Abstract
This article is an attempt to analyse the link between the condition of city environment and availability of water in Darjeeling city. Darjeeling, located in the Eastern Himalayan Region of India, is such a city which faces acute water scarcity in most part of the year, except during monsoon. The city cannot use ground water directly, and there is no river as source of water as well. It only uses spring water and rain water. The climatic condition and local environmental conditions have higher control over the availability of daily water. This article analyses the city’s 100-year climatic conditions as well as the condition of vegetation cover and built-up areas using NDVI and BUI methods, respectively. The present study explores that the deterioration of natural environmental conditions and increasing demand from both the permanent population and transitory population accelerate the intensity of water scarcity. Measuring the fluctuation of discharge (during pre-monsoon and post-monsoon period), the paper discusses how except in monsoon, most of the spring’s discharge gets reduced and increases the level of water stress in the city. Using quantitative methods, this empirical study explores that the loss of vegetation and haphazard constructions have enormous impact on the fragile hill ecosystem and reduce the rate of infiltration of water in the sub-surface zones, thus reducing the discharge ultimately. Therefore, the study recommends immediate actions to protect the city environment and to revive those springs for the city’s water security.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bakker, K. (2007). The “commons” versus the “commodity”: Alter-globalization, anti-privatization and the human right to water in the global south. Antipode, 39(3), 430–449.
Barnes, K. B., Morgan, J. M., III., Roberge, M. C., & Lowe, S. (2001). Sprawl development: Its patterns, consequences, and measurement. (pp. 1–24). Towson University.
Bertrand-Krajewski, J. L., Barraud, S., & Chocat, B. (2000). Need for improved methodologies and measurements for sustainable management of urban water systems. Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 20(3), 323–331.
Bhandari, A. K., Kumar, A., & Singh, G. K. (2012). Feature extraction using normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI): A case study of Jabalpur city. Procedia Technology, 6, 612–621.
Bhatta, B. (2009). Analysis of urban growth pattern using remote sensing and GIS: A case study of Kolkata, India. International Journal of Remote Sensing, 30(18), 4733–4746.
Bhatta, B., Saraswati, S., & Bandyopadhyay, D. (2010). Urban sprawl measurement from remote sensing data. Applied Geography, 30(4), 731–740.
Bhatti, S. S., & Tripathi, N. K. (2014). Built-up area extraction using landsat 8 OLI imagery. GIScience & Remote Sensing, 51(4), 445–467.
Bugliarello, G. (2003). Large urban concentrations: A new phenomenon. In G. Heiken, R. Fakundiny, & J. Sutter (Eds.), Earth science in the city: A reader. (pp. 7–19). American Geophysical Union.
Census of India. (2011). Primary census abstract. Darjeeling district. New Delhi: Government of India.
Central Public health and Environmental Engineering Organization (CPHEEO). (2005). Status of water supply, sanitation and solid waste management in urban areas. Ministry of Urban Development. Government of India.
Chen, J., Gong, P., He, C., Pu, R., & Shi, P. (2003). Land-use/land-cover change detection using improved change-vector analysis. Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing, 69(4), 369–379.
Chinnasamy, P.; Prathapar, S. A. (2016). Methods to investigate the hydrology of the Himalayan springs: A review. International water management institute (IWMI). IWMI Working Paper (169), pp. 1–15.
Choubey, V. M., Bartarya, Sk., & Ramola, R. C. (2000). Radon in Himalayan springs: A geohydrological control. Environmental Geology, 39(6), 523–530.
Dash, A. J. (1947). Bengal district gazetteer: Darjeeling. N.L. Publishers.
Drew, G., & Rai, R. P. (2016). Water management in post-colonial Darjeeling: The promise and limits of decentralised resource provision. Asian Studies Review, 40(3), 321–339.
Drew, G., & Rai, R. P. (2018). Connection amidst disconnection: Water struggle, social structures, and geographies of exclusion in Darjeeling. In T. Middleton & S. Shneiderman (Eds.), Darjeeling reconsidered. (pp. 219–239). Oxford University Press.
Gandhi, G. M., Parthiban, S., Thummalu, N., & Christy, A. (2015). NDVI: Vegetation change detection using remote sensing and GIS—a case study of Vellore district. Procedia Computer Science, 57, 1199–1210.
