The
registration is being done by the Department of Tourism (J&K) on yearly basis. They
are supposed to abide and follow the norms formulated by the said department. The
category or classification is transferable on the grounds on regular inspection of the
department of tourism.
21.6.2 Occupancy of Houseboats
The occupancy is calculated from the total availability or capacity and the number
of tourists received. The maximum numbers of tourists are received in the months of
April, May and June. The moderate number is received in July, August, September
and October while as least number of tourists are received in December, January
and February. Summer season is technically called peak season and winter season is
called lean season from the tourists accommodated in houseboats point of view. This
is because almost 90% of the tourists visiting Kashmir Valley are received in this
season but there is hardly any tourist staying at houseboats during the winter season
(Table 21.2).
Due to instability from the last three decades the tourism in Kashmir is in shambles
so is the houseboat industry. There are some houseboats that can hardly make their
two meals. On the other hand, there is discriminating earning from tourists against
the norms. The households earn in the peak season to overcome the burden of lean
season. They charge more than the normal fixed charges during the peak season and
in lean season charge almost less than the half of it. The variation in occupancy is
also because there is a huge flow of tourists to Kashmir Valley for annual yatra to
Amarnath Cave in summer season and the demand for the accommodation is very
Fig. 21.3 Location of different types of houseboats in Dal Lake
high. It is very difficult to get an accommodation in peak season while as in winter

season the link between Kashmir and rest of the world through highway remains
closed for most of the times. There are least winter sports in Kashmir to attract
tourists despite huge potential. The tourists in winter go directly to the snow laden
mountains for winter games and prefer the hotels for accommodation instead of
houseboats. The houseboat tariffs are very high compelling medium-income- and
low-income tourist to stay either in hotel of guest houses and consequently, there
is tough competition among the houseboats, guest houses and hotels. The charges
are also less in guest houses than the houseboats and the chances of pollution are
minimized.
The above Table 21.1 shows that there is more occupancy in Deluxe and A category
houseboats than rest of categories. These two categories have capacity of more than
66% of total capacity in all categories because they have more number of rooms and
number of beds. At the same time, this capacity is the reaction of their number as
well. There are 350 Deluxe and A category houseboats out of total number of 640
(Table 21.1). The furnishing and facilities available in these houseboats are also more
than others.
Table 21.1 Average occupancy of houseboats, 2014–15

Houseboat Number of Average no. Average Total no. of Total tourist
class rooms of beds occupancy houseboats capacity
(% age)
Deluxe 4 12 45 190 2280
A 4 12 45 160 1920
B 3 9 40 120 1080
C 3 6 40 90 540
D 2 4 35 80 320
Total 16 43 41 640 6140
Source Primary survey by the authors, 2014–15
21.7 Solid Waste Generation
The most important issues related to houseboats are the solid waste related problems.
It is a big threat not only to houseboats but to the environment of Dal Lake as well. Dal
Lake is one of the most polluted Lakes in the world which receives tons of solid waste
and sewage from the adjoining areas. It is assumed that houseboats and tourists add
significantly to the pollution load of the Lake. Dal Lake is surrounded by residential
areas inhabiting more than 60000 people in 24 settlements (Ahmad and Bhat 2008).
The waste found in the Lake are polythene, clothes, paper, nylon, vegetables, fruits,
etc. from last two decades the depth has drastically reduced due to various reasons but
solid waste dumping is the largest contributor to the to the pollution load. Houseboats
accounts for population of more than 10000. It is observed that these houseboats
collect their solid waste in the dustbins and containers and then these dustbins are
carried by the SMC and transported to outskirts of the city (Table 21.2).
Out of total, 662.5 kg of solid waste generated per day (Table 21.3), Deluxe and A
category houseboats generate more than 60% of the waste. D category has the least
contribution in the waste generation, so far as the tourists are concerned. Table 21.3
given above clearly shows that more than the 66% of the waste generation is from
the Deluxe and A category houseboats. At the same time, B, C and D categories are
located at the backside of the lake front and have containers available to collect the
wastes. The capacity of the containers is 10 kg which have been provided by SMC
and there is door to door collection in the houseboats at the backside of the lake front.
In these tourist accommodations 99.14 tons of solid waste is generated, calculated
by using the guidelines formulated by CPHEEO (Table 21.4). The per capita genera-
tion of solid waste is 0.25 kgs. These are low because tourists do not stay 24 h in the
houseboats and meals are also taken outside the houseboats. There is huge contrast
in the generation of solid waste in different types of houseboats due to difference
in the number of rooms, beds, occupancy rate and locational advantage (Wani and
Shah 2013). The waste generated in houseboats is collected in container till the next
day the SMC employee comes and collects it. The collection is different in case of
houseboats which are in the middle of the Lake, there are some special boats of
Table 21.2 Average occupancy of houseboats, 2014–15

S. No. Months Average occupancy of houseboats
1 January 00
2 February 00
3 March 40
4 April 70
5 May 70
6 June 70
7 July 60
8 August 40
9 September 60
10 October 60
11 November 20
12 December 00
Table 21.3 Solid waste generation by different categories of Houseboats (Tourists/Day. kgs), 2014–
15
Houseboat class Total no. of houseboats Tourists received Waste generation
tourists/day. Kgs
Deluxe 190 1026 256.5
A 160 864 216
B 120 432 108
C 90 216 54
D 80 112 28
Total 640 2650 662.5
Table 21.4 Solid waste

Houseboat class Waste generation Quantity of Solid
generation by different
tourists/day/Kg Waste tons/year
categories of houseboats
(Tons/Year), 2014–15 Deluxe 615.6 38.385225
A 518.4 32.3244
B 259.2 16.1622
C 129.6 8.0811
D 67.2 4.1902
Total 6769.92 99.143125
Table 21.5 Per unit solid

Houseboat Class Quantity of solid Per unit
waste generation by different
waste generation generation/category
categories of houseboats,
(Tons)
2014–15
Deluxe 38.385225 0.2020275
A 32.3244 0.2020275
B 16.1622 0.134685
C 8.0811 0.08979
D 4.1902 0.046557778
Total 99.143125 0.154911133
LAWDA department which are used to go to every houseboat for the collection of
the waste. Some employees from the LAWDA come in the boats of the department
and clean the front side of the Lake so that the Lake will appear clean to the tourists
and passers. Inside the houseboat locality, huge heaps of solid waste is found which
remain unnoticed by the department for most of the time. At the same time, the
passage through the houseboats to the interior of the water body is also choked so it
is very difficult to go there and collect the waste from the boats and water body.
The table given above (Table 21.5) clearly shows the average per capita generation
of solid waste for all houseboats which is below 0.15 tons/year. But Deluxe and A
category generate more than 0.2 tons/year that is more than the average while as B,
C and D categories generates less than the average like 0.13, 0.08 and 0.04 tons/year
respectively.
21.7.1 Household/Houseboat (Donga) Solid Waste

Generation
The most of the solid waste generated in the houseboat community is from the
households who live in dongas and have all the business of life in these houses. More
than 5000 boatmen live in the Dal Lake. The grand total of solid waste generated
by both houseboats and households in the Dal Lake is near about 848 tons/year
(Table 21.6 and 21.7). This quantity is very big and cannot be managed by boatmen
community by their own will. Again, the solid waste generated by each unit of
houseboat categories shows a lot of variation. This is because Deluxe and A category
houseboats have also employees and few members. The total average generation of
each household is 1.168 but Deluxe houseboats have 1.201 tons per unit of household.
Category A also has more than the average per unit generation as 1.347 tons/unit.
The Table 21.7 show that C and D categories have least solid waste generation
and A categories have highest per unit solid waste generation. This is because A
category and Deluxe houseboats have more occupancy and the employees with family
members stay in the houseboats. Other categories have less family members and do
Table 21.6 Solid waste generation scenario by different categories of houseboats, 2014–15
Houseboat class Total no. of houseboats Waste generation by Waste generated/year
residents/day in Kgs
Deluxe 190 615.6 228321.5385
A 160 518.4 215630.7692
B 120 259.2 132073.8462
C 90 129.6 90969.23077
D 80 67.2 80861.53846
Total 640 6769.92 747856.9231
Table 21.7 Solid waste generation scenario of households, 2014–15

