Population Growth, Socio-Economic Development and River Health in the Context of Siliguri City, West Bengal

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A composite index was used for socio-economic development, and maximum likelihood classification was used to develop a land use and land cover (LULC) change map of Siliguri City since 1991. The water quality index (WQI) was calculated using the National Sanitation Foundation WQI (NSF-WQI) by the instrument LABTRONICS MODEL LT-6.1. The result of the study population concentration has gradually increased due to migration and diverse economic activities, but the growth rate has declined relatively in previous decades. As a result, agricultural land, barren land, as well as vegetation cover have rapidly converted to built-up areas as well as affected river water quality. The deuteriations of water quality in the city are required for the sustainable management of river health and urban ecosystems through effective planning and policies. City Management and Urban Policy Population Growth Socio-Economic Development LULC Water Quality Index and Siliguri City Figures Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5 Figure 6 Figure 7 Figure 8 Figure 9 Figure 10 1. Introduction The dynamics of the worldwide growth of population are very high nowadays (US Census Bureau, 2019 ), especially in developing countries like India. Such a rapid growth rate has the worst effect on humanity and society as well. Not only is population growth in developing countries, but this growth far exceeds that in developing cities in the present world. The city, Siliguri, is not exceptional from this phenomenon, more likely accelerated population growth. The population is always growing, and their desires for better urban amenities and socioeconomic growth are the main factors influencing opportunities for urbanization in any urban center, particularly in developing nations (Shikary & Rudra, 2023 ). Towns are mainly focused on economic and technological development, innovation, and social development (McMichael, 2000 ). Urban centers have both positive and negative effects simultaneously (Bradshaw, 1987 ), but especially negative effects on the natural environment in and around urban areas. As compared to the population growth rate, it far exceeds the need for the level of economic development and improvement of people’s social needs. Spinning villages into urban centers and later into megacities is one of the major problems for our civilization, due to the enormous negative effects brought on by the impact of such rapid urbanization (Jaysawal & Saha, 2014 ; Vishwanath et al., 2013 ). Empirically, it is clear that the rapid growth of urban settlements during the past few decades is a consequence of the sharp increase in population (Pradhan, 2017 ). In the years following independence, the urban landscape saw a dramatic change (KUMAR, 2015 ). According to the World Bank Report, the urban population of India was 17.92 percent in 1960, and it increased to 34.47 percent in 2019. Recently a rapid growth in the urban population in India, the proportion of the urban population to the world population total became 11 percent in 2011, and it’s projected to reach 15 percent by 2031 with an urban population size of 600 million (UN, 2011) because India has share second largest urban population. Such rapid growth of urban population, which is a major contribution to the large and medium cities, results in huge pressure on limited land, infrastructure, and existing natural resources. Besides, the horizontal and vertical expansion of the city, the fast-growing population as well as urban functions, are gradually depleting the natural resources of million-plus cities and medium-sized cities as well as towns in India (Grimm et al., 2000 ; Farooq & Ahmad, 2008 ; Mundia & Murayama, 2010 ). This type of phenomenal growth of the urban population of the city is associated with contributions of natural increase in existing urban area populations, migration, and change in the fringe boundary of the existing city areas. Moreover, the process of urbanization has substantially changed the demographic profile and socio-economic structure of both large urban areas and the surrounding them as a result of increasingly more diverse and complex urban environments. Additionally, the exponential population expansion seen in some urban areas has destroyed the environment and human lives. Development is a dynamic aspect that should always be measured on various scales (Ohlan, 2013 ; Sharma, 2012 ). Socio-economic development is described as an unstoppable transformation process to improve the social and economic conditions that currently exist in society. Socio-economic development in an area depends on the people's performance in literacy, work participation, population growth as well as infrastructural development (Das, 1999 ; Sultana & Aktar, 2016 ). Socioeconomic development is a multidimensional process of betterment for a large human group and includes both