Water Security: A Geospatial Framework for Urban Water Resilience

Urban water issues impacting sustainable development can be analyzed, modeled, and mapped through cutting-edge geospatial technologies; however, the water sector in developing countries suffers various spatial data-related problems such as limited coverage, unreliable data, limited coordination, and sharing. Available spatial data is limited to the aggregate level (i.e., National, State, and District level) and lacks details to make informed policy decisions and allocations. Despite signicant advancements in geospatial technologies, its application and integration at the policy and decision-making level are seldom. The current research provides a unique, holistic Geospatial Framework to measure and monitor water security through geospatial technologies. The study demonstrates the application of the proposed Geospatial Framework from technical and institutional perspectives in water-stressed zones in Pune city showing where and how to solve problems and where proposed actions can have the most impact on creating a sustainable water-secured future. The research encourages cross-disciplinary collaboration, decentralized activity, employing traditional and indigenous knowledge, green infrastructure, watershed management, and nature-based solutions through Geospatial Framework to solve the primary challenges of water and build our cities' resilience. The current research can collaborate with Municipal Corporation mutually benecial and work towards open-linked geospatial data for water security.


Introduction
Water insecurity remains one of the most pressing resilience challenges worldwide, making indispensable the need for conservation and collaboration between cities, partners, and stakeholders to nd an innovative and actionable solution (Rockefeller Foundation 2015). In recent years the development community has come to realize the need for geospatial technologies for water security. Greg & Abbas (2017) provided signi cant insights into integrating geospatial technologies to solve various sustainable development challenges. Recently, the Ministry of Science and Technology, Govt. of India, encouraged leveraging modern geospatial technologies, which would help improve planning and management of resources and better serve the speci c needs of citizens (DST 2021).
The availability of comprehensive and highly accurate geospatial data advances innovation and intensely enhances the preparedness for water resilience. It is necessary to have real-time spatial data on sustainable development measures (Dangermond 2020). Complete datasets increase e ciency in local planning, allow users to take the data o ine, analyze geographical context, model, and map to achieve Rockefeller Foundation (2015) selected Pune, India under its 100 resilient cities worldwide based on challenges the city faces, including water insecurity. In this paper, we developed a holistic, digital Geographic Information Systems (GIS) centric framework for water security, including a vast array of spatial maps, wide-ranging spatial thematic layers, and various useful strategies and policies for water security. Further, the paper shows the applications of the Geospatial Framework exploring the potential areas of water supply within the context of the peripheral villages in Pune city. The framework aims to conform to future improvement and long-term water sustainability.
The current research can collaborate with Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) in a mutually bene cial manner and work towards open-linked Geospatial data for water security and environmentally sensible urban water management. The Geospatial Framework aims to provide a common platform for geospatially enabled administrative and other water-related thematic data from across a range of sources that can be integrated based on location, as well as ensuring that these data can be integrated with other geospatial information. The framework can be used by diverse stakeholders who are concerned about water security. The Framework is designed considering the need of citizens to have a system of online geospatial data as wells as engaging them with communities, promote transparency, and collaborate across departments. Maps give an insight related to spatial interconnection, spatial interdependence, and context for decision-making.

Geospatial data-related challenges in the water sector in India
The water sector in India suffers several data-related problems such as limited coverage, limited coordination, and sharing (NITI Aayog 2019). The Ministry of Jal Shakti, Govt. of India launched a webbased centralized platform of geospatial data called India-WRIS in 2009, which was further revised in 2016 to ful ll water security (India-WRIS 2021). Indian Space Research Organization (Bhuvan, 2009) also provides geospatial data, including several thematic maps related to disasters, agriculture, water resources, and land. However, the data on these platforms are available at an aggregate level (i.e., National, State, district, block-level, and hydrological levels such as basin and sub-basins) and lacks the details required to run any sort of analysis and to make informed policy decisions. Further, PMC (2020) GIS portal provides access to geospatial data, which is limited to visualization purposes and does not allow the user to download the data for any further spatial analysis. Any research efforts need complete datasets with adequate metadata to facilitate their use. Due to the unavailability of comprehensive spatial data, it is di cult to assess the impact of different factors on water resilience, thereby reducing e ciencies in policy formulation, infrastructure maintenance, research, and innovation (NITI Aayog 2019). Goodchild (2007) encouraged creating valuable spatial data, which provide access to not only those who are doing serious geospatial investigations, including GIS professionals, academic scholars, and small GIS organizations but also to the general public who are not GIS professionals. The available spatial data can be used to compose dynamic maps online or o ine that can help achieve SDG # 6. Collaboration is the key to achieve SDG # 6, which might be driven from the top but the solution has to be driven from the bottom through engaging the community. Further, decision-makers, planners, and policymakers need to marry scientists and technology to solve real-world issues. Cities need a crosscutting framework that integrates and aligns a wide range of central and state-level policies for water security.