Houseboat Total no. of Waste Solid waste in Avg. per capita
class houseboats generated/year households generation/category
(Tons)
Deluxe 190 228321.5385 228.3215358 1.201692308
A 160 215630.7692 215.6307692 1.347692308
B 120 132073.8462 132.0738462 1.100615385
C 90 90969.23077 90.96923077 1.010769231
D 80 80861.53846 80.86153846 1.010769231
Total 640 747856.9231 747.8569231 1.168526442
not have any employees. At the same time these households have also started to shift
from their usual business and left the houses for other jobs. Some of the houseboats
are occupied by the rented people and some do not have any residents inside. The
disposal site by the SMC for C and D categories is near the banks of Lake. The other
sites are inside and solid waste is collected at alternate days by LAWDA.
It is observed that solid waste is majorly contributed by households (Table 21.7).
In spite of, the containers provided by SMC to the households in the back side of
Lake Front the solid waste heaps are witnessed. It can be assumed that houseboats
solid waste is of low quality and can be managed by mechanism by houseboats owner
but the waste generated by households remain a challenge because some parts are
very inaccessible because they are inside the Lake and there are very narrow streets
to approach them. To dispose the water in the water also serves the interest of the
people to encroach into Lake and a shareholding LAWDA.
21.8 Sewage Disposal and Management
This is the most common problem of houseboats which is directly linked to the
pollution of Dal Lake. The sewage generated is directly disposed-off into the Lake
(Fazal and Amin 2013). All the washrooms, toilets, kitchen wastes, domestic garbage,
wash basins, etc. goes are directly flushed out into the open water of Lake. It is
observed that near the houseboats the water is very polluted and opaque. The color
of the water has turned to dark blue in color. The depth near the houseboats has
gone down to 1 m and during winters it is even less. The bathroom commodes are
directly flushed out into the open water. Some of the houseboats have been provided
with septic tanks and pipes but the pipes got choked in few months because it was
against the gradient. So far, there has been no mechanism to manage the sewage. The
ecology and environment has been destroyed because of the poisonous direct disposal
of sewage (Khan et al. 2013). The donga boats which are very closely attached to
the houseboats where boatmen live are immensely disposing its sewage in the Lake.
These are constructed on the wooden logs which are embedded in the water. Very
next to them are the bathrooms and latrines that have a direct vent into the water
body. The second harmful substance disposed is the waste water of detergents and
soaps which has destroyed the aquatic life of the Dal (Wani 2013).
21.9 Comparative Analysis of Sewage Generation

by Houseboats and Households
It is observed that sewage disposed by houseboats categories varies drastically.

Deluxe and A categories have more than the 60% of the disposal in case of house-
holds and houseboats. Again, this is because there are more family members and
employees in these categories. Collectively more than 3,28,000 gallons of sewage is
disposed by houseboats and households annually. This sewage contains ammonia,
urea, fecal matter, paper, soaps, detergents etc. As a matter of fact, these two types
are in the middle of the Lake near the Dal gate which opens into the Jhelum River. So,
it is obvious that it also contributes into the pollution of Jhelum River. While com-
paring the contribution of sewage between households and houseboats households
contribute immensely.
Table 21.8 clearly shows that most of the sewage disposed into the water comes
from the households of boatmen community. There are 280539 gallons of sewage
disposed by households and 48097.5 gallons disposed by houseboats or tourists per
year. Only 15% of total sewage disposed comes from the houseboats while 95%
comes from the households.
The contribution of sewage per unit category shows that there is less difference in
different categories 45% of per unit of total sewage is contributed by Deluxe and A
category. This shows that there is more consumption of water because of more number
and members of family. Coming to the houseboats category wise 59% is contributed
Table 21.8 Solid waste generation scenario of households, 2014–15

Houseboat class Total population Tourist received Sewage in Sewage in
gallons by gallons by
houseboats/year households/year
Deluxe 1564 1026 18621.9 85629
A 1477 864 15681.6 80865.75
B 905 432 7840.8 49548.75
C 624 216 3920.4 34164
D 554 112 2032.8 30331.5
Total 5123 2650 48097.5 280539
by the Deluxe and A category and only 41% by the rest of the houseboats. This
indicates that they enjoy much services of water and others and pollute the water on
the cost of others.
The average per unit disposal of sewage for households is 438.25 gallons/year and
75.15 gallons/year for houseboats. B, C and D categories have less per unit sewage
disposal while as Deluxe and A category have more per unit disposal. The effect of
Deluxe and A category is more severe because these categories are in the middle of
the Lake but others are mostly near the banks. This sewage is suspended in the water
and is carried by the waves to other parts of the Dal Lake. But the immediate effect
of this waste is that it increases the BOD level near the houseboats which results
into the disappearance of aquatic animals and increases the growth of weeds. It is
observed that the area near the houseboats in now more marshy land and some parts
have dried up. It is also evident from the site that a concrete jungle of aquatic plants
is growing near houseboats which makes backside invisible to the people. The most
worried issue is that the people of these houseboats are now claiming of the land in
the Dal Lake and assume that it is their own land. This land is dried up and turned
into a park for tourists. It has also made a divide in the Lake which separate front
side from the backside of the Lake by continues wall of aquatic trees and dry stretch
of land.
21.10 Management of Solid Waste and Sewage
The total solid waste generated is 250 tons per year from the households and house-
boats but 88% is from the households only. It indicates the major management issue
is related to households. Tourists are not big problem for solid waste management
because annually they generate 100 tons only which is also in the peak tourist season
but households of the boats are permanent residents and continuously generate the
waste. Waste water from this community accounts for 328000 gallons per year, out
of which 85% is contributed from the dongas which clearly indicates that they are
matter of serious concern. There is not any infrastructure provision in the houseboats
for sewage and solid waste. The bins have provided by Srinagar Municipal Corpora-
tion to some houseboats but majority do not have any containers. The pipelines for
the sewage disposal have been provided to 10 houseboats that have become dysfunc-
tional because poor planning and lack of institutional management. The problem lies
in the planning bodies and administration that are unable to provide infrastructure
for discharge of waste water and solid waste. Dal Lake is low lying as compared
to adjoining areas of East and North East which is under Zabarwan hills is border-
ing the Lake on these two sides, in the south and south East is high land and in
between is the canal joining the Jhelum River. Because of gradient the water from
the houseboats and Dal Lake cannot go against the gradient, which leads to chocking
of channels and pipelines of houseboats. Due to interior location, the infrastructure
is not available to meet the basic demand. The people are not aware of the benefits
of management of wastes. As the solid waste continuously accumulates in the Lake
it leads to encroachment by the boatmen community. The Lake has lost 20 km2 area
in the past 20 years due to encroachment and pollution load.
This slowly settles down at the bottom and reduces the depth again. The accu-
mulation of wastes into the water body results into the reduction of the depth after
which it becomes completely a dry land with enough vegetation. This paves way for
the boatmen community to encroach into the water body and then claim it as their
own holding. There is also a conflicting issue that the space between two consecutive
houseboats is occupied by the owner and there is no way to go inside the water body
through these passages. They are filling these gaps with wastes and then allow trees
to grow for their benefits and the authority has banned the local villagers to uproot
the weeds which were earlier used as manure for the agriculture.
This is the cyclic process of changing water body into a dry land for encroachment
and dumping site for wastes. Both solid waste and sewage is disposed into the water
body by houseboats. Most of the waste comes from the local residential areas whether
it is solid waste or sewage. The channels for outward movement have been blocked
by people for encroachment and due to accumulation of wastes. Then the grave
situation of the Lake is observed in the above picture which seems to be uncontrolled
and intentional.
21.11 Conclusion
Dal Lake has lost its spatial extent from 36 km2 due to encroachment and pollution
load. The color of the water is deep blue to bluish black which symbolizes the
presence of huge organic waste in it. It produces a foul odor due to constant release
of methane and carbon monoxide gases. Houseboats are mostly concentrated in the
south-eastern tip of Dal Lake. The depth near houseboats is less than 1 m and more
than 2 m as we go inside the Lake and other sides of the Lake. It is because of
continues disposal of solid waste into the Lake by houseboats and households of
these boats. More than 80% of the waste is produced by household but half of the
waste is collected in dust bins and taken away by SMC. Houseboats produce less
waste but of it mostly disposed into the Lake.
Sewage is the biggest threat to the Lake because it is directly disposed into the
water body (Wani 2013) from washrooms and kitchen by the households and house-
holds. The sewage disposed by households is 85% out of total sewage disposed by the
boatmen community. There is no mechanism in place to check this severe disastrous
problem. The associated departments are moving away from their responsibilities
and no one claim to be the sole organization of management of houseboats. Though
STPs were placed in 10 houseboats few years back but due to negligence and lack
of proper planning they became dysfunctional. Now, due to the increasing level of
pollution and turmoil there is continuous drop in the tourists that stay in houseboats.
The average occupancy of these tourist accommodations is about 40% which is not
sufficient to sustain this novel industry. There is an apprehension that in few decades
most of the houseboats will be lost especially Deluxe and A category because of lack
of business. Some houseboats hardly manage the salary of employees and mainte-
nance cost of houseboats. The historical and cultural asset of Kashmir is losing its
credibility and essence because of pollution, competition from guest houses, and
lack of institutional framework.
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Weblinks
Central Public Health and Environmental Engineering Organisation (CPHEEO), (Ministry of Health
in 1954), Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (1973–74), Goverment of India. http://cpheeo.
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Chapter 22
Ecological Challenges and Vulnerability
Assessment for Exploring
the Adaptation-Development Nexus
for Sustainability in Alaknanda River
Basin, Uttarakhand, India
Bindhy Wasini Pandey, Subhash Anand, V. S. Negi, Usha Pathak