economic development and social transformation. In the present study, in terms of the socioeconomic development of the people in the city, we take some developmental parameters, namely, social, economic, health, education, transportation, and empowerment. We see that the level of sociodemographic development in Siliguri City can be visualized in a multidimensional framework through the assessment of educational status, health, transport, tourism, and empowerment capability (Sen, 1988). Land use patterns are closely related to the characteristics of anthropogenic activities, which in turn influence the anthropogenic materials delivered into hydrological systems through run-off processes (Lee et al., 2009 ). Anthropogenic activities can degrade river water flow (Aazami et al., 2015 ). Land use characteristics are broadly accepted as factors that strongly influence river water quality (Kändler et al., 2017 ; Shi et al., 2017 ). The degree of economic development also has a significant impact on nutrient contamination. Population density, infrastructural development as well as industrial and commercial development have been considered to be significant drivers of water quality deterioration in inland rivers (Zhou et al., 2017 ). Siliguri is blessed with various rivers that flow in different parts of this city mainly from the north and north-eastern part to the southern part. One part of the city drains into the Mahananda River and the other half into Jorapani and Fuleswari Rivers. There are some low-lying areas within the watershed of the Mahananda, Jorapani, Fuleswari, Mahismari, and Panchanai Rivers. Today, almost every major city in India faces various problems of urban expansion, poor sewerage, insufficient water supply, and river deterioration (Rahman et al., 2009 ). Moreover, with the rapid increase in economic development and population concentration in the city there has been an outer expansion of the city boundary along with land use change and environmental degradation (Sarkar & Chouhan, 2019 ). Rivers are an important source of freshwater for any urban area as well as community. River water is very susceptible to contamination since it is exposed to numerous pollutants as a result of anthropogenic and natural activity. Rivers are getting very intensively polluted by wastewater dumping from different sectors like domestic, industrial, commercial, and soil erosion due to land use change, heavy metal pollution, and municipal waste in urban areas. As a result, it affects both environmental and human health. The majority of the deterioration of water bodies is caused by urban activities. The sewage discharge is causing a concentration of high nutrients in urban rivers. However, this problem is not only impacting developing countries but also developing countries where unplanned rapid urbanization, mass population, and industrialization are the key factors that have a negative effect on river water within urban territory (Singh et al., 2005 ). One of West Bengal's fastest-growing cities, Siliguri is experiencing significant economic growth, particularly in the trade and commerce sectors, which were built around the Mahananda River and four other rivers. It flows across 10 km of this city and plays a significant role in the growth of the economy as well as the urban. The concept of river health was first proposed in the US Clean Water Act in 1972, which referred to “the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation’s waters” (Act, 1972 ). Rapid urbanization and economic development are important causes of water pollution in the region (Shan et al., 2016 ). Water shortages and structural and functional deterioration of the rivers are serious issues (Yang et al., 2013 ). The Water Quality Index (WQI) model was developed by Horton in the 1960s and is based on 10 parameters of water quality deemed significant in most water bodies (Horton, 1965 ). Brown, with support from the National Sanitation Foundation developed a more rigorous version of Horton’s WQI model, the NSF-WQI, for which a panel of 142 water quality experts informed the parameter selection weighting (Abbasi, & Abbasi, 2012 ). For the fulfillment of the third objective of this study, to measure the Water Quality samples were collected from five locations over the Mahananda River main streams encircling both urbanized and non-urbanized parts of Siliguri City from July to August of 2023 and collected samples were 14 water quality indicators considered; pH, temperature, conductivity, turbidity, total hardness, DO, BOD, COD, NO3 for assessing water quality. There is no research on how population growth, socioeconomic development as well as urban growth, affect the water quality of the Mahananda, Jorapani, Fuleswari, Mahismari, and Panchanai Rivers. The article's main focus is on the study of the relationship between population growth and socioeconomic development security in the future, as well as the issues it will bring about because, if future socioeconomic needs of the population are not met at the necessary level, it will affect their lifestyle and social life. In the urban center, the degree of population growth and socioeconomic development has negative effects on the natural environment. Under the natural environment, river deterioration and their health are emerging issues in urban centers in cities located on river sites. In Asian developing countries, Rapid population growth and socioeconomic development are a great threat to human life and natural resources, like river deterioration, river pollution, shortages of drinking water, soil erosion, deforestation, and increased solid waste management (Sadigov, 2022 ). 