Anthropogenic risk assessment of riverine habitat using geospatial modelling tools for conservation and restoration planning: a case study from a tropical river Pranhita, India.

Abstract

The riverine ecosystem provides multiple benefts to human community and contributes to the sustainable development of the ecoregion. The growing dependency on these ecosystems has largely contributed to aggravating the ecological risks, habitat degradation, and loss of ecosystem services. The present study evaluates the ecological risk emanating from nine anthropogenic stressors including river use, hydro-morphology, catchment pollution, and biological stressor on river Pranhita in Godavari Basin of Peninsular India using InVEST (Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeofs) Habitat Risk Assessment model. The primary feld survey, remote sensing, and secondary data-assisted spatial modelling results revealed low ecological risk (R=0.65 of 3) in river Pranhita due to anthropogenic activities. Sediment loading, the infow of nitrogen, and habitat fragmentation were the major stressors with relatively higher risk score (>1); infuence on a sizeable portion of riverine habitat (29–75% of the total area under high-risk zone) indicates the mounting threat from catchment activities. The low-risk value observed in protected river reaches as compared to unprotected areas is likely to be infuenced by the abundant presence of intact riparian vegetation which mitigate the catchment stressors and minimal anthropogenic activity within protected areas. This study demonstrates the application of InVEST HRA model for ecological risk assessment of riverine ecosystems and fsh assemblages along with their input data generation framework. This has the potential for prioritization of sensitive habitats based on computed ecological risk and stressor identifcation based on their exposure and consequences for developing appropriate mitigation measures. This model is spatially explicit and accommodates user-defned criteria for ecosystem-level assessment at a regional and national scale to facilitate the resource managers and policymakers for conservation and restoration planning and implementation of targeted management measures for sustainable development.