and Abhay Shankar Prasad
Abstract Climate change is increasingly recognized as critical challenges to haz-

ards, ecological challenges, human well-being, food security, agriculture and sustain-
able development in the Alaknanda river basin. Climate change has a greater impact
on rural livelihoods and its sustainability. Anthropogenic activities are continuously
disturbing the natural system of the Garhwal Himalaya and its impact on extreme
hydrological events. Human interference, unscientific developmental activities, agri-
culture extension, tourism activity and road construction are creating hydrological
hazards. Soil erosion and landslide have been recognized as major hazards in the high
altitude region of Himalaya. The climate variability and its vulnerability studies can
help to identify the vulnerability of a region towards climate change which further
helps in the formulation of mitigation and adaptation strategies. This research paper
proposes a GIS-based analysis for identifying hazards and ecological challenges for
the purpose of sustainable development planning. Present research includes a combi-
nation of qualitative and quantitative research approaches for livelihood vulnerability
assessment and its adaptation for sustainable development determined mainly by a
B. W. Pandey (B) · S. Anand · A. S. Prasad

Department of Geography, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, Delhi, India
e-mail: bwpdsegeo@gmail.com
S. Anand
e-mail: sanandpv@yahoo.co.in
A. S. Prasad
e-mail: abhaydse@hotmail.com
V. S. Negi
Department of Geography, Shaheed Bhagat Singh (Eve) College, University of Delhi, Delhi, India
e-mail: negivirens@yahoo.com
U. Pathak
Department of Geography, Kalindi College, University of Delhi, Delhi, India
e-mail: ushakpathak@gmail.com

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2097-6_22
360 B. W. Pandey et al.
weighted matrix index. For this purpose, Hazards Zonation Mapping using Geo-
Spatial techniques was carried out so as to classify the land surface into zones of
varying degree of hazards. For this analysis, a qualitative research method including
participatory research approach (PRA) at village level has been used for ecological
challenges and risk assessment. This parameter is important in building resilience
capacity and ensuring sustainable development pathways and provides the various
mitigation processes from extreme climatic events. This paper has suggested the pol-
icy to improve the transfer of scientific knowledge into policy and to increase mutual
understanding, partnership, and cooperation for better policy outputs in sustainability
and mitigate the ecological challenges and improved the livelihood security. These
approaches will be useful in building collaborative arrangements across political and
administrative barriers and boundaries to govern at the scale of the sustainability
challenge to way towards the Sustainable Development Goal.
Keywords Geo-hydrological hazards · Ecological challenges · Sustainable

