Impact of Urbanization on Megacities’ Lakes Using Remote Sensing Technique: A Case Study of Water Quality Analysis in Ambattur Lake, Chennai, India

Abstract

Urban lakes are the essential indicator factors, which not only preserve the water level in the cities, but also supply water to the urban areas which con- sist of Industrial sectors, Residential and Administrative sectors. With the help of emerging trends in remote sensing techniques and appropriate water quality analy- sis, one can access the impact of urbanization on the water bodies. Lakes are one of the significant water bodies that help in nourishing the natural resources in the world as they constitute 4% of the world’s water bodies in land surface. This paper will study the overall Chennai lakes shrinkage, by using Landsat 8 Imagery of 2016. Land Cover and Land Use (LCLU) techniques will be used to analyze the shrinkage of lakes in Chennai. Ambattur Lake is a water body, which for the past few decades has suffered a drastic shrinkage due to human intervention. The quality of water has gradually depreciated due to the encroachments and also because of the disposal of large amounts of industrial effluents pertaining to factories in the neighborhood. This has resulted in complete compromise in the quality of water of the lake and has jeopardized its entire water ecosystem. To analyze this, water samples have been collected from the lake during the pre-monsoon season and water quality test has been conducted including selected heavy metals analysis. The total shrinkage of the lake is around 108.782 ha of land, which is approximately 40% of the lake area.