Comparing biodiversity richness across the urban and peri-urban/rural for a sustainable planting future in an expanding city.
As the city expands and the city development authority increases its spread of infrastructure, public amenities and commercial and residence areas, the green cover of the landscape changes drastically. A google timelapse of the last 25 years is witness to this change. Add to this, the rise in climate change related public health issues, water scarcity and biodiversity loss, along with which comes a disconnect with nature and a rise in mental health issues. This study aims to show the developers of Ahmedabad that expansion can be done using a different paradigm that that has been followed in the last 3 decades. We shall do this by studying and comparing the floral and faunal diversity across two sites at different stages of development – rural/peri-urban and urban locations, along with the water consumption and manitenance costs at their green spaces. Our results aim to recommend that when new peri-urban and rural areas come under new TP schemes, the already present floral diversity is utlised and sustained, rather than razed. We recommend that planning be sensitive to the ecological complexity of an area such that it allows nature to co-exist with the built form and human needs.