development goals (SDGs) · Livelihood securities · Disaster management and
mitigation
22.1 Introduction
Climate induced disasters such as cloudburst triggered Glacial Lake Outburst Flood
(GLOF), flash floods, debris-flow, mass movements and landslides are a very com-
mon phenomenon in the Garhwal Himalaya, Alaknanda river Basin, Uttarakhand.
There are many instances in the recent past when these catastrophic events caused
heavy losses to lives, tremendous damage to property and livelihood. The Alaknanda
River Basin located in Uttarakhand witness many of these climatic/natural hazards
quite frequently. Especially during the monsoon period of the year, these devastating
activities become intense. Moreover, while a fragile environment becomes more vul-
nerable to disasters in Garhwal Himalaya, natural disasters also degrade the environ-
ment and ecological system and create ecological challenges (Singh and Robotham
1995).Every year several incidences of natural hazards are reported from all parts of
the Himalayan region causing loss of hundreds of lives (human and animal) along
with their assets, houses and livelihood options. Natural causes and anthropogenic
activities are continuously disturbing the natural system of the Himalayan environ-
ment, the effects of which can be seen in the hydrological behaviour of the river
(Negi and Joshi 2004). Preliminary studies conducted on this subject indicate that
human interference, unscientific developmental, anthropogenic activities, agricul-
ture extension and unplanned way of road construction are some of the activities
which are creating the hydrological imbalances within the Garhwal Himalaya. The
mountainous area is more prone to natural and manmade disasters like flash flood,
earthquake, landslides and avalanche, etc. (Pandey 2010). High relief, snow-capped
summit, deeply dissected topography and geological structure, antecedent drainage,
22 Ecological Challenges and Vulnerability Assessment … 361
complex, and rich temperate floras in the sub-tropical latitudes give a distinct char-
acter of the Garhwal Himalaya (Pandey 2002). The Garhwal Himalaya is considered
to be the youngest mountain and is tectonically active. Out of these phenomena,
cloudbursts followed by landslides are more prominent. A number of landslides and
landslips take place during monsoon season (Pandey and Prasad 2016). It is gener-
ally more prone in those areas where the hill is being cut for road construction and
proper drainage facilities do not exist. Due to this, soil flows along with the rivers and
causes siltation/sedimentation in the lower reaches which cause a flash flood. Soil
erosion and landslide are directly proportional to the extent and magnitude of the
flood. Whenever soil erosion has increased, the average annual flooded area has been
also increased. Because of the developmental works, the Alaknanda basin is charac-
terised by steep slopes and a high rate of soil erosion. In addition to the geological
conditions, intense seasonal precipitation, particularly during the summer monsoon,
triggers various types of natural hazards (Sati 2013 and Sati Sati 2014a, b). Natural
hazards are risks encountered by people in the physical environment which represent
a wide deviation from the normal behaviour of a system and have abrupt modifying
capabilities and can create imbalance resulting in catastrophic losses of life, liveli-
hood options and properties. Various factors in the form of changing man–land ratio,
limited arable land, increasing intensity of land use/land cover and careless applica-
tion of technology leading to further land loss through soil erosion make the subject
of proper land use a complex issue. Frequent occurrences of natural hazards such as
landslides, cloudburst, Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF), heavy snow, avalanche
and flash floods are becoming a common feature in mountainous regions (Gardner
et al. 1992 and Singh 1992).
The Sustainable Livelihoods Approach (SLA) is a way to enhance the understand-
ing of the livelihoods of rural communities and suggests the adaptation techniques for
sustainable development. It can be utilized in regional planning, and in assessing the
contribution that existing activities have made for sustaining livelihoods and develop-
ment. Closest to the humans on the centre of the framework is the resources, assets and
livelihood options which include natural resources, technologies, knowledge, skills
and capacity, health, access to education, sources of credit and networks of social
support (Scoones 2009 and Chamber and Conway 1992). The extent of their access to
these assets is strongly influenced by their vulnerability context, which takes account
of trends (for example, economic, political and technological), shocks (for exam-
ple, epidemics, natural disasters, civil strife) and seasonality (for example, prices,
production and employment opportunities). Therefore, improved understanding of
development policies, land capability, sustainability, land use/land cover planning,
the environmental interaction may improve resource management and lead to better
policies towards long-term environmental sustainability and livelihood security in
the region from the natural extreme climatic events (DFID 1999).This research has
discussed and observed out the framework for know-how local knowledge associ-
ated with disaster preparedness. It is based on the understanding and transformation
the techniques of local knowledge and skill, key dimensions of local knowledge on
disaster preparedness and mitigation and the link among local knowledge, disaster
preparedness, and livelihoods and poverty reduction for disaster risk reduction.
22.2 Study Area
The Alaknanda river basin extends between 300 0’ N to 310 0’ N and 780 45’ E to 800
0’ E covering an area about 10882 Km2 , represents the eastern part of the Garhwal
Himalaya, Alaknanda basin in Uttarakhand. It covers eighteen development blocks
under six districtsBageshwar, Chamoli, Rudraprayag, Tehri and Pauri Garhwal and
Pithoragarh (Fig. 22.1). Alaknanda River meets Bhagirathi River at Devprayag to
form a common stream of Ganga River. The Alaknanda Basin is characterized by
hilly terrain, deep gorges and river valleys (Bandooni 2004 and Pal 1986). The
region is broadly divided into four major divisions (i) The Great Himalayan Ranges
(snow-covered regions), (ii) Alpine and pasture land (covered by snow during the four
months of winter season) (iii) Middle Himalaya (characterized by high concentration
of population) and (iv) River valleys (characterized by mushrooming service centres
and institutions).
Among the major rivers of India, the Alaknanda river and its tributaries (Dhauli
Ganga, Vishnu Ganga, Nandakini, Pindar, Mandakini and other numerous perennial
streams) originate and flow here. The highest mountain peak of the Himalayan ranges
such as Nanda Devi, Kamet, Trisul and Chaukhamba are also located in Alaknanda
basin.
Fig. 22.1 The study area, Uttarakhand, India Source Landsat TM, 2017
22.3 Research Methodology and Data Base
The primary data has been collected through qualitative and quantitative meth-
ods. The qualitative methods involve interviews and group discussions with local
elder people and patrons, group of local communities, local authorities and semi-
governmental officers, NGO/development agencies staffs and participant observa-
tion. The perceptions of the local community regarding different aspects of sus-
tainability and hazard occurrences and its management have been gathered through
a pre-structured questionnaire, interviews and discussions. Informal interviews and
discussions with local communities and officials provided information about the loca-
tions of prior events and did surveys of historical documents. The analysis is based
on maps from Survey of India, and satellite imageries. Various thematic maps per-
taining to drainage, geological structure and land use/land cover map were generated
with the help of Geo-spatial techniques.
Quantitatively, formal interviews with potential tour operators and travel agents
and contingent valuation methods (survey-based interviews with domestic and inter-
national tourists and tourist agents). The questionnaire includes questions related to
local inhabitants and tourists perception about Natural hazards and livelihood options
in the Alaknanda river basin. The interview questions have been grouped into three
sets such as (1) sustainability of existing agriculture system (2) responses towards
the adoption of diverse cropping pattern (3) reliability of diverse livelihood options
(DFID 1999, Agarwal and Joshi 2006). Collected data has been interpreted by using
various statistical and cartographical methods. The primary and secondary data were
utilized for analysis of livelihood security, vulnerability and adaptation issues for the
disaster risk reduction and sustainability. Perceptions of local community regard-
ing different aspects of sustainability, hazard occurrences and its management were
recorded through reconnaissance survey and a semi-structured questionnaire. The
simple random sampling (SRS) technique was used for the primary survey.
Alaknanda river basin is hilly and mountainous regions with very narrow intermittent
valleys. The hills are very steep sloping with occasionally gentle to moderately
sloping flatter tops and strongly foot slope (Fig. 22.2). A few intermittent valleys are
characterised by very gentle to gently sloping river terraces. On the basis of physical
features, Alaknanda basin is divided into three zones viz. Lesser Himalaya, Greater
Himalaya and Zanskar Himalaya.
The Garhwal Himalaya has a well-developed topography with gentle slopes and
deeply dissected valleys. This area has evidence of recent rejuvenation. The rejuve-
nation process produced many distinctive features viz. - dissected topography with
valleys showing vertical walls in the lower parts and gently sloping and discernible
concave hilltop in the upper area, variation in elevation of river beds at the foot of
Fig. 22.2 Deep transverse Gorges, Mandakini River (Alaknanda River Basin) nearby Hanuman
Chatti, Uttarakhand Source Primary Survey, 2015
Great Himalaya and at the points where the rivers debouch into plains and the altitu-
dinal variations in the surrounding region as projected by the peaks (Pant 2000).The
Greater Himalaya is located in the northern part of the Alaknanda river basin. Precip-
itous scraps and vertical-wailed gorgeous valleys and tumbling and foaming rivers
characterise the northern belt of Great Himalaya with its peaks having 6500–7800 m
high. Most of the rivers, flowing in the basin, originate from this zone. This has
young topography and is tectonically still active and paradoxically is made up of
the oldest rock of the Himalaya such as pre-Cambrian metamorphic and granitic
gneisses. The peaks are often wedged like in form, well shaped and with incipient
ridges and buttresses. There are sheer precipices dropping 2000–5000 m below into
the torrents and gorges (Bandooni 2004).The altitude variation of glacial lakes had
considered the total mapped lakes and it was found that the 3500–4000 m elevation
zone is maximum sensitive for lake change. A number of lakes are represented in
Fig. 22.3.
Decade-wise analysis has found that the highest number of lakes was found in
the zone of 3500–4000 m in Alaknanda river basin. From 1976 to 2011 there has
been an increase of 69 lakes having an area of more than 0.01 km2 (Fig. 22.3). 18
new lakes grown in 1990 whereas this number increased to 29 in 1999 and 31 new
lakes were found in LISS 4 imagery of 2011 (Fig. 22.3). Very less disappearance of
lakes was observed in the last 40 years of datasets. That means 3500–4000 m and
above elevated area is more vulnerable to Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) and
flash flood (Fig. 22.4) in Mandakini river basin, a tributary of Alaknanda river basin
in Tehri Garhwal and Rudraprayag districts.
The Indian Summer Monsoon is the predominant source of precipitation (rain-
fall) in Alaknanda river basin with partial contribution from western disturbances
Total Number of Lakes in Uttarakhand 1976