2. Objectives The present study attempts to examine the following aims: i. To study the trend of population growth and assess the level of socio-economic development of Siliguri City; ii. To analyze population growth and socio-economic development influences on the deterioration of urban river health in the city. 3. The rationale of the study The present study design was conceptually higher population growth and socioeconomic development, as well as rapid urbanization, simultaneously affecting the deterioration of urban river health. Siliguri has been the fastest-growing urban center of North Bengal last few decades. In this regard, a few cities, including Siliguri, have seen tremendous growth in the number of “citizens” as quickly as Siliguri has, giving the impression of unsustainable urbanization. As a result, being a commercial hub, with high transportation as well as a break of Bulk points due to a rapid expansion and strategic location, Siliguri always pulled a large number of the population towards it. Besides, this population influx is accompanied by land use change, increasing construction as well as increasing waste generation, and it has the worst effect on the Mahananda, Fuleshwari, Jorapani, Mahismari, and Panchanai rivers of Siliguri City. 4. Study area Siliguri is one of the fastest-growing metropolitan cities and the third-largest urban agglomeration of West Bengal after Kolkata and Asansol. It acts as a major commerce center of North Bengal as well as North East India. The City Centres interact with the Jalpaiguri district and Darjeeling Himalayan foothills on the bank of the Mahananda River, the geographical extension of the study area is 26 0 30'50"N to 26 0 55'28"N latitudes and from 88 0 14'34"E to 88 0 35'32"longitude (Fig. 1) with an average elevation of 120m from mean sea level. It is known as the "Chicken's Neck" for its favorable geographical position and functions as the " Gateway of North-East India”, ‘A Transit Town’, etc. It is situated in a narrow corridor that connects Nepal in the northwest, Bangladesh in the south, and Bhutan in the north (District Census Handbook, 2011). Siliguri City is a major tourist attraction center, serving trade and service hub in the entire North-East India, which attracts a large number of migrants. In 1931, Siliguri was a non-municipal town/ village covering only 6067. The city got municipality status in 1949 with an area of 15.54 Sq.km with a rapid growth rate population due to the partition of West Bengal from East Pakistan which was made worse by political unrest in 1971 (Mallick et al., 2023) and another neighbour country, as a result, Siliguri became a Refugee center. Later, it became a transition point of transportation hub, employment generation as well as and trade center. Rapid economic, strategic location, and population growth are major architects of the rapid urbanization of Siliguri City. The city is growing gradually throughout North Bengal due to its geographic location and importance in terms of communication. According to the Census of India, from 1931 to 2011, the population increased from 6067 to 513264. The population density of Siliguri city is 12165 persons per sq. km in the last 2011 census (Census, 2011). According to the 2011 Census, Siliguri City shares a 41.90 sq. km area with the city’s population increasing more quickly, from more than three lakhs in 1991 to more than five lakhs in 2011 (Bhattacharyya & Mitra, 2013). We must recognize its incredible growth rate last three decades from 1991 to 2011, and the population of the city has more than doubled (Ghosh, 2018). In this regard, the rapid increase in the number of citizens in Siliguri City gives it a look of unsustainable urbanization compared to other cities. As a result, Siliguri City became a commercial, tourism, medical as well and transportation hub. Siliguri City attracts a large number of people from different parts of the country as well as adjacent rural people from different districts of West Bengal. These rapid urbanization and population growth are affecting on natural environment especially in urban River health in Siliguri City due to haphazard sewerage, lack of solid waste management, without purification of industrial and domestic water put on the river. The city’s high potential to accommodate the migrant population in the informal labor market is a result of the prevalence