Journal of Spatial Science (March 2009) Vol II (2): 43-52
RESEARCH ARTICLE
IS RAPID URBANIZATION LEADING TO LOSS OF
WATER BODIES?
P.Rama Chandra Prasad *† K. S.Rajan † Vijaya Bhole ‡ and C.B.S.Dutt #
†
Lab for Spatial Informatics, International Institute of Information Technology,
Gachibowli, Hyderabad – 500 082, India.
‡
Department of Geography, Osmania University, Hyderabad, India.
# Indian Space Research Organization, Dept of space, Anthariksh Bhavan,
Bangalore, 560094, India.
ABSTRACT:
Water bodies, the aquatic systems on land, are one of the important store houses for
variety of wildlife as well as nesting and breeding sites for different kind of avifauna.
Currently these water bodies are under tremendous human pressure due to rapid
urbanization. The lakes and reservoirs, across the country, are in varying degrees of
environmental degradation due to various anthropogenic activities. In this context a study
was carried out in and around the city, covering an area of about 7800 km2 to identify the
impact of expanding urbanization process on water bodies of the Hyderabad city using
1989 and 2001 satellite data. The results of the study showed reduction in water bodies
both in the area (19%) as well as in number. A negative change was observed in the
status of water bodies towards NE and NW directions of the city. Most of the water
bodies either were encroached by urban expansion or reduced in size due to
eutrophication process. The expanding IT sector and developments in real estate, acted as
major driving forces that converted agricultural lands into residential plots and there by
exerting pressure on the nearby water bodies. The change study here provides us with
vital clues towards understanding the change in water bodies’ vis-à-vis the urban needs,
economic growth, and its location characteristics within a rapidly urbanization region.
KEYWORDS: Encroachment, Eutrophication, Pollutants, Satellite data, Spatial
expansion, Urbanization
e-mail: [email protected]
Journal of Spatial Science (March 2009) Vol II (2): 43-52
Introduction:
farming and extreme use of fertilizers in
agricultural production (Anonymous,
2001). Broadly all these activities can be
grouped under encroachment and/or
eutrophication processes. In the present
scenario many water bodies are under
encroachment phenomenon converted into
land for construction, there by increasing
available urban areas. Eutrophication, the
process, where water bodies accumulate
excess
nutrients
(industrial
and
agricultural pollutants) that stimulate rapid
weed growth, reduce dissolved oxygen
leading to the death of aquatic organisms.
Water bodies, the aquatic systems
on land, like lakes, reservoirs, tanks,
ponds, act as storehouses for variety of
wildlife, especially for avifauna, serving as
breeding and nesting sites and often as
flood controls. In the past, lakes and tanks
were a very important source of water
supply for the purposes of drinking and
irrigation. The lakes and reservoirs across
the country are in varying degrees of
environmental degradation due to various
anthropogenic activities like intensive
urban growth, rapid industrial activities,
variety of elements relating to the
morphology of cities, such as the amount,
shape, density, textural form and stretch of
urban areas (Webster, 1995; Mesev et al.,
1995, Yeh and Li, 2001). Remote sensing
and GIS techniques are widely used to
study the urban growth phenomena and to
obtain information on proper planning of
the city (Costa, 1996; Serafim, 1998). The
applications of remote sensing data to the
field of aquatic systems include mapping,
monitoring, classification (Ramamoorthi,
1990; Frazier and Page, 2000; Baker et al.,
2007) and water quality assessment
(Kloiber, 2002; Hellweger, 2004). The
current availability of very fine spatial
resolution data as well as the anticipation
of hyper spectral data also broadens the
scope of remote sensing and its usefulness
for proper management of aquatic
systems. In this context a study was
carried out over an area of 50 km radius,
centered on Hyderabad, to identify the
impact of expanding urbanization process
on water bodies of the Greater Hyderabad
region.
