Assessment of peri-urban wetland ecological degradation through importance-performance analysis (IPA): A study on Chatra Wetland, India.

• This study aims to show the ecological degradation of Chatra Wetland. • LULC analysis displays >50 percent loss of this wetland in last 18 years. • IPA is applied to know residents satisfaction with the function of this Wetland. • The output suggests total dissatisfaction with five ecosystem services. • The overall perceived performance of this wetland is estimated around 55%. Application of importance-performance analysis (IPA) has received wide applicability to reveal resident's satisfaction with the performance of ecological services. In recent days, researchers have expanded the horizon of IPA through the implication of this technique in case of different ecosystem services to find out the satisfaction of local people with ecosystem services. However, a little contribution has been made in the field of wetland study through IPA. This study has tried to apply IPA in this field by taking into consideration of 10 common ecosystem services. The study unit is Chatra Wetland, which is a peri -urban wetland of the English Bazar city. Analysis of LULC of the past 18 years suggests that the net area of Chatra Wetland got reduced by >50 percent during this time. Besides this, decreasing the value of LPI, PLAND, cohesion, and CONTAG represents the fragmentation of the landscape of Chatra Wetland. The predicted LULC shows that this wetland will disappear by 2040 if the LULC conversion rate remains the same. In this regard, IPA is performed to understand the satisfaction level of the citizen of English Bazar city and the people of surrounding villages with the performance of Chatra Wetland. The output of IPA reveals that people are dissatisfied with the performance of five ecosystem services. These are biodiversity, flood control, water supply, identity, and cooling effect. All of them require the urgent need of attention to restoring the ecological condition in the study area. Overall, the performance rate of Chatra Wetland at present is perceived by the urban people as only 55.14 percent. However, the rate of perceived performance varies ward-wise and village-wise. It is observed that place attachment and proximity to Wetland have made a vital role in the perception of people. The perceived performance of Chatra Wetland is increasing gradually with increasing distance from the Chatra Wetland. The output of this study helps to reveal the importance of this wetland to the urban people as well as to the local villagers by identifying their satisfaction level and their enjoyment with the urban blue space. It also serves as a basis of the bottom-up approach of environmental management to the decision-makers by displaying the demand of people in case of ecological restoration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]