of squatters and slums in the city area. Siliguri is one of the oldest cities in West Bengal as well as the North Eastern states of India. Since its emergence, the pull factors of urbanization of the city are education, transportation, health, tourism, and market facilities. This city has attracted immigrants from nearby regions due to its combination of socioeconomic features. Excessive population growth is associated rapid expansion of built-up areas of Siliguri City in three decades. As a result, the city is expanding in a haphazard and unplanned manner. Siliguri is a class I town in India that has a higher trend toward concentration of urban population (Samanta, 2017). As an emerging city, Siliguri has a diversity of physical and socio-economic aspects; but the city is not included in the smart city project of the Government of India (Chakraborti et al., 2018; Das, 2011) Siliguri City has now become as much a center of socio-cultural activities as the town is cosmopolitan in nature. It is comprised of diverse ethnic Bengali, Nepali, Bhutia, Marwari, and Bihari people, with a substantial portion of Rajbanshi, the original inhabitants of the area. Siliguri is the point of location from where the cargo must be transferred from one carrier to another. Naturally, commerce has developed into one of Siliguri's enduring economic pillars. From the perspective of trading, the three T’s, that is, Tea, Tourism, and Timber, have been major economic products. 5. Data sources and methodology 5.1 Data sources For the present study, we used both primary and secondary data. Hence, in the present research, the demographic and socio-economic data, pattern, and changing scenario of land use and land cover as well as water quality index of the study area have been collected as follows the sources (Table 1). 5.2 Sample selection To investigate river health assessment, we collected 20 water samples from various sites across five rivers, namely Mahananda, Jorapani, Fuleswari, Mahismari, and Panchanai Rivers (Table 2). The sampling sites were selected from both the urbanized Siliguri City and non-urbanized areas outside Siliguri City while considering factors such as accessibility to the site, flow of the river, proximity to households, and mixing zone of pollutants from domestic and commercial waste. Two sampling sites outside Siliguri of each river have been taken 0.5 km away from the main boundary of Siliguri. Water samples were collected in a plastic bottle (500 mL) from 30cm below the water surface. In the study, water samples were collected for assessment of river quality because nowadays surrounding areas of rivers are more active with different anthropogenic activities, namely growing built-up areas, industrial waste, connecting the sewage water, domestic and commercial waste, and new markets. For the study of water quality, we have considered various physical, chemical, and biological parameters as follows 5.3 Methodology For the assessment of socioeconomic development, we used a composite index by population-related development data like population density, sex ratio, literacy rate, and work participation rate, and GIS and remote sensing have been integrated for analysis of Land use and land cover map last 40 years. Supervised classification using maximum likelihood classification was used to develop of land use and land cover (LULC) map of Siliguri City for the years 1991, 2001, 2011, and 2021. The WQI was calculated using the National Sanitation Foundation WQI (NSF-WQI) by the instrument LABTRONICS MODEL LT-6.1 (Water and soil analysis kit). Outside and inside site point data used for assessment of water quality index in different rivers of Siliguri City. Brown created the NSF WQI in 1965 (Abrahão et al., 2007 ) as an adaptation of the Horton model (Lumb et al., 2011 ). It has been used to evaluate surface water quality in different domains. Similar to the Horton model, it incorporates the four basic WQI components. The parameters for water quality were chosen using the Delphi method (Ewaid, 2017 ; Rocha et al., 2015 ; Tomas et al., 2017 ). The NSF index proposed eleven water quality parameters classified into five groups: i. Physical characteristics (temperature, turbidity, and total solids), ii. Chemical characteristics (pH and dissolved oxygen), iii. Microbiological characteristics (faecal coliforms and BOD), iv. Nutrient characteristics (total phosphate and nitrates), and v. Toxic characteristics (pesticides and toxic compounds) (Sutadian et al., 2016 ; Abbasi & Abbasi, 2012 ) (Fig. 3). The Brown model suggested that the toxic parameters groups be added, where most other WQI models omitted toxic elements (Brown et al., 1970 ). Based on the opinions of an expert panel, the parameter sub-indexing was established. Sub-index values ranged from 0 to 1, with a sub-index value of 1 being regarded when the measured value was considered to be within the suggested guideline values and a sub-index value of 0 otherwise (Lumb et al., 2011 ; Sutadian et al., 2016 ). The