Urbanization is one of the main driving
forces for large scale changes and
homogenized land use practices over large
areas. Several studies were carried out
concentrating on the impact of urban
expansion on ecology (Shuqing Zhao et al.,
2006) environment (Liu and Diamond
2005; Shao et al., 2006) and natural
resources (Sahasrabuddhe et al., 2003;
Ramachandraiah & Sheela, 2004). The
increasing urban sprawl in proportion to
population growth posed severe pressure
on urban and rural lakes by making them
non potable, impairing their absorption
capacity, deteriorating water quality,
disturbing aquatic biodiversity and finally
resulting in the water body vanishing.
Understanding the dynamics of land use
and land cover has been recognized as one
of the key research imperatives in global
environmental change research (Lambin et
al., 2001; Weng, 2001)). Remote sensing
is a valuable source of data that can
provide a synoptic perspective critical for
understanding biophysical relationships at
a regional scale. Remote sensing data is
capable of detecting and measuring a
44
Journal of Spatial Science (March 2009) Vol II (2): 43-52
1.1. Study area and objective
The establishment of IT sector and various
organizations along with boom in real
estate business has considerably exerted
pressure on different natural resources for
the construction of houses and other needs.
The broad objective of this study is to map
the spatial and temporal changes of water
bodies in and around Hyderabad city,
focusing on human land use practicesencroachments, unscientific land use,
rapid & random growth of urban colonies
and its impact on water bodies
In the present study Hyderabad and the
surrounding areas (falling within the
Ranga Reddy, Medak, Mahabubnagar and
Nalgonda districts of Andhra Pradesh
state), with total area having a radius of 50
km
was
considered,
where
the
urbanization process is progressing rapidly
(Fig.1). Hyderabad, India's fifth-largest
city, the capital of Andhra Pradesh state
was separated from Ranga Reddy District
in 1978. The Hyderabad District (17 0 22'
N latitude and 78 0 27’ longitude), spreads
over an area of 199.6 km2 and bordered on
all sides by Ranga Reddy District (160 30'
and 180 20' N and 770 30' and 790 30' of E).
The City is located at altitude of 1788 ft
(m.s.l).on the Deccan Plateau. All the rural
areas of Hyderabad are included in
Rangareddy district and the study area
covers Medchal, Rajendranagar and
Hayathnagar Talukas of Ranga Reddy
District. River Musi flows through the city
and in certain locations it was encroached
by slum population. Himayath sagar,
Hussain sagar, Osman sagar, Mir Alam,
Manjira are important historical & major
water sources of the city.
2. Materials and methods
Multi temporal ortho-rectified satellite
datasets with resolution of 30 m [Landsat
Thematic Mapper (21st November, 1989)
and Enhanced TM (29th October, 2001)]
were used for the study (downloaded
http://www.glcf.umiacs.umd.edu).
Data
was classified by hybrid approach, using
supervised and visual interpretation
methods to derive different thematic
classes existing in the study area, with
special focus on water bodies. From the
classified raster output water bodies were
masked out and vectorized to incorporate
Figure.1: Study Site
45
Journal of Spatial Science (March 2009) Vol II (2): 43-52
into GIS domain for change analysis.
Statistics were then generated and change
analysis, between 1989 and 2001,
exclusively for the water bodies was
performed. During the change analysis,
water bodies were categorized into
different classes with an interval of 100
ha. Water bodies less than 1ha in size was
considered to be negligible and hence not
considered during the analysis. Further the
change in water bodies’ status was also
analyzed by categorizing the study area
into north-east (NE), north-west (NW),
south-east (SE) & south-west (SW)
directions.