100
91 1990
90 1999
80 76 2011
70
60 54
50 45
41
38
40 35
30 27
22
19
20
12 12
9
10 5
2 4 0 1 0 2
0
<3500m 3500-4000 4000-4500 4500-5000 >5000m
Fig. 22.3 Total number of lakes in Alaknanda River basin, Uttarakhand Sources 1976_Landsat
MSS, 1990_ Landsat TM, 1999_Landsat ETM, 2011_LISS IV
Fig. 22.4 More Vulnerable to Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) and Flash Flood, Nearby
Kedarnath Temple, Uttarakhand Source Primary Survey, 2016
during the winter season. Winter precipitation generally occurs between December
and March when the western disturbances are dominant in the area as they move east-
ward over northern India. Total summer (JJAS) rainfall for each observation periods
between 2007 and 2012 was 1685 mm, 1513 mm, 734 mm, 1662 mm, 1348 mm
and 1115 mm for respective years. Based on rainfall data from our observatory at
Chorabari glacier, the area received maximum precipitation during the rainy season,
i.e. July and August (Fig. 22.5).
350.00
300.00
Almora
250.00
Bageshwar
200.00 Chamboli
Rainfall
Dehradun
150.00
Pauri-Garhwal
100.00 Hardwar
Rudraprayag
50.00
Tehri-Garhwal
0.00 Uttarkashi
Month
Fig. 22.5 Mean monthly rainfall (cm), Alaknanda River Basin (Mean for 1962–2013) Source
Disaster Mitigation and Management Centre, Government of Uttarakhand, 2013 and Ministry of
Water Resources, 2013
Rainfall variability in the basin is due to the leeward and windward direction of
the slope. Joshimath, Karanprayag, Okhimath, and Srinagar are the places located
in leeward direction. Consequently, those places receive less rainfall in comparison
to the places located in the windward direction as Mandal, Gopeshwar, Gwaldom,
Diwalikhal, and water dividing facing east slope. Mandal region receives the highest
rainfall (400 cm) and known as Cherrapunji of Garhwal. Average annual rainfall is
125.7 cm. November and December months receive minimal rainfall i.e. 6.78 cm
and 21.92 cm respectively. During the monsoon period, mainly two months (July
and August), highest rainfall (above 400 cm) occurs. In a few regions, winter and
summer seasons are also wet. Heavy rainfall occurs at some places of during July and
August when the main rivers and their numerous tributaries flowing above danger
marks. Cloudburst, debris flow, soil erosion, landslide, mass movement, and conse-
quently flash flood are very common. The entire region is worst affected due to this
catastrophe during monsoon resulting in heavy losses of life and property every year.
There are many instances when major catastrophes took place from time to time (Sati
2013).
Distribution of precipitation in the basin is strongly controlled by local orographic
effects. Heaviest precipitation occurs along the southern spurs of the main Himalayan
range and in the vicinity of more prominent central ranges such as Doodhatoli.
The summer monsoon approaches the southern part around the middle of June and
extends into the interior until most parts of the basin have it by the third week of
the same month. Snowfall in the basin is associated with winter depressions, which
start affecting the northernmost part of the basin by November, the remaining part of
the valley by December and have their southerly course in the months of February-
March. During exceptionally severe winter snow may occur, as low as 1100 m. But
in localities below 2500 m, it rapidly melts away. In the high hills, snow continues
to accumulate till April when that sets in. In winter, a large part of the northern area
remains buried under a thick blanket of snow.
22.4.1 Ecological Challenger: Extreme Climatic Events

and Future Vulnerability
Extreme climatic events and disasters are natural like a cloudburst, flash floods, soil
erosion, landslides and GLOF (Glacial Lake Outburst Flood). The long-term man-
made disasters are caused by the severe impact that various human activities have on
natural processes. Therefore long-term global environmental change has both natural
and manmade concerns (Mukherjee 2013). During disaster and post-disaster events, I
have identified the high vulnerable issues such as damage to house/properties during
a flash flood, drinking water, electricity, emotional well-being, and health, the over-
all source of income/livelihood options, daily work, livestock loss, and agricultural
land. I have categorized them into four categories for vulnerable issues such as high
vulnerable (75–100), agree vulnerable (75–100), medium percentage agree (25–50)
and low vulnerable (0–25); on the basis of secondary data of disaster management
and mitigation centre, Uttarakhand (Fig. 22.6).
The loss of trees has an impact on the income of almost all of the affected house-
holds. This loss of trees is not only an economic loss to the household but also changes
the visual impact of the village and ecological systems. The flash flood affected the
overall affected household income of 97% of households (86% strongly agreed and
11% agreed). This has long-term results such as low yields from flooded fields/land,
damage to agricultural land, loss of trees and damage to houses. Furthermore, 84%
of participants reported that their daily work was very severely affected by the flash
flood and the other 09% were less severely affected. This consequently impacted
their household income (Fig. 22.6). 88% of households have strongly agreed and
12% households agreed to damage of households due to natural hazards. The unaf-
fected household was in a way affected. Infrastructure damage impacted on house-
holds’ quality of life very strongly. The village’s drinking water is mainly supplied
via pipes from the upper part of the mainstream to different clusters of houses. 76%
household strongly agreed and 15% agreed that drinking water is a vulnerable issue
during disaster and post-disaster. The flash flood damaged the pipes connections and
contaminated the water, and 76% households have been reported to be affected very
severely and 15% of households have agreed that they faced problems with drinking
water. They had to drink dirty/polluted water which affected their health.
Extreme Events Impact on Life Style, Property and Livelihood Options

100 91 92
88 86
90 80
84
80 76 76
68
70
60
50
40
30
20 12 15 12 1215
8 11 9 9 10
10 54 44 52 5 6 5
00 10 21 11
0
Strongly Agreed (75-100) Agree (50-75)

Medium Percentage(25-50) Low Pecentage agree (0-25)
Fig. 22.6 Extreme events impact on life style, property and livelihood options Source Disaster
Management and Mitigation Centre, Dehradun, 1996–2016
22.4.2 Hazards Zonation Susceptibility in Alaknanda River

Basin, Uttarakhand
The distribution of natural hazards and landslide in different absolute relief classes
and slope has been shown in Table 22.1 and Fig. 22.7. A maximum number of
Table 22.1 Natural hazards assessment on the physiographic features

