What is it about?
Human activities have degraded lakes in Uttarakhand, endangering their vital role in urban sustainability, which includes providing essential services like water supply, flood mitigation, agriculture support, and biodiversity conservation in the Himalayan region. This study focused on Nainital district lakes, utilizing remote sensing and GIS techniques to assess their condition. Time series Landsat 8 satellite imageries acquire by USGS earth explorer from 2017 and 2022 were captured, pre-processed, and subjected to spectral-based classification algorithms in ArcGIS software to calculate Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Normalised Difference Water Index (NDWI), and Normalised Difference Built-up Index (NDBI) indices to assess changes in vegetation, water bodies, and build-up area in and around the lakes respectively.
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Why is it important?
Lakes are vital ecosystems that support biodiversity, regulate water cycles, and provide resources for human use. Assessing their degradation is crucial for understanding the overall environmental health of the region. This study likely identifies the factors contributing to the degradation, such as pollution, sedimentation, encroachment, and climate change, providing a clear picture of the threats facing these lakes. An ecohydrological perspective combines ecological and hydrological insights to assess lake health. This approach considers the interactions between water cycles, ecosystems, and human activities, offering a holistic understanding of the degradation processes.
Perspectives
The review would focus on how ecological processes (like plant and animal interactions) and hydrological processes (like water flow and quality) interact within the lake ecosystems. This perspective emphasizes understanding the natural dynamics of lakes, including water quality, biodiversity, and nutrient cycles, to assess their overall health and functioning. The assessment might identify and analyze sources of pollution, such as agricultural runoff, untreated sewage, and industrial discharges, contributing to the degradation of lakes.
Vaseem Akram Shaik
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Assessment of environmental degradation of lakes of Nainital district: an ecohydrological perspective, SN Applied Sciences, September 2023, Springer Science + Business Media,
DOI: 10.1007/s42452-023-05491-9.
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