A GIS Based Impact Assessment of Urbanization on Eco-System Services in Islamabad & Rawalpindi

Abstract

The challenges accompanying socio-ecological and demographic transformations in the urban areas necessitate for coordinated efforts to ensure urban ecological resilience. Trans-disciplinary analytical construct of urban eco-system services (UES) empowers the policy makers and urban planners to synchronize the orientations of human impacts and resilience of ecological resources in urban areas. The current study provides a systematic overview about the research orientations, approaches and techniques used in the recent studies regarding UES. The study examined: what types of evaluation methods were adopted in the recent UES research? What is their spatial and temporal pattern? What types of UES were focused and environmental components relied upon for the assessment? To address these questions, 116 relevant publications were scrutinized by using a set of assessment criteria. The findings indicated a lesser focus in research towards UES in developing countries as compared to the volume and increasing share of their urban population. The study also establishes that an overwhelming proportion of the UES research was carried out in the industrialized countries of the northern hemisphere but rather skewed towards studying regulatory eco-system services. The recommendations for improving the relevancy of contemporary research for stakeholders were made. The present study deciphers the impacts of urban planning and role of socio-economic determinants on the perception about urban vegetation. The residents inhabiting the planned (Islamabad) and the semi-planned (Rawalpindi) urban centres were the study population. Both urban areas, lying in close proximity, face rapid transformations in LULC due to urbanization. Despite their closeness, such variants as discrepancies in the standards of urban-planning and socio-economic characteristics of inhabitants make them apt study-sites. The inhabitants’ perception was tapped regarding the importance of urban vegetation, temporal and spatial changes and their impacts. The majority concurred to its efficacy, a substantial proportion observed transformations in it over time while a reasonable number perceived these changes as negative and unwelcome. Such socio-economic determinants as location, education, gender, ownership status of residence and income of respondents were studied, deploying Statistical analyses (KW). Responses varied, with location and income weighing-in more heavily. Pairwise comparison (WRST) further vindicated the results. Urbanization is sure to tarnish the environmental sustainability of both cities. Synchronized efforts from all stakeholders are a must. LULC changes transform everything. They test the resilience of natural environment making their study imperative. Such advanced tools as remote sensing (RS) and geographic information system (GIS) were deployed and assessments made by developing codes in the Google earth engine (GEE). The current investigation used Islamabad and Rawalpindi as contextual settings. These physically close cities are distanced by contradictory policies and management frameworks rendering them as perfect locales for research. Temporal quantitative fluctuations in the selected LULC were observed and shrinkages and expansions noticed according to the varying human needs. Population-growth and migration have, primarily, triggered these transformations. The intrusion of private conglomerates for their business gains, made urbanization unruly. The study reveals how organized land-management policies succeeded in Islamabad and compromised policies failed in Rawalpindi. Effective legislation and compelling implementation are indispensable for sustained urban growth. Urbanization is proving stressful for the supply-demand budget of eco-system Services (ESS) and a real challenge of the present times. It is accelerating in Pakistan and demands enhanced focus on ESS research. Keeping in view the contextual constraints, the land cover-based Matrix Model was relied upon. It linked the LULC types of the study area for assessments of supply and demand potential of ESS by integrating expertbased judgments. The findings established that the built up areas are the principal consumer and ecological resources as producers of ESS in the study context. The degeneration in the performances of ecological infrastructure is more acute in Rawalpindi as compared to Islamabad. The observed variations are rooted in the differences in the socio-demographic aspects planning and management. The findings confirmed that the matrix model is a pragmatic option for assessing the supply-demand potentials of ESS in developing regions.