Estimating supply-demand mismatches for optimization of sustainable land use planning in a rapidly growing urban agglomeration (India)

Assessment supply-demand mismatches of ecosystem services (ES) have become a core research field in recent decades. Rapid urban growth with intense human interference is the main cause of huge damage to ecological structures and functions in cities. The study aims to assess the supply-demand capacity of the landscape based on the land use and land cover (LULC) matrix approach in Raiganj Urban Agglomeration (RUA), Eastern India. The supply-demand budget matrix was computed based on the ecosystem matrix score provided by experts and local respondents. Overall, the result showed substantial mismatches between ES supply and demand. Forests and cropland were the prime sources of ES due to their capacity to provide regulating (local climatic regulation, air quality regulation, flood production), provisioning (food production, raw materials, crop production) and cultural (recreation and esthetic value) ES. Relatively high demand for ES was reported from these ecological landscapes due to the limited landscape capacity of croplands, forest cover and water bodies. Thus, the relatively lower landscape capacity to supply ES and higher demand of ES resulted in mismatches between the supply and demand capacities of ES. A limited supply of ES can be attributed to the rapid urban expansion and loss of due to urban expansion. As per the experts-based assessment, rapid urban expansion and conversion of forests and croplands into built-up areas were the main drivers of ES supply-demand mismatches. The built-up area increased by about 258%, and water bodies and vegetation cover decreased by 80% and 7.41% from 2001 to 2018. Thus, the loss of ecological patches (such as forests and agricultural land) was the main cause of a limited supply of ES and high demand for ES. Therefore, integration of ES in urban planning is essential for healthy ecosystems and sustainable urban land use planning.