Slope Absolute relief Drainage density Land use
Classes Events Classes Events Classes Events Classes Events
1. <15 0 <1500 10 <1 15 Mixed open 95
forest
2. 15–25 10 1500–3000 40 1–2 48 Dense 34
forest
3. 25–35 150 3000–4500 70 2–4 115 Agriculture 53
land
4. 35–45 59 4500–6000 110 4–6 95 Barren land 61
5. >45 35 >6000 42 >6 51 Settlement 110
Total 254 272 324 353
Source Field Survey and Remote Sensing Data, 2013–2016
Fig. 22.7 Landslide Hazards Zonation Source LANDSAT TM, 2016
landslides to the extent of 110 forming 40.70% of the total landslides is restricted
to (4500–6000 m) while only 10 landslides fall in Class-1 (<1500 m) which forms
3.70% of the total number of natural hazards (Fig. 22.7). Lower and lower-middle
valley of Alaknanda basin are found between 444 and 1500 m altitude mainly in the
southern part of the basin and it occupied about 12% of an area covering parts of
Devprayag, Kirtinagar, Kot, Pauri, Khirsu, Jakholi, Augustmuni, Karanprayag, and
Narayan blocks. Most of the blocks are in the south-west parts (Pauri, Devprayag,
Nandaprayag to Joshimath in the middle Alaknanda basin (Dasoli block).
Upper middle valley and mountains are found in Ukhimath, Dasoli, Ghat, Joshi-
math, and Kapkot blocks and Mandakini, Kaligangariver in the north-west, along
Pindar and Kaphni rivers in the south-east and in the lower part of Girthi Ganga of
Dhauli Ganga sub-basin are vulnerable under High vulnerable landslide hazards in
Alaknanda river basin.
Upper middle valley and mountains are found in Ukhimath, Dasoli, Ghat, Joshi-
math, and Kapkot blocks and they are about 16% area of the Alaknanda basin. The
altitude of the Alaknanda basin is 3000–4500 m. The main valley is along Mandakini,
Kaliganga river in the north-west, along Pindar and Kaphni rivers in the south-east and
in the lower part of Girthi Ganga of Dhauli Ganga sub-basin. This Garhwal Himalaya
of Alaknanda basin is highlyvulnerable to natural hazards (Bandooni 2004).
The high vulnerable areas of landslide hazards zone are from the central part to
south-eastern part (Dasoli, Ghat, Deval and Kapkot blocks). Other two narrow belts
are located in the southern block border (Khirsu, Gairsain, and Tharali blocks) and
in the south-western (Kirtinagar, and Augustmuni block) part of the river basin. One
large continuous belts of this zone extend from north-western part (Ukhimath block)
to the central (Dasloi and Ghat block) part of the river basin. Other main areas under
this sloping region are Upper Alaknanda basin and Dhauli Ganga sub-basin in the
Fig. 22.8 Relief variations in Alaknanda Basin, Uttarakhand Source LANDSAT TM, 2016
north (Joshimath block), South-east (Kapkot and Deval blocks) and south central
(Karanprayag block) part of the basin (Fig. 22.7).
North and east part of Alaknanda river basin is the belt of the Greater and Zanskar
Himalaya where the altitude of the mountain is more than 4500 m from the mean
sea level. It occupied more than 50% area of the Alaknanda basin, covering part
of the Ujhimath, Joshimath, Munisari, Deval Ghat and Kapkot blocks. The main
characteristics of this zone are more vulnerable to natural hazards, permafrost cover
of snow, and lack of population and vegetable cover (Fig. 22.8).
The distribution of landslide, soil erosion and natural hazards under various slope
classes showed that the maximum number of landslides to the extent of 150 belongs
to the slope Class-3 (20–30°) forming almost 59% of the total number of natural
hazards (Flash Flood, landslide, soil erosion, cloudburst and Glacial Lake Outburst
Flood (GLOF), etc.
The area having 15–250 slopes is the zone of gently-moderately to steep slopes.
It occupied nearly 12% area of the river basin and is found the maximum in the
south-west (Devprayag, Kirtinagar, Pauri and Khirsu blocks) and North-west (Jakholi
block), south-east (Deval and Kapkot block) and northern part (Dasoli and Joshimath
blocks) of the river basin. The slope ranging between 25 and 45% is known as steep to
very steep sloping zone and it occupied 40% area of the Alaknanda basin. The main
areas of this slope stretch from the central part to south-eastern part (Dasoli, Ghat,
Deval and Kapkot blocks). Other two narrow belts are located in the southern block
border Khirsu, Gairsain, and Tharali blocks) and in the south-western (Kirtinagar,
and Augustmuni block) part of the river basin.
One large continuous belts of this zone extend from north-western part (Ukhimath
block) to the central (Dasloi and Ghat block) part of the river basin. Other main areas
under this sloping region are Upper Alaknanda river basin and Dhauli Ganga sub-
basin in the north (Joshimath block), South-east (Kapkot and Deval blocks) and south
central (Karanprayag block) part of the river basin. The main features of the area are
steep slopes, very shallow depth of the soils, rocky and barren lands, less area under
forestry and very-very less area under cultivations (Table 22.2). This area is highly
vulnerable to natural hazards.
Extreme climatic events, climate and weather change, population growth, loss
of biodiversity, environmental degradation, migration and urban sprawl, livelihood
insecurity are fundamental and major problems in Alaknanda river basin. Urbanisa-
tion and migration processes have significant impacts on mountain environments and
communities. Natural disasters in mountains not only damage houses but also have
great impacts on the downstream areas, affecting millions of people and resources
(Jodha 1992). Garhwal Himalaya of high mountainous area is greatly affected by
adverse and destructive natural processes and creates environmental challenges. Over
Table 22.2 People perception regarding techniques of control/magnitudes of Hazards (In Likert
Scale)
Techniques Landslides Floods Avalanche Cloudburst Rock fall Soil Erosion
1. Afforestation 12 5 5 5 5 5
2. Control over 5 5 5 5 5 5
deforestation
3. Construction 3 5 0 0 2 2
of dam and
Reservoirs
4. Embankments 3 5 0 1 0 5
5. Control on 4 2 1 0 3 3
overgrazing
6. Better drainage 5 2 0 0 2 5
techniques on
Slope (along the
road)
7. Agro-forestry 1 1 1 1 2 3
8. Control on 3 2 1 0 3 3
construction of
houses in the
vulnerable area
9. Better 4 2 0 1 3 3
agricultural
practices
10. Slope-based 5 3 0 0 5 4
construction
11. Check on 3 1 1 3 4 5
Urban
sprawl/tourism
Source Based on Primary Survey, 2013–2016
the generations, mountain communities have learned how to live or living with the
threat of natural hazards and have developed well-adapted and risk-resilient systems
(Dhanai et al. 2016, Negi and Joshi 2014). Poor and haphazard construction of moun-
tain roads and houses increases the likelihood of soil erosion and is one of the most
important human-induced triggers of soil erosion and landslides (Sati 2008a, b and
Sati 2014a, b). Inappropriate agriculture practices and afforestation aggravate the
pressure on fragile mountain ecosystems and accelerated the natural hazards (Noor
and Rai 2014).
22.4.3 Adaptation Development Nexus for Livelihood

Securities and Its Sustainability
On the basis of various types of data structures such as household demographics,