Strategies and policies for water security discussed by others
With the growing urban population, it is essential to look at alternative water supply systems instead of relying on centralized infrastructure approaches, i.e., piped water, limiting the option of more environmentally sensitive, exible, and resilient approaches (Brown et  Wetlands also act as natural barriers that soak up and capture rainwater, restrict soil erosion and prevent the impacts of oods. Groundwater resources are the lifeline of India's water supply in both the ruralagrarian situations and in the growing urban-industrial context. About 50% of urban water supplies are groundwater-based. Houngbo (2018) encouraged to employ of sustainable approaches such as traditional and indigenous knowledge like nature-based solutions (NBSs) and green infrastructure. Traditional urban planning always integrated nature in India, which has shown great potential to improve the management of water resources in urban areas. Green solutions such as preserving the functions of ecosystems, planting trees, restoring wetlands, recycle and harvest water, recharge groundwater, and protecting watersheds have shown great potential to improve the management of water resources in urban areas.
Drinking water supply should not be limited to centralized solutions; instead, decentralized, communitybased approaches should be promoted (

Proposed Geospatial Framework
All the elements of the water cycle, i.e., evapotranspiration, condensation, precipitation, in ltration, surface runoff, river, lakes, soil moisture, and groundwater are interdependent (NWP 2012). Through its multi-dimensional listing, we have tried to cover the entire trajectory from the environmental source of water to supply to distribution in the proposed Geospatial Framework. The proposed framework is designed based on the existing water scenario in Pune city, SDGs, and a review of existing water sustainability templates (national and international). The framework is designed for active management areas (AMAs) to help stakeholders to learn about the water sources that are local and sustainable for instance presence of traditional wells, spring water, green spaces, water bodies, watershed boundaries, wetlands, and groundwater recharge zones.
Water security Geospatial Framework is rich in geographic content and designed with aim of publicly accessible using any of the web browsers. The user may select several thematic layers, overlay, and analyze spatial patterns and relationships between data sets and download the data for o ine spatial analysis. The Framework supports various data formats (i.e., shape les, GeoTIFF images, KML, and coverage) and projections. The framework is simple, which can be used by people even without a GIS background. The framework aims to allow the user to visualize, download, upload spatial data, prepare maps, investigate, share and communicate and signi cantly enhance the ability of non-GIS academics and researchers to conduct their research. The proposed Geospatial Framework includes a package of thematic layers (Table 1), geospatial maps (Table 2), and the policies and strategies related to water security ( Table 3). The Framework is not static; it can be expanded with more map layers, new policies, and guidelines.

Application of Geospatial Framework/ Applying cutting-edge technology
We used Geospatial Framework to identify local resources, which could be an alternative source of water to decrease the demand for fresh water in cities. We explored various thematic layers and maps, which were selected from the Geospatial Framework as ready-to-use content, and analyzed the spatial patterns, spatial interconnections, and spatial interdependence between the features visually. Our exploration criteria are listed in table 4.
Most of the peripheral water supply zones in Pune are water-stressed, which need to be examined for better water supply services. Fig.2 shows the water-stressed zones including Balewadi, Baner West, Baner Hill, Sus Sutarwadi, Baner Gaon Zone 2 in the North-Western region, Paranjpe Layout in the Western region, Nyati Enclave in Southern region, Chandan Nagar zone-1, Kharadi zone 1, 2 and 3 in North-Eastern region, and Gliding center/ Hadapsar Gaon in Eastern region. Currently, the city draws the water of the Mutha river from the Khadakwasla reservoir, while dams at Panshet, Varasgaon, and Temghar reservoirs supplement the storage capacity of Khadakwasla. The Katraj and Pashan lakes are not directly used for water supply by the PMC but play an important role in recharging groundwater which is used by thousands of city dwellers. Groundwater supplies also play a signi cant role in meeting urban water needs. Currently, Pune city is supplied with 13 TMC water annually out of which about 4 TMC of water is extracted from groundwater in Pune city (ACWADAM 2019). It is important to understand the environmentally sensitive water resources for sustainable and equitable urban water supplies, which we assessed using Geospatial Framework at the regional scale.
We created buffers of 5 km, 10 km, 15 km, and 20 km around the PMC boundary for our analysis purpose. We pulled several thematic layers from the proposed Geospatial Framework in ArcGIS 10.5 and demonstrated the application of the Geospatial Framework to solve water issues. The layers included traditional step-wells, aquifers, springs, natural groundwater recharge zones, hilltops and hill-slopes, wetlands, and watershed boundaries in and around Pune city. Our goal is to identify local resources, which could be alternative water sources to decrease the demand for fresh water in cities. The study does not provide design criteria rather explores the potential areas of alternative water resources within the context.