Griffiths, P., Hostert, P., Gruebner, O., & van der Linden, S. (2010). Mapping megacity growth with multi-sensor data. Remote Sensing of Environment, 114(2), 426–439.
Guindon, B., Zhang, Y., & Dillabaugh, C. (2004). Landsat urban mapping based on a combined spectral–spatial methodology. Remote Sensing of Environment, 92(2), 218–232.
He, C., Shi, P., Xie, D., & Zhao, Y. (2010). Improving the normalized difference built-up index to map urban built-up areas using a semiautomatic segmentation approach. Remote Sensing Letters, 1(4), 213–221.
Hu, Y., Ban, Y., Zhang, Q., Zhang, X., Liu, J., & Zhuang, D. (2008). Spatial: Temporal pattern of GIMMS NDVI and its dynamics in Mongolian Plateau. In IEEE Proceeding on international workshop on earth observation and remote sensing applications. pp. 1–6.
Jensen, J. R. (2006). Remote sensing of the environment: An earth resource perspective. Prentice Hall.
Johnston, B. R. (2008). The political ecology of water: An introduction. Capitalism Nature Socialism, 14(3), 73–90.
Joshi, P. K., Roy, P. S., Singh, S., Agrawal, S., & Yadav, D. (2006). Vegetation cover mapping in India using multi-temporal IRS wide field sensor (WiFS) data. Remote Sensing of Environment, 103(2), 190–202.
Ke, Y., Im, J., Lee, J., Gong, H., & Ryu, Y. (2015). Characteristics of Landsat 8 OLI-derived NDVI by comparison with multiple satellite sensors and in-situ observations. Remote Sensing of Environment, 164, 298–313.
Keil, R. (2005). Progress report: Urban political ecology. Urban Geography, 26(7), 640–651.
Lambert, J., Drenou, C., Denux, J. P., Balent, G., & Cheret, V. (2013). Monitoring forest decline through remote sensing time series analysis. GIScience & Remote Sensing, 50(4), 437–457.
Lean, J., & Warrilow, D. A. (1989). Simulation of the regional climatic impact of amazon deforestation. Nature, 342, 411–413.
Li, H., Xu, C. Y., Beldring, S., Tallaksen, L. M., & Jain, S. K. (2015). Water resources under climate change in Himalayan basins. Springer.
Lillesand, M. T., KIefer, W. R., Chipman, N. J. (2008). Remote sensing and image interpretation. (3rd ed.). Wiley.
Maktav, D., Erbek, F. S., & Jürgens, C. (2005). Remote sensing of urban areas. International Journal of Remote Sensing, 26(4), 655–659.
Darjeeling Municipality. (2012a). Project report of waterworks department.
Darjeeling Municipality. (2012b). Project report of conservancy department.
Myers, N., Mittermeier, R. A., Mittermeier, C. G., Da Fonseca, G. A., & Kent, J. (2000). Biodiversity hotspots for conservation priorities. Nature, 403, 853–858.
Navalgund, R. R., Jayaraman, V., & Roy, P. S. (2007). Remote sensing applications: An overview. Current Science, 93(12), 1747–1766.
Negi, G. C. S., & Joshi, V. (1996). Geohydrology of springs in a mountain watershed: The need for problem solving research. Current Science, 71(10), 772–776.
Negi, G. C. S., & Joshi, V. (2004). Rainfall and spring discharge patterns in two small drainage catchments in the Western Himalayan mountains, India. The Environmentalist, 24, 19–28.
NITI Aayog. (2018). Inventory and revival of springs in the himalayas for water security. Report of Working Group 1.Government of India.
Pandey, R., & Jha, S. (2012). Climate vulnerability index-measure of climate change vulnerability to communities: A case of rural lower Himalaya, India. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, 17(5), 487–506.
Planning Commission of India. (2008). Problems of hilly habitations in areas covered by Hill Areas Development Program (HADP)/Western Ghats Development Program (WGDP). Retrieved from http://planningcommission.nic.in/aboutus/committee/wrkgrp11/tg11_hillarea.pdf.
Research and Information System (RIS) for Developing Countries. (2016). India and sustainable development goals: The way forward. United Nations.
Richards, J. A. (2013). Remote sensing digital image analysis: An introduction. Springer.
Rouse Jr, J., Haas, R. H., Schell, J. A., & Deering, D. W. (1974). Monitoring vegetation systems in the great plains with ERTS. In Proceedings of the 3rd ERTS Symposium, NASA SP-351, pp. 309–317.