parameter weight values used by the model are uneven and add up to 1. The original NSF model prescribed weight values for DO (0.17), FC (0.16), pH (0.11), BOD (0.11), temperature (0.10), total phosphate (0.10), nitrates (0.10), turbidity (0.08), and total solids (0.07). The environmental importance of water quality metrics was also taken into account by this model when allocating the parameter weight value (Harkins, 1974 ). The original NSF model used a simple additive aggregation function-like equation (i). In 1973, Brown proposed an alternative aggregation function (Brown et al., 1973)- the multiplicative function shown in equation (ii). $$\:WQI={\sum\:}_{i=1}^{n}\text{S}\text{i}\text{W}\text{i}\dots\:\dots\:\dots\:\dots\:\dots\:\dots\:\dots\:\dots\:\dots\:\dots\:\dots\:..\:\left(\text{i}\right)$$ $$\:WQI=\prod\:_{i=1}^{n}\text{S}\text{i}\text{W}\text{i}\dots\:\dots\:\dots\:\dots\:\dots\:\dots\:\dots\:\dots\:\dots\:\dots\:\dots\:\dots\:.\left(ii\right)$$ Where WQI is the water quality index, n indicates the number of selected parameters, Wi denotes individual parameter weightage, and Wi indicates the experimental value or field value of parameters. The output values of the WQI model range from 0 to 100. The value 0 indicates the worst water quality and the value 100 indicates excellent water quality (Table 4). The model gives five water quality classes: 6. Results 6.1 Population growth Growth is a dynamic process. The growth of the population in terms of time, space, and functional behaviour of people denotes an important step toward understanding urban growth. Siliguri City has witnessed phenomenal growth in population since the pre-independence period due to its significant geographical location as well as diverse functions. Siliguri was a small village with a population of only 784 (O’Malley, 1907), now it is known as Saktigarh colony, located in the southern part of the city on the bank of the Mahananda River. In the year 1907, Siliguri was a subdivision of the Darjeeling district as per the declaration of the British government. After that, its population continued to grow rapidly, and in 1931, it attained urban status. Later in 1949, with the formation of Siliguri municipality, it was declared a municipality. At the time of independence and the partition of Bengal, a large number of refugees came from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), which may have contributed to the rapid growth of the population of Siliguri town. In the 1981 census, it was declared as a Class-I town with a population of 154378. In the year of 1994, it was declared a Municipal Corporation. The Siliguri municipality has 30 wards with a total area of 15.54 sq. km up of 1994. Following the declaration of corporation status in the same year, 17 extra wards were added to the city, bringing its total area to 41.90 sq. km. Siliguri Municipal Corporation was incorporated into two districts, namely Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri. Out of 47 wards, 33 wards are under the Darjeeling and the remaining 14 wards fall in the Jalpaiguri district (CDP, 2015). The population size has increased from 6067 in 1931 to 513264 in 2011. The highest growth rates were observed at 209.81 percent from 1941 to 1951, followed by 117.73 percent from 1991 to 2001, and population size increased by more than 3 and 2 times in just a decade, respectively. In the latest decades, the decadal growth rate has been slower at 8.66% (Table 5). Figure 4 presents the trend of the population that has gradually increased from 1921 to 1991; after 1991, it is a remarkable increase due to changes in the administrative area as well as migration. The growth rate rapidly increased from 1941 to 1951, after 1951 it had a decreasing trend until 1991, and it increased by 117.73 percent in 2001. Recently decadal growth rate has declined. The annual growth rate of 5.70 percent over the period 1931–2011, and the growth rate has always remained higher than the urban population growth rate in the district as well as the state. Therefore, Siliguri City has turned into the second-largest urban agglomeration in West Bengal after the Kolkata Municipal Corporation due to it promising higher geographical network connectivity as well as flourishing diversity of economic activities. The Municipality Corporation was formed in 1994. After 1994, the level of infrastructural development has been higher, like educational institutions and health facilities as well as network connectivity. Table 6 shows the demographic and socio-economic profile of Siliguri City from 1991 to 2011. The sex ratio is an important indicator of city development. The sex ratio was 824 and 885 females per 1000 males in 1991 and 2001, respectively, which is lower than the national average. However, in the year 2011 sex ratio was higher, 946 females per 1000 males, compared to the national average. It marked that Siliguri became a balanced sex ratio with respect to India. Population density can be considered a significant tool in the analysis