Assessing ecosystem health of a mountainous city at the neighbourhood level: A case from eastern Himalayan region (India)

The mountain ecosystems are important sources of food production and play a significant role in climate and water regulation, carbon sequestrations, and habitat provisions. However, mountain ecosystems have recently been highly threatened due to land use, land cover (LULC), and climate changes. The Darjeeling Himalayan region is well-known as a biodiversity hotspot and ecologically rich area. However, this region has undergone severe threats due to uncontrolled anthropogenic activities and urbanisation. This study aims to assess the spatiotemporal pattern of ecosystem health (EH) at the neighbourhood level from 2001 to 2021 using a pressure-state-response (PSR) framework in a mountainous city in Darjeeling Himalaya. A total of 10 parameters were selected to assess EH, and the analytical hierarchical process (AHP) method has been used to assign the weight of the parameters. The results showed that (a) from 2001 to 2021, the built-up area increased by about 71%, and the vegetation area decreased by 54% (b) 9.38% (3 wards) of the wards fell under the very unhealthy category. However, it increased to 18.75% (6 wards) in 2021, while the number of wards in very healthy category decreased dramatically from 15.63% (5 wards) in 2001 to 9.38% (3 wards) in 2021 (c) very poor and poor EH conditions characterised the wards located in central parts of the city. Thus, the study provides significant findings to understand the spatial pattern of EH conditions and implement strategies to sustain ecosystems.