Protection of Water Resources on Urban Hills from Building Developments: A Case of Goa, India

Local or global, building development is inevitable. In India, building developments have affected hydrological processes with regional and local implications. It is crucial to understand how building developments impact the water cycle so we can better assess their influence on the water cycle and plan for future developments more responsibly and environmentally. This helps policymakers balance development and the environment. Urban hills in Goa previously had rich biodiversity, extensive flora, and natural water systems, viz. streams, storm-water runoffs, water bodies, aquifers, and wetlands. As urban areas are developed with roads, buildings, etc., water runoff rises, causing downstream floods, groundwater pollution, and other problems for the water ecosystem. Building developments alter the proportion of precipitation that penetrates the soil and enters the drainage as surface runoff, mostly due to vegetation loss and paving of the soil surface. Stream flow and rivers, aquatic ecosystems, erosion, sedimentation, and water quality may all be affected by increased impermeability. In Goa's fast-paced building developments and construction growth, urban hills lacked ecological and water-sensitive design. This insensitivity to the environment has resulted in disturbed water flow patterns, and buried water bodies, thereby reducing the site's ecological significance and drying up nearby wetlands. The paper aims to accessing the impact of building development on urban hills and highlights that ecological planning can help integrate ecology and water systems. This is done using various methods using GIS and remote sensing tools like hydrological studies, land use and land cover studies, the land suitability method, as well as best stormwater management practices. It has been found that the water resources in the study area have been largely disturbed over the years due to rampant building development that lacked ecological sensitive planning.