Evaluating the influence of human induced landscape alterations on ecosystem services in semiarid regions of India.

In the Anthropocene, with human centric planning, the landscapes are continually altered endangering the existence of biota, triggering climate changes, affecting the ecosystem services provided by the regional landscapes. However in special cases, meticulous planning and prioritized alterations of landscape has aided in improving the regional economy and the services provided by them. In the current communication we spatially evaluate the influence of irrigation projects on the lentic ecosystems and agrarian ecosystems at regional scale. Karimnagar, located in Telangana State India, along with 25km buffer from the city center was analyzed. Being in the semiarid zones, Karimnagar experience sever temperature during summer. Spatiotemporal variation in Zaid cropping pattern and water bodies were studied using Landsat series satellite data for the past 5 decades i.e., between 1973 to 2022. Indices based methods such as Normalized Difference Vegetation Index and modified Normalized Difference Water index were used followed by segmentation to determine the areas under Zaid cropping and extent of water. It was evident that during 1973 area under Zaid crops were as low as 231km² with water bodies about 1.7km². with commission of lower Manair in the year 1985, downstream regions of the reservoir showed large scale improvement i.e., the lakes were rejuvenated and the area under Zaid cropping improved significantly. Area under Zaid agriculture improved by four folds i.e., over 1000km² and water bodies increased to 53km². In the recent past, Mid Manair was commissioned in the year 2018 post which area under water has increase to 113km² and area under Zaid cropping has increased to 1569km². Post Lower Manair and Mid Manair Projects, most of the lentic ecosystems in the study area have become perennial catering to agrarian, domestic and environment. The Agriculture Ecosystem Service Value in the study area particularly due the Zaid Cropping has increased from 34 Million US$ in 1973 to ~128Million US$ after commission of Lower Manair and the same has increased to 235 Million US$ by 2022, like wise ecosystem services of lentic ecosystems have increased from 0.59Million US$ in 1973 to 39.57 Million US$ in 2022. The results indicates that with sensible planning and development, both society and regional environs get mutually benefitted thus ensuring superior wellbeing.