Exploring Traditional step-wells around Pune city
We explored traditional step-wells, which resemble a funnel, with their size decreasing from top to bottom and their sides are lined with a steep ight of steps. The depth of these step-wells varies considerably depending on the level of groundwater as they penetrate deep into the ground to access groundwater. These step-wells have a small surface area at the bottom and considerable depth below ground. Thus the rate of evaporation of water from them is low.
We found several traditional step-wells (Fig. 3) in and around Pune city. We created a buffer of 5 km, 10 km, 15 km, and 20 km around the PMC boundary and overlayed them with step-wells. The study found one step-well i.e. Bhukum stepwell falls within ve km, ve step-wells between the buffer of 5 to 10 km, 11 step-wells between the buffer of 10 to 15 km, 10 step-wells between the buffer of 15 to 20 km, and several other step-wells fall outside the buffer of 20 km around Pune city ( Table 4). The city receives an annual rainfall of 722 mm between June and September, we should effectively use this gift of nature through these community-level structures spread around the city.
The ancient Indian settlement took place not only based upon the presence of rivers, coast, or perennial sources of water but also people settled banking on the presence of these traditional step-wells and rainwater harvesting structures (water tanks). These step-wells were built for water conservations. However, during British rule, many step-wells and water tanks were destroyed as they were found unhygienic and breeding grounds for several diseases. Considering the water shortage today especially in peripheral water supply zones, these step-wells and water storage tanks need to be protected and revived since borewells cannot be the future of the city. The traditional step-wells and rainwater harvesting structures of the past can support our future more sustainably.

Exploring Springs around Pune city
We explored the location of spring water in Pune city, which is majorly ignored as a water source. The use of spring water can ful ll the gap between the municipal water supply and the growing demand across the city. We overlayed the geospatial layer of the Pune spring inventory with the water index layer (ACWADAM 2019), which showed 35 springs, out of which 24 are perennial springs, and 11 are seasonal springs. We identi ed the presence of springs in many water-stressed zones includes Balewadi, Baner West, Baner Hill, Sus Sutarwadi, Baner Gaon Zone 2 in the North-Western region. ACWADAM (2019) documented discharges and in-situ water quality of these springs and found that spring water is clear and likely to be potable. This water can be used for other non-potable uses too. A detailed water quality assessment is required to check if springs could be an important natural alternative source of water supply at decentralized levels.

Exploring aquifers and recharge zones in Pune city
ACWADAM (2019) documented ve types of shallow uncon ned (or phreatic) aquifers (Fig. 5), which have a thickness ranging from 10 to 20 m. A comprehensive application of the practice of Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) must be designed for the city, based on the main recharge zones identi ed in each of the ve aquifers in the city instead of a random approach to groundwater recharge. The state regulates groundwater at the regional level, but the regulation process to recharge aquifers on a long-term basis demands local interests. Nearly half the area of these ve major aquifer recharge areas for Pune city is paved by residential areas, including gated communities, and multistoried apartment buildings. The other half is covered with mixed land use, including open plots, parks, and gardens, open spaces, private residences, commercial infrastructure, educational institutions, and other public and semi-public buildings. Educational institutions and other public and semi-public buildings with large landscaping can be potential areas for MAR, and the guidelines can be customized as per land cover type for groundwater recharge.

Exploring watershed in and around Pune city
Pune is crossed by many rivers and streams, which rise near the Sahyadris. Watershed management is necessary to prevent stormwater runoff, decrease soil erosion and increase groundwater recharge.
Protection of the catchments of the watershed clusters would protect the natural recharge zones. There are 30 watersheds in the Pune city limits (Fig. 6). Rapid urbanization has signi cantly damaged the natural drainage system with the paved surface in all watersheds, which increases the runoff. Therefore, Wright et.al (2021) recommended condensed development and preserve natural recharge zones for maintaining pre-development water balance (Wright et.al 2021). As cities share their watershed boundaries with rural areas, exploring watersheds help decision-makers, knowing the impacts of development on watershed hydrology.

