Managing Natural Resources and Environmental Challenges in the Face of Urban Sprawl in Indian Himalayan City of Jammu

Abstract

Managing natural resources and environmental challenges is central to the sustainable development goals agreed in 2015. Urban sprawl is one of the main dynamic forces of global environmental change, especially in small cities. This paper considers such a city in the mountainous Himalayan Terrain, the population of which is on the rise and faces frequent floods. To assess the drivers of land use change, its process and consequences in the region, land use and land cover mapping since 1981 have been done, addition to reviewing it from different perspectives. Land is becoming a scarce resource due to immense agricultural and demographic pressure in the region. The paper apprises of the changes that have occurred between 1981 and 2011, and its consequences. It lists various socioeconomic and environmental factors that are behind the significant change in land use and land cover in the selected site, and suggests relevant and doable actions to revert or stop further change.