Plant growth, water quality, carbon and nutrient flows in rural-urban cropping systems of Bengaluru, India

The global urban population is expected to reach 5.2 billion by 2030 and by mid-2023 approximately 4.6 billion out of more than 8 billion population were living in towns or cities. This represents approximately 57% of the total global population and is set to reach 60% by 2030. India’s urban population is expected to reach 607 million by 2030 and by mid-2030 40% of the total population will be living in urban areas. Growing urban population has multi-sectoral and dimensional implications in the rural, peri-urban, and urban ecosystem. Specifically, farming communities in the peri-urban and rural areas have got larger markets to supply the growing demand of food by the urban population. Consequently, farmers started practicing intensive cultivation on their farmlands. On the other hand, unplanned urbanization has led to major pollution of water bodies along rural-urban gradients due to release of sewage and industrial wastewater. Therefore, this thesis aimed at analyzing the effect of management intensification on soil carbon dioxide emission (CO₂) as well as consequences of urbanization around lakes on their ecosystem services in the southern Indian megacity of Bengaluru.