Exploring Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) in and around Pune city
We further explored some Green infrastructure, i.e., green spaces, hill-topes and hill-slopes, wetlands, surface water bodies, agriculture, and forest areas (Fig. 7). Augmenting green spaces improve the natural hydrological systems in urban areas. Expansion of the urban green spaces is an economical and environmentally friendly approach to deal with stormwater runoff and urban ooding. Still, it can also improve the resiliency and sustainability of the city.
The hilltops and hill-slopes occupy nearly 2000 hectares of land in and around Pune city. Hills with afforestation and reforestation to prevent runoff, decrease soil erosion and increase groundwater recharge. As per the land use distribution of Pune city, the total area covered under hills and hill slopes is 5.10%, which governs the city's micro-climate. However, encroachment of hill slopes by informal settlements resulted in the loss of green covers on the hills hence increasing climate change (PMC, 2014).
To restore the ecology and enrich the green cover on these hills, regeneration, afforestation for biodiversity, and protection of these hills are necessary. No permission must be granted for constructions on hilltops (where the slope ratio is 1:5) as well as 100ft around the foothills. Further, biodiversity parks have been proposed in six different locations i.e. Baner -Pashan Lake, Pashan Panchwati, Sutarwadi, Hadapsar, Mohammadwadi, and Kondhwa Budruk in the city. Construction on these parks should not be encouraged such an area must be marked as a no-development zone and preserved as an open space. The total area under reserved forest and agriculture is 2905 ha which is 11.91% of the total area that plays a key role in ood risk management. We explored wetlands around the city, which play an important role as they capture rainwater, restrict soil erosion and prevent the impacts of oods. We further explored surface water bodies from the India-WRIS portal and found several small water bodies around PMC, which can be an alternative source of water as community-based water supplies to provide safe drinking water, as the community-based approach signi cantly increases sustainability.

Discussion And Conclusion
Citizens of Pune are worried about the water supply after merging the remaining 23 villages in June 2021. PMC is already under stress as PMC is unable to provide basic facilities to already merged 11 villages in 2017. The merger will help the government to create a land bank. However, there should be a regional plan which can reserve the rights of all agencies like PMC, and fringe villages. PMC should implement a decentralization model as suggested in Geospatial Framework for development.
ACWADAM (2019) estimated about 20% of Pune's water needs are met by groundwater as thousands of housing societies have borewells, and. It is recommended to adopt a comprehensive area-based approach and NBSs. The traditional step-wells need to be protected and revived. The PMC has already taken up its Handewadi project to revive a water percolation pond in southeast Pune, which encourages a large public initiative on sustainable water management. Further, the concretization of streams and nullahs should be stopped, which causes oods and reduce groundwater recharge. We need some policies to govern the use of groundwater.
The current research provides a broad GIS-centric framework for actionable science, which focuses on real context and facilitates geospatial maps and theoretical and practical knowledge to address various water issues such as water scarcity, groundwater management, ood management, and water quality management. Seeing the holistic view of water availability through a geographic interface provides great insight into the entire region and maintains details of each water zones individually.
The initial setup for the Geospatial Framework has been proposed, which can be expanded with new functionality. We can integrate any layer created by any other geospatial group, which we need for water security. We need to persuade PMC to integrate this Geospatial Framework into its existing GIS portal and adopt the environmentally sensitive approach of condense development and protect natural areas, riparian areas, open space, and watersheds in peripheral villages in their planning and zoning.
We conclude that the proposed Geospatial Framework is a valuable, user-friendly, and self-assessment tool, which will enable cities to carry out an objective assessment of their resilience and measure progress against an initial baseline. The current research provides a water resilient Geospatial Framework to implement global SDG # 6 at the local level which is about achieving universal and equitable access to safe and affordable water for all. The Geospatial Framework enables users, including city o cials, urban planners, researchers, residents, and consultants, to access and engage with geospatial data, obtain GIS training and resources, and learn how to use the data effectively to drive action on SDG #6. The Framework can be used for better decision-making and policy intervention and to prepare improvement plans at the city level. This is the future of water security, everyone needs to be Geospatially conscious, and GIS people must bring SDGs into practice. We all need to 'Expand, Intensify, Create, and Solve through this Geospatial Framework.If established and implemented, it will be a demonstration of good practice that can be taken up at the national level.    Green spaces, hill-topes and hill-slopes, and Wetlands