livelihood options and patterns, agriculture diversification, health issues, infrastruc-
ture, education, water and sanitation, housing and property, coping strategies, cov-
ered for the adaptation development nexus. Livelihood securities can contribute to
the more effective method for disaster risk reduction. In addition, productive alter-
native livelihood options can support sustainable income-generating through natural
resources. This is important assets for people and communities after a disaster (Prasad
et al. 2016).
Uttarakhand Tourism Development Master Plan (UTDMP) for 2007-22 has been
developed the eco-tourism and its sustainability, which is coordinated through the
Government of India, Government of Uttarakhand, United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) and the World Tourism Organization. The main goals of this
plan is to increase remarkable sustainable tourism infrastructure, facilities and prod-
ucts within the prime tourism zones of Uttarakhand state as a development nexus
for sustainability and generate sustainable livelihood options and maintain the eco-
tourism/ natural tourism concept. Appropriate Skill Development Models just like
the “Veer Chand Garhwali Programme” should be developed for the regional devel-
opment; this is the model of the “Village Inherited Tourism Mode”, wherein each
family has a separate room for travellers, but the authorities will need to provide funds
and investment. This model is likewise excellent as a self-employment scheme under
the sustainability of livelihood in Rudraprayag, Chamoli and Pauri-Tehri Garhwal
districts in Alaknanda basin. To make sure that the advantage of local tourism actu-
ally reaches the villagers, it is important to involve local women in restaurant activ-
ities, youths as drivers of taxis and guides, and local uneducated men as porters.
There is a need to develop human resources, skill and hold capacity building training
programmes.
To reduce the sensitivity of the families and communities in the village, this,
in turn, may help them to be more efficient in overcoming the shock caused by
the catastrophe, disaster and re-establishing their livelihood options and formulate
the disaster risk reduction policies. To promote the policy through local commu-
nity for the capacity building, Self Help Groups (SHGs), Joint Forest Management
(JFM) and Community participation in resource management for the sustainability
of resource (Gardner and Scally 1992, Singh 2016). Development Strategy for Hill
Districts Infrastructure development is a commonplace development agenda to facil-
itate development in agriculture diversity, natural and organic farming and hybrid
seed farming strategies are encouraged for all as a way to create the sustainability.
In Bageshwar district of Alaknanda river basin, following development plans had
been applied together with diversifying agricultural products to include off-season
vegetables, horticulture, floriculture and fruits (peas, cabbage, beans, tomato and
potato). To promote the policy of sustainability through local communities and local
resources such as: plantations of chillies, turmeric and other herbal and medicinal
plants under the program of agriculture diversification and Promote the eco-tourism
for sustainable development.
In Chamoli district of Alaknanda basin, following sustainable plans were imple-
mented consisting of religious/natural tourism to the Valley of the Flowers, Hemkund
Sahib, Badrinath, and Kedarnath, Nanda Devi National Park, river rafting, and rock
climbing. Develop forest resources as a common property resource for the sus-
tainability such as: Jatropha plantation for biofuel, primal trees for the cosmetics
enterprises, and forest-based handicrafts for the development of local or regional
communities at the local level through community’s participation.
In Pauri Garhwal, following sustainable development plans have been imple-
mented including poultry and wool-based development; Juice Processing Centre
under the program of Joint Forest Management (JFM), Sheep, Diversify agricultural
products to include herbal and medicinal plants, pulses, bee-keeping and mush-
room cultivation start a medicinal plant-based totally pharmaceutical industry for
the sustainable development.
In, Pithoragarh, following development plans have been implemented such as
poultry and wool-based development, Goat-rearing, Diversify agricultural products
to consist of litchi, herbal and medicinal plants, garlic and spices.
In Rudraprayag, following sustainable development plans had been implemented
together with religious and natural tourism to Kedarnath; adventure tourism like
river rafting, rock climbing. To promote the policy of agriculture diversification such
as include herbal and medicinal plants, haldi and coriander. Promote the forest and
Agro-based industries: Bio-fuel, bamboo plantation, and traditionally-grown manual
for bakery products Forest-based industry through Self Helf Groups (SHGs).
In Tehri Garhwal of Alaknanda basin, following development plans have been
applied such as agricultural diversification towards fruits vegetables, medicinal
plants, spices, pulses, herbal and aromatic plants using a cluster approach com-
bined with proper market development can be very successful. Forest and agro-based
totally industries such as food-processing industry, forest-based industry, fruit and
Juice-processing industry have been promoted for sustainable development through
community participation.
In Uttarkashi of Alaknanda basin, following development plans had been carried

out inclusive religious and natural tourism to Gangotri, Yamuntori, and many oth-
ers. To promote the horticulture and floriculture, diversify agricultural products to
include fruits and vegetables, development of sheep and goat-rearing and wool-based
enterprises has been promoted for the promotion of alternative livelihood options and
its sustainability.
In this communication, the Likert scale was employed for analysing the peo-
ples’ perception regarding the adaptation strategies to control/mitigate the hazards
in Alaknanda basin. This was additionally subjected for analysing and identifying
the issues of economic development practices within the village communities. It
was also designed to determine and identify the opinion of the challenges. In Likert
scale were assigned into five responses. Usually, the most negative responses are
enumerated into a given numerical values of 1, whilst the most positive response has
a numerical value of 5 such as strong agree (5); agree (4); uncertain (3); disagree
(2);strongly disagree (1); (Likert 1932).
The local communities utilize the indigenous ability, skill or adaptation knowl-
edge for the purpose of hazard control and in mitigation techniques to reduce the
disaster. The technical expertise, economic status and awareness level are the impor-
tant tools for disaster risk reduction through which one can assess the status of a
community. There are certain numbers of hazards, that cannot be checked absolutely
but certainly, their danger intensity may be reduced significantly by using superior
technical expertise and efficiency in preparedness the mitigation method. Table 22.2,
is an attempt to understand and analyze the level of awareness and technical expertise
of the local communities of the Alaknanda basin to mitigate the different kinds of dis-
aster. Every individual disaster is analyzed in relation to its most effective controlling
technique.
The measures applied by the local communities have been arranged according
to their preference and importance. The control over deforestation and launching
afforestation programmes on a large scale were the two most preferred remedies or
adaptation techniques, which have an impact on almost every category of disaster.
There are certain other adaptation techniques, which have their applicability limited
only to a particular disaster. Construction of dam and reservoirs and slope-based
construction of roads are other effective techniques used for disaster prevention and
mitigation by a large number of respondents. Better drainage technique, control on
overgrazing and over urban sprawl and tourism, embankments on the riversides are
other highly favoured disaster control techniques replied by a large section of the
respondents. Apart from control over deforestation and afforestation techniques, the
construction of dams and reservoirs and embankments to riversides are the most
important techniques responded by 183 (In Linkert scale 5) and 173 (In Linkert
scale 5) respondents respectively. To control the avalanche hazard, the construction
of iron poles, check dams on rivulets and the construction of check-dam on slopes
are important techniques other than the afforestation programme replied by about
188, 161 and 165 respondents respectively (Table 22.2). As mentioned earlier, in
controlling the cloudburst hazard, afforestation is a highly responded technique,
in fact, by more than 196 respondents. Respondents have expressed their concern
regarding the sprawl of urbanization and tourism and feel that it should be checked
immediately; by 47%. While reacting to the prevention techniques, a large number of
respondents stated that the cloudburst hazard is a natural phenomenon and it cannot
be checked by applying any prevention technique.
22.5 Conclusions
Anthropogenic activities are continuously disturbing the natural system of Garhwal

Himalaya of Alaknanda river basin. The important factor causing the flood and
also accelerate several hydrological hazards in the basin are heavy rainfall, cloud-
burst, Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF), landslides, Slope failure, deforestation,
drainage congestion due to urbanisation. These hydrological hazards are mainly
responsible for several socioeconomic consequences such as degradation of culti-
vated land, infrastructure loss, human casualties, loss of road, transport systems, and
so on. For any developmental activities/construction in the study area, it is recom-
mended that one adopts the following guidelines to avoid instability and landslides.
As a general principle, construction on hills, particularly dams, tunnels, multi-storied
buildings and roads should be done on the basis of the landslide hazard Zonation and
aspect map. Construction on steep hill slopes should be avoided. Suitable drainage
measures are essential since water seepage can cause stability problems. Afforesta-
tion of the surroundings using site-specific species can help in the stability of slopes.
Construction of buildings adjoining active landslides, on the valley-fill materials of
streams and near active tectonic lineaments should be avoided. The natural flow of the
streams is obstructed due to the construction of man-made structures that results in
diversion of the flow from its natural course. Vulnerability and adaptation assessment
such as natural disaster, education, health, agriculture, housing, land reform, social
and farm forestry, drinking water, poverty, alleviation programme, social welfare,
etc. which play very important and strategic role in the field of disaster manage-
ment. The application of community participation approach (CPA) is very important
in preparing a disaster management plan for the sustainability. This will certainly
increase the quality of the plan and its practicability. It is may be helpful to formulate
a task force of the able-bodied person of the villages, who can be trained for rescue
and relief during disaster management. One more advantageous thing with the local
people, local Governance and Panchayats working for the disaster mitigation is that
it can provide services without delay, and wait outside help as the immediate initial
time after a disaster is very precious for rescue and saving time.
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Summary
The chapter summarizes the detailed discussions about the geoecological approach
for landscape dynamics presented in various chapters in the book. The book is an
epitomization of case studies providing new insights as to how landscape patterns
and processes impact small creatures and how small creatures in turn influence land-
scape structure and compositions. The research paper suggests optimization of land
use pattern, optimal management of landscape and optimal landscape design and
planning. It also suggests the importance of applying landscape ecological principles
in biodiversity conservation and sustainable development.
Landscape dynamics refers to every change that occurs in the physical–biological
and cognitive assets of a landscape which are driven by extreme climatic events and
human intrusions. The change of landscape conditions under the influence of eco-
nomic activities and catastrophic natural and geographical process create landscape
problem as a result to negative ecological, social, economic and other consequences
which leads to the damage of structure and functioning of landscape. In this con-
text, landscape dynamics are very important for land management and conserva-
tion which involve properties of the stability, persistence resistance, resilience and
recovery that operate along with a broad range of temporal and spatial scales. Thus
considering the complexity of the processes that occur in the landscape and different
scales at which individuals, populations and communities respond to environmental
constraints, the investigation of landscape dynamics must be conducted with robust
conceptualization and accurate modelling. Development in landscape ecology illus-
trates the important relationship between spatial patterns and ecological processes.
This development requires quantitative methods and massive use of technology to
shape integrated land scope management which has been very influential for sus-
tainable development planning. Advanced technology such as remote sensing, geo-
graphical information systems, GPS, spatial analysis and modelling approaches are
accomplished for ecological understanding of species and ecosystems in landscape
ecology.