of urban growth, and it indicates the distribution of man and land ratio. The density of the population was 13960.75 persons per sq. km in the year 1991, but it slightly declined to 12249.74 persons per sq. km due to the expansion of the municipality boundary from 15.54 sq. km to 41.90 sq. km. Figure 5 shows that wards number 6, 18, and 20 of the city recorded a very high density of population in 1991, due to these wards constituted the core of the city where commercial, educational, and administrative activity are concentrated. On the other hand, spatial variation in population density gradually decreasing in the central part of Siliguri. It has been recorded that remarkable changes have been found in wards number 40, 43, 46, and 47, being situated in the periphery area, where density has increased during the last decades (2001–2011). This is due to a lack of space and the prevalence of high land prices in the city core, which forces many people to settle in the outskirts, as a result, the south-western and western parts of the city have seen significant changes in land use, population pressure, and socio-economic activities in recent years. The study also reveals that the literacy rate in the city population increased from 74.24 percent in 19991 to 85.91 percent in 2011. Besides, the female literacy rate increased from 68.81 percent to 82.11 percent in 1991 and 2011 respectively. In the 20-year gap, the female literacy rate is higher (13.3 percent) compared to the overall literacy rate (11.68 percent). It means a decrease in gender disparity due to city development. Siliguri is also known as the ‘city of migrants. However, the nature of migration has changed over the periods. Siliguri became a city from a large village at the beginning of the twentieth century due to the influx of migrants from across the neighbouring countries after India was partitioned in 1947. Here, 48.90 percent were migrants to the population in 1991, but it declined to 27.99 percent. Moved after birth is the main reason for migration, followed by employment (22.56 percent), marriage (19.44 percent), others (14.10 percent), business (7.74 percent), education (2.56 percent), and Natural calamities like drought, floods, etc. (0.34) in 1991. Except for marriage and moving with a household, the reasons for migration have declined in Siliguri City from 1991 to 2011. Siliguri City has experienced increasing occupational transformation in the people of various social and age groups due to rapid urbanization and diversification of economic activities. The analysis of work participation rate in Siliguri City during the period 1991–2011. In 1991, the total work participation rate was 51.75 percent, whereas, after 20 years in 2011, the work participation rate of the city increased to 54.13 percent. 6.2 Socio-economic development The availability of the data limited the analysis of socioeconomic development, indicating a few indicators, such as sex ratio, population density, literacy rate, and workforce participation. The composite index of all the selected indicators presents an overall scenario of development ward-wise of Siliguri City. Figure 6 presents the composite indices for the identification of development. Ward numbers 11, 19, and 21 consist of highly developed areas, and ward numbers 2, 10, 7, 8, and 17 are under the group of very low socio-economically developed in 1991. In the year 2001, only three wards namely, 14, 15, and 16 recorded very high socio-economically development due to the core administrative and commercial area of the city, and oppositely wards number 1, 5, 6, 11, 28, 43, and 46 has been low socio-economically conditions because the periphery of the city, low lying riverside area as well as the flow the railway. Out of 47 wards, 7 wards belonged to very high socio-economic development groups, and 13, 22, 23, and 25 wards added this group in 2011. On the other hand, only 1, 5, 28, 35, and 42 are socio-economically backward due to the periphery of the city as well as low-lying areas. The result found that most of the wards transitioned from lower to higher socio-economic conditions from 1991 to 2011. According to the land use and land cover map, water bodies, vegetation cover, built-up area, barren land, and agricultural land constituted the major part of Siliguri City. During this period, built-up areas have rapidly increased (Fig. 7 and Table 7), and the sudden growth of the built-up area is also causing the decrease of agricultural land, barren land as well as vegetation cover. Table 7 shows that 3.13 percent of the land was classified as water bodies in 1991, this number decreased to 2.70 percent in 2021, indicating primarily the conversion of residential areas and scarcity of water resources, while the percentage of agricultural land experienced a sharp decline from 6.26 percent in 1991 to 6.10 percent in 2001 and then to 0.68 percent in 2021. Between 1991 and 2021, the area covered by agriculture as a result of its conversion to a built-up area continued to