Impacts of Urbanization on select wetlands of Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India.

Urbanization has the profound and long-lasting impact on wetlands, leading to the total deterioration of the whole ecosystem. This complex and dynamic problem need in depth understanding to foster conservation and management measures. We investigated the effect of urbanization along a typical rural to urban gradient wetlands of Coimbatore, using physico chemical, biological assessment
and spatial analysis methods to deduce current status and pattern of urbanization impacts. Physico-chemical analyses of wetland water revealed increased degradation in water quality in those wetlands which were in close proximity to urban centres. The littoral benthic fauna communities of these wetlands were similar between the wetlands but showed significant variation in community composition and abundance along the urbanization gradient. Land cover change and spatial analysis indicate that there
were an unprecedented expansion in urban area around these wetlands, and it was higher around the more degraded wetlands. Hence urbanization can be linked to the current status of these wetlands. The results indicate the negative effect of urbanization on wetlands.