Development of an integrated peri-urban wetland degradation assessment approach for the Chatra Wetland in eastern India.

The loss of peri-urban wetlands is a major side effect of urbanization in India in recent days. Timely and proper assessment of wetland area change is essential for the conservation of wetlands. This study follows the integrated way of the peri-urban wetland degradation assessment in the case of medium and small-size urban agglomerations with a special focus on Chatra Wetland. Analysis of land-use and land cover (LULC) maps of the past 28 years shows a decrease of 60% area of the wetland including marshy land. This has reduced the ecosystem services value by about 71.90% over the period 1991-2018. From this end, The Land Change Modeler of IDRISI TerrSet using the combination of MLPNN and Markov Chain has been used to predict the LULC map of this region. The scenario-based modeling following the LULC conversion and nine explanatory variables suggests the complete loss of this wetland by 2045. However, the authors have also tried to present a future LULC pattern of this region based on an environmental perspective. This proposed map suggests possible areas for built-up expansion on the western side of the city without significantly affecting the environment.