Impact of Land Use and Land Cover Changes on Ecosystem Service Values in the Kalmunai Urban Area

Abstract

The impact of land use and land cover (LULC) change on ecosystem services has increased in Kalmunai, a coastal city located on the Bay of Bengal in Sri Lanka. To address these issues and analyse the extent of change in urban land use and landscape in Kalmunai, this study uses satellite imagery from 2003, 2013, and 2023. The primary objective of this study is to quantitatively assess the impact of LULU dynamics and the ecosystem services value (ESV) in Kalmunai. Therefore, urban ecosystems provide a wide range of services to sustain human life, social relationships, and health, among other things, and to address challenges such as climate change and environmental pollution. Although it is accepted that urban ecosystems contribute significantly to human well-being in cities, little attention has been paid to considering the value of urban ecosystem services in urban planning and policymaking. Therefore, understanding and addressing the factors responsible for the rapid change in land use and landscape is of paramount importance for sustainable urban management. Therefore, to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the loss of ecosystem services, the ESV technique has been used to identify trends and patterns of land use and landscape changes using satellite data from 2003 to 2023. Specifically, from 2003 to 2023, land use and landscape change have caused a loss of -27.87% in the value of ESV during the period of study. The study results show that this represents a loss of -416.79 million US dollars. However, the study results indicate that the total ESV has decreased by -8.80% or -393.23 million USD during 2003-2013 and by -19.06% or -23.56 million USD during 2013-2023. It also identified that water bodies, vegetation and agricultural land are the three main contributors to ESV in our study area. These findings highlight the effectiveness of the ESV method as a valuable tool for policy makers, urban planners and environmentalists. The ESV Land Use and Land Use Analysis emphasises the critical need for strategic interventions to mitigate the adverse impacts of urban planning and ensure sustainable conservation and development of the Kalmunai region.