Urban built-up area footprint (UBAF): A novel method of urban bio-capacity and ecological sensitivity assessment

Abstract

In the city level, urban ecological footprint (UEF) assessment is used for a variety of measures, from biological resources through people as well as human population as a whole. But, the context of this study is sightly specific, here we focus built-up land consumption coming out the general concept of UEF. This study used to figure out the urban built-up area footprint (UBAF) as well as bio-productive status in a city scale, and its impact on urban ecological sensitivity (UES). For this assessment, one of the fastest growing-up cities in Eastern Himalayan region of India, namely Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) is selected as a study area. To assess the UEF and bio-capacity (BC), the yield and equivalent factors have been introduced. Further, variable weights combination (VWC) method is used to assess the UES of SMC. The result shows that increasing UBAF directly impacted on bio-capacity of SMC area. Most of the lands have been converted into built-up land, and highly ecological deficit is seen in the built-up land areas. Thus, the SMC is already crossed the standard limit of the UBAF limit (>3 ha per capita). Consequently, entire SMC has been ecologically sensitive and facing ecological deficit condition rigidly. Therefore, a UBAF based environmental impact assessment framework has been proposed for city level that can be helpful for the further urban land use planning.