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2097-6
380 Summary
The book is an attempt to incorporate the method that links spatial patterns and
ecological processes at various spatial and temporal scales. This linkage of time space
and environmental change can assist managers in applying plans to solve environ-
mental problems. The book provides methodological tools for studying the effect of
spatial arrangement of biophysical and socio-economic component on the sustain-
ability of place. There are research papers more focussed on the use of technology
like remote sensing and GIS to build data for assessing sustainable land management
and new options for the management of environmental threats.
Climate change is a major component in structuring current research in land-
scape ecology. A geoecological study was carried out, using historical geohydro-
meteorological records for dying and dwindling of non-glacial fed rivers under cli-
mate change in upper Koshi watershed in the central Himalaya. Other landscape
studies maintain that human impact is likely the main determinant of landscape pat-
tern. The human capital is one of the important components for growing industriali-
sation, innovation, scientific research, education and formation of the higher skilled
workers. One study used statistical technique such as cluster analysis for classifying
the countries with the same HDI value at different incomes or similar income with
different HDI values. Due to innovation, scientific research, education and growing
industrialisation, the countries with high HDI and Gross National Income (GNI) per
capital have a clusterization in different groups.
Techniques of mapping and GIS can be a great help for planners to identify the
potential areas for new planned land use. Using GIS technology land degradation
can be identified by mapping the waterlogging and soil erosion. Thus for sustainable
management of degraded land quantifying the soil quality indicators are essential.
The micro-level soil database on spatial extent may prove a better input in decision-
making as well as in proper management of degraded land. Analysis of land use/land
cover change detection is one of the important issues highlighted in the book. Land
used and land cover change analysis assists decision-makers to ensure sustainable
development and to understand the dynamic of our changing environment. In one
paper, Landsat satellite imageries of two different time periods, i.e. Landsat thematic
mapper of 2001 and Enhanced thematic mapper plus (ETM+) of 2010, were acquired
and quantified the land use/cover dynamics of the Western Doon Valley, Uttarakhand
from 2001 to 2010 over a period of one decade. The shuttle radar topographic mission
(SRTM) digital elevation model (DEM) data have been used for slope analysis.
Urban sprawl results in engulfing of surrounding villages into peri-urban areas,
peri-urban areas to town and town into cities. This uncontrolled development can lead
to loss of agricultural land open spices and ecological sensitive habitat in and around
the urban areas. Understanding the sprawl processes, its dynamics and modelling are
useful for effective resource utilization and infrastructure planning. In Shimla city,
geoecological study was conducted to highlight the extent of urban sprawl using
four temporal satellite images of Landsat thematic mapper. The study highlights the
nature rate and location of change and the importance of digital change detection
techniques for proper land use planning for sustainable growth of the hilly urban
areas. Automatic information extraction of urban features like buildings by using
Summary 381
object-based approach and fuzzy logic on high-resolution quick bird imagery has
proved very useful and robust method for urban planning.
The book has embraced a wide spatial extent covering Himalaya region, river
basin and Coastal land, and provides insight on various contemporary issues ranging
from land inventory mapping, hydrological modelling, monitory and concept of
modelling of urban sprawl, sustainable economic growth, green building, natural
resource management to geospatial techniques and ecological stability. This book
forms an essential reference for graduate students, academics, professionals and
practitioners in ecology, environmental science, natural resource management and
landscape planning and design.

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Advances in Geographical and Environmental Sciences

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/13113

ISSN 2198-3542 ISSN 2198-3550 (electronic)

New Delhi, India Seema Sahdev

1 Role of Data Indices for UN Sustainable Development Goals

8 Temporal Variation in Glacier’s Area and Identiﬁcation

19 Analysis of Land Use/Land Cover Change Detection Using

Elena Milanova, Nikolay Dronin and Aleksandra Nikanorova

Abstract In 2015, the UN adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Keywords Sustainable development goals · Global indices · Indicators · Russia ·

E. Milanova (B) · N. Dronin · A. Nikanorova

© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 1

1.2 Study Area

1.3 Data and Methodology

1.3.1 The Role of Global Indices and Indicators

categories of users; to facilitate the exchange of scientific and technical information.

1.3.2 Country and Municipal Levels of Ecological Problems’

a great opportunity for a radical reduction of the emissions by modernizing of energy

1.4 Results and Discussion

1.4.1 Ecological Indices and Indicators for Russia Score

1.4.2 Multiscale Evaluation of Ecological Problems

of ecological sustainability. The only condition to support the strategy of ecologically

Seema Sahdev, Manish Kumar and R. B. Singh

Abstract Seismic vulnerability mapping is one of the crucial issues of planning.

Keywords Seismic vulnerability · GIS · Multiple criteria decision analysis ·

S. Sahdev (B) · M. Kumar

© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 11

environmental factors or processes which increase the susceptibility of an individual,

2.2 Study Area

Fig. 2.1 Location map of study area

27 August 1960, an earthquake of magnitude 6 occurred having its epicentral tract

2.3 Materials and Methods

2.3.1 Data Collection and Integration

In order to develop seismic vulnerability assessment map, various thematic lay-

2.3.2 Selection and Preparation of Criteria Maps

2.3.3 Suitability Scoring/Ranking and Development

2.3.4 Computation of the Criterion Weights

Table 2.1 Nine point

2.3.5 Rasterization of Criteria Maps

2.3.6 Integration of Maps

2.3.7 Preparation of Vulnerability Assessment Map

Table 2.2 Pairwise comparison matrix

Table 2.4 Computation of consistency vector

CR (= 0.03) < 0.10 indicates a reasonable level of consistency in the pairwise

Fig. 2.3 Vulnerability assessment map

applying the following formula:

V ul ner abi l i t y i ndex = ([seismic Micro Zones] ∗ 0.42) + ([Lineament] ∗ 0.26)

Table 2.5 Area under

Table 2.6 Model summary of stepwise regression

Built up density, Population Density

2.4 Modelling of Seismic Vulnerability Assessment

In this study, an integrated approach of GIS-based multiple criteria decision analysis

Aceves-Quesada JF, Díaz-Salgado J, López-Blanco J (2007) Vulnerability assessment in a volcanic

Vladimir M. Matyushok, Nina M. Baranova and Leonid V. Sorokin

Abstract Sustainable economic growth is one of three essential components of the

V. M. Matyushok · N. M. Baranova · L. V. Sorokin (B)

© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 21

Keywords Human development · Economic growth · Urbanization · Inequality ·

3.2 Factors that Can Slow Down Sustainable Economic