Table-1. Land use / Land cover
classes of study area
Area (Ha)
1989
2001
Theme classes
Water bodies
Built up area
Crop / Weeds
Other Land cover
classes
Vegetation
Total
33751.51
39921.84
38350.14
15577.33
198813.86
52956.18
448787.94
221016.15
781827.58
248605.03
265874.54
781826.95
Table-2. Change in area of water
bodies between 1989 - 2001 in and
around Hyderabad
3. Results
The contrast and clarity of the available
images made it possible to broadly classify
the study area (Fig. 2) into different
themes as water bodies, vegetation
(including forest, scrub, and other low tree
vegetation), crop / weeds, built up / urban
areas and other land cover classes (moist
fallow, dry fallow and open / exposed
areas). The statistics obtained from the
classified output (raster image) showed
reduction in water bodies of 2001
compared to 1989 and an increase in built
up areas as well vegetation class. (Table-1)
Zone
Year
Category (Ha)
< 100
100 - < 200
200 - < 300
300 - < 400
400 - < 500
>= 500
Total
50 Km
1989
2001
Area ( Ha)
10428.80
8820.79
1061.77
923.93
657.44
0
319.86
0
854.08
862.53
3856.73
3326.49
17178.68
13933.74
Table-3. Change in number of water
bodies between 1989 - 2001 in and
around Hyderabad
The increase in vegetation class may be
accredited to the afforestation programmes
carried out by Government and various
other agencies as a policy of urban
recreation by developing parks, lawns and
other greenery, while the increase in built
up areas accounted to the rapid population
growth. The increase in crop area in 2001
is attributed to the pre crop harvesting
condition showing the intensive crop
growth
Category (Ha)
< 100
100 - < 200
200 - < 300
300 - < 400
400 - < 500
>= 500
Total
46
Number
981
968
8
6
3
0
1
0
2
2
2
2
997
978
Journal of Spatial Science (March 2009) Vol II (2): 43-52
Figure.2: Land use / Land cover map of the study area consisting of
Hyderabad City and its surrounding districts, a radius of 50 Km centered
on Hyderabad
category of <100 have reduced owed to
illegal encroachments indicating complete
lost. A negative change (decrease) was
observed in the status of water bodies
towards NE and NW directions of the city
(Fig.3). This result can be supported from
the study of Taubenbock et al., (2007).
Their analysis showed the spatial
expansion of the urban built-up areas of
Hyderabad between 1989 and 2001,
towards the north of the city. The increase
in built up areas towards NE direction may
be due to availability of low economy
residential plots, houses, convenient
transport facility, and in NW direction due
to the allotment of land for industrial units,
Further the change analysis using the
vector maps of 1989 and 2001 generated
from the respective classified raster image
showed reduction in water bodies both in
the area (19%) as well as in number (Table
2 & 3). Water bodies in the range of 200<300 and 300-< 400 were totally absent in
2001. Either they might have gone through
process of shrinkage and finally
disappeared or changed into the class of
<100. The shrinkage may be due to the
purposeful anthropogenic activity of land
filling/dumping for the urban construction
or rapid growth of weeds that covered the
surface of the water bodies by the process
of eutrophication. The water bodies in the
47
Journal of Spatial Science (March 2009) Vol II (2): 43-52
especially for IT & service sectors. Most
of the water bodies were encroached under
this urban expansion and shrinked due to
eutrophication process, which was
enhanced by the accumulation of various
pollutants discharged and dumped into &
near the water bodies (Fig 4a & Fig 4b).
Overall various natural, anthropogenic and
other socio economic factors are
responsible for degrading, shrinking and
disappearing of water bodies of Hyderabad
city and its surrounding areas (Fig.5)
Figure.3: Change Analysis (1989-2001) along
different directions of the study area
Figure.4a: Circled rings show vanished
water bodies & shrinked area in and
around Osman Sagar, Hyderabad (1989
– 2001)
48
Figure. 4b: Boxes & circles show
vanished water bodies & shrinked area
towards northern parts of, Hyderabad
city (between 1989 – 2001)
Journal of Spatial Science (March 2009) Vol II (2): 43-52
4. Discussion
Water bodies act as breeding sites for
many birds and repository for many
aquatic animals and it is often necessary to
protect them from human interventions.
Shrinking, vanishing and polluting of
these water bodies may be a threat to the
survivability of wild life as well increase
ground water pollution, reduce water
availability for wells and tube wells.
Ultimately vanishing of water bodies leads
to less water penetration and low recharge
of ground water. Several studies
(Ramchandran,
2001;
Mary
&
Raghavaswamy, 2000, Madhavi et al.,
2004,) were carried out recently using past
and current satellite datasets for
Hyderabad city to show the impact of
increasing urbanization in depleting and
degrading natural resources. These studies
have showed that the city has been
witnessing rapid growth in urban
population between 1981 and 1999 (Mary
& Raghavaswamy, 2000) and the urban
population of the city has amplified by
41.57% as aligned with 43% of the total
Andhra Pradesh state and 36% of the total
country.