Roy, P. S., Behera, M. D., Murthy, M. S. R., Roy, A., Singh, S., Kushwaha, S. P. S., & Gupta, S. (2015). New vegetation type map of India prepared using satellite remote sensing: Comparison with global vegetation maps and utilities. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, 39, 142–159.
Roy, P. S., Murthy, M. S. R., Roy, A., Kushwaha, S. P. S., Singh, S., Jha, C. S., & Saran, S. (2013). Forest fragmentation in India. Current Science, 105(6), 774–780.
Samanta, G., & Koner, K. (2016). Urban political ecology of water in Darjeeling. India South Asian Water Studies, 5(3), 42–57.
Scott, J. C. (1998). Seeing like a state: How certain schemes to improve the human condition have failed. Yale University Press.
Shah, M., & Kulkarni, H. (2015). Urban water systems in India: Typologies and hypothesis. Economic and Political Weekly, 30, 57–69.
Sharma, B; Nepal, S; Gyawali, D; Pokharel, GS; Wahid, SM; Mukherji, A; Acharya, S; Shrestha, AB. (2016). Springs, storage towers, and water conservation in the midhills of Nepal. Nepal Water Conservation Foundation and International Center for Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Working Paper 2016/3, pp. 1–45.
Shneiderman, S., & Middleton, T. (2018). Introduction: Darjeeling reconsidered. In T. Middleton & S. Shneiderman (Eds.), Darjeeling reconsidered: Histories, politics, environments. Oxford University Press.
Shrestha, R. B., Desai, J., Mukherji, A., Dhakal, M., Kulkarni, H., Mahamuni, K., Bhuchar, S., & Bajracharya, S. (2018). Protocol for reviving springs in the Hindu Kush Himalayas: A practitioner’s manual. (pp. 1–73). International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).
Tambe, S., Kharel, G., Arrawatia, M. L., Kulkarni, H., Mahamuni, K., & Ganeriwala, A. K. (2012). Reviving dying springs: Climate change adaptation experiments from the Sikkim Himalaya. Mountain Research and Development. International Mountain Society, 32(1), 62–72.
Townshend, J. R., Goff, T. E., & Tucker, C. J. (1985). Multitemporal dimensionality of images of normalized difference vegetation index at continental scales. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 23(6), 888–895.
Townshend, J. R., & Justice, C. O. (1986). Analysis of the dynamics of African vegetation using the normalized difference vegetation index. International Journal of Remote Sensing, 7(11), 1435–1445.
Townshend, J., Justice, C., Li, W., Gurney, C., & McManus, J. (1991). Global land cover classification by remote sensing: Present capabilities and future possibilities. Remote Sensing of Environment, 35(2–3), 243–255.
Tucker, C. J. (1979). Red and photographic infrared linear combinations for monitoring vegetation. Remote sensing of Environment, 8(2), 127–150.
Van de Voorde, T., Vlaeminck, J., & Canters, F. (2008). Comparing different approaches for mapping urban vegetation cover from Landsat ETM+ data: A case study on Brussels. Sensors, 8(6), 3880–3902.
Vashisht, A. K., & Sharma, H. C. (2007). Study on hydrological behaviour of a natural spring. Current Science, 93(6), 837–840.
Wang, Q., & Tenhunen, J. D. (2004). Vegetation mapping with multitemporal NDVI in North Eastern China transect (NECT). International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, 6(1), 17–31.
Weng, Q., Lu, D., & Schubring, J. (2004). Estimation of land surface temperature-vegetation abundance relationship for urban heat island studies. Remote Sensing of Environment, 89, 467–483.
Whyte, A. V. (1986). Guidelines for planning community participation activities in water supply and sanitation projects. WHO.
Xie, Y., Sha, Z., & Yu, M. (2008). Remote sensing imagery in vegetation mapping: A review. Journal of Plant Ecology, 1(1), 9–23.
Zha, Y., Gao, J., & Ni, S. (2003). Use of normalized difference built-up index in automatically mapping urban areas from TM imagery. International Journal of Remote Sensing, 24(3), 583–594.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Koner, K., Samanta, G. Urban environment and sustainable water supply: a comprehensive analysis of Darjeeling city, India. Environ Dev Sustain 23, 17459–17482 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-021-01396-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-021-01396-y