Environmental impact due to rapid urbanization in south Chennai lakes

Urbanization without prior planning affects both quantity and quality of water resources. Urbanization increases the demand for settlement and the water source areas are the first priority for settlement which deteriorates the quality of water. Urbanized areas are the clearest example of the powerful and usually unbalanced effect of human-induced factors on a geological environment, which very often disturbs hydrogeological safety of the area. It is, therefore, reasonable that the impact of urbanization on water resources is important to be identified, characterized and evaluated, especially in metropolitan cities. In the present study, lakes present in the South Chennai region is taken up for the geochemical evaluation.