Mary & Raghavaswamy (2000) detailed
land use cover estimates obtained from
IRS-1C (LISS III + PAN) data for the
years 1980, 1992 and 1999 depicts a
comprehensible raise in residential,
commercial, industrial and transportation
in the urban area. In the non-urban area,
there is an apparent reduction in
agriculture area and also in barren land
suggesting the increased intensity with
urbanization activities.
The study of Ramachandran et al., (2003)
using 1971 SOI toposheets and IRS-1D
LISS-III & PAN data of March 2001, also
revealed drastic changes in Hyderabad
city. The study concluded that in 1971,
agriculture was dominant accounting for
62.6 % area followed by open scrub
(15%), settlement (5.7%) and water bodies
(5.6 %). Conversely, by March 2000
agriculture had lost its priority to
urbanization and built-up area accounted
for 43% of the study area (Purnend et al.,
2001). There was also ensuing decrease in
open scrub area (4.2%), water bodies (2%)
and the number of water bodies decreased
from 1271 to 960 during the consequent
Figure.5: Land use / Land cover drivers responsible
for shrinking, degrading and disappearing of water
49 bodies
Journal of Spatial Science (March 2009) Vol II (2): 43-52
period, encroaching catchments area of
Himayat Sagar, Osman Sagar (Fig 4a) and
Hussain Sagar, there by adversely
distressing inflow and decreasing dilution
potential.
discharge of pollutants. The developments
in real estate sector converted agricultural
lands and barren lands (including dried up
water bodies) into residential plots and
further this increasing pressure on the land
needs led to the encroachment of water
bodies either by filling or dumping them
with different materials, thus leading to
shrinking and complete elimination of the
same.
Large scale of land transformation is
presently witnessed in and around major
cities of India. The increasing pressure of
the ever-growing human population,
modified living standards and the
concomitant economic activities, finally
threatened the finite natural resources.
Urbanization has evolved to become one
of the main driving forces of
anthropogenic-related
drastic
environmental changes. The important
drivers affecting the urban fringe land
transformation are growth of industrial,
commercial and institutional activities
which show impact on the natural
hydrological system of the city. As these
urban areas expand, the natural
hydrological systems (water bodies) are
engulfed /embedded within the city and
are subjected to encroachment by the
people (Joshi & Suthar, 2002). This results
in, either completely or partly breaking the
hydrological system and creates a
permanent intermittent flood damage zone
in the city area. Simultaneously urban
growth also has impact on the climate and
biodiversity of the area (Shuqing Zhao et
al., 2006).
4.1. Conclusions
The present study shows that there are
changes in the extent and distribution of
the water bodies in and around the city,
based on the satellite image data analysis
of the water bodies that existed in 1989
and 2001. As the urbanization process
accelerates in some parts of the city, the
results could be even worse.
High
resolution satellite data combined with an
extensive field work might help in
identifying the factors that are part of the
expanding urban agglomeration effects on
water bodies of Hyderabad and its
surrounding areas and highlight the
policies that can help arrest this trend. The
existence of the water bodies in this region,
which is predominantly arid and semi-arid,
is needed for supporting not only the avian
population but also to partly quench the
water demands of the city through surface
water availability and ground water
recharge. Efforts must be made to preserve
these water bodies, reduce/control the
anthropogenic impacts, and enhance their
ecological benefit for achieving a balance
between
the
urbanization
and
environmental conditions.
The expanding IT sector within the city to
certain extent played major role in
increasing urban areas. In order to
facilitate the needs of urban population,
water bodies were encroached upon in
certain locations and in few areas the
shrinking of water bodies was observed
due to accumulation of sediments and
50
Journal of Spatial Science (March 2009) Vol II (2): 43-52
Acknowledgements
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http://www.gisdevelopment.net/aars/acrs/2
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Kloiber, S. M., Brezonik, P. L. and Bauer,
M. E. (2002) Application of Landsat
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4330-4340.
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