increase. Similarly, Barren land has been experiencing a reduction from 26.06 percent in 1991 to 13.67 percent in 2011 and then to 6.62 percent in 2021 (Fig. 9). Most of the barren land is covered by residential complexes and other economic activity. Vegetation cover has declined over the period, 37.69 percent in 1991, this percent decreased to 20.02 percent in 2011 and 16.39 percent in 2021(Fig. 8). Vegetation cover has decreased today by nearly half a percentage of 1991, it has an adverse effect on river health and the ecosystem with urban temperature. Built-up has continued to develop, primarily in and around Siliguri City, at the expense of construction and by absorbing agricultural regions, especially in areas close to urban centers. When explaining the LULC shifting circumstances, the loss of cropland was particularly noticeable. The development of economic activity as a kind of economic governance is linked to the changing behaviour of LULC. On the other hand, built-up areas of the city gradually increased from 26.85 percent in 1991 to 43.11 percent in 2001 and then to 60.89 percent in 2011 now 73.61 percent in 2021 (Table 7, 8; Fig. 8, 9). The build-up area of Siliguri has increased by more than 2 times in the last 40 years. In this connection, it is also mentioned that business is considered an important economic activity in Siliguri City, but nowadays, business as a whole in Siliguri City has gradually increased. Other indicators of population change are rarely found there due to in-migration, tourism, and medical facilities, e.g., the North-East corridor as well as North Bengal, which provides specific services. From the collected data it is found that in the year 1991 vegetation covered 37.69 percent area followed by built-up area (26.85 percent), barren land (26.06 percent), agriculture (6.26 percent), and water body (3.13 percent) while in 2021 built-up area covers the 73.61 percent area followed by vegetation cover (16.39 percent), barren land cover (6.62 percent), water body (2.70 percent) and built-up area (0.68 percent). 6.3 River Health The WQI and water quality status of Mahananda, Fuleswari, Jorapani, Mahismari, and Panchanai were obtained using the NSF-WQI method, and the calculated score of NSF-WQI for each sampling site has been presented. The result shows that based on the NSF-WQI method, Fuleshwari and Jorapani had medium to worse WQI results than Mahananda and Panchanai rivers. The average water quality index values of Mahananda, Jorapani, Fuleshwari, Mahismari, and Panchanai were 58.85, 54.83, 54.17, 71.33, and 65.67, respectively, and the status of water quality was medium, medium, medium, good, and medium, respectively (Table 9). 6.3.1. Mahananda River The result shows that the water quality index was obtained by calculating the number of each of the water quality indices in the area, which is compared to water quality criteria according to the National Sanitation Foundation-Water Quality Index. The calculation of WQI can be found for the upstream sampling site M1 with an NSF-WQI score of 70.1. However, the subsequent sampling sites displayed medium to bad water quality status for M2 (64.5), M3 (59.3), M4 (56.5), M5 (54.3), and M6 (48.4) implying the impacts of urban and municipal waste into the river water (Fig. 10). A spatial distribution study, which visualized the NSF-WQI interpolation score, further validated this claim. Based on the score of the NSF-WQI, the order of water quality status in the sampling sites followed the order of M1 > M2 > M3 > M4 > M5 > M6. The sequence also indicated that the water quality of the river was in good status before entering the urbanized area of Siliguri City and later degraded due to the input of untreated domestic and industrial effluent water, which continued to flow outside of the city boundary and further to the downstream sampling sites M6. These results pointed out sampling sites M2, M3, M4, and M5 as the main hotspot zones for the deterioration of river water quality. Although river water quality was not found to be in a worse condition in the upper stream of the river, it might be frequently impacted if solid waste and untreated water continued to be dumped at its existing level. 6.3.2. Jorapani river The WQI values of the present investigation from different sampling points at River Jorapani are calculated as per the several parameters mentioned earlier. However, the use of these sample parameters has always been linked to the area in which the water of the river is influenced, so that it is possible to identify which physical, chemical, and biological variables are being measured. The values below or above values from permissible limits as prescribed by NSF indicate the variable concentration of physical, chemical, and biological properties. Along the River Jorapani, water samples from the sample points (J1 to J3) showed low concentration of WQI (48.1 to 62.3) well below permissible levels as per the standards, indicating that the river water is not exactly for human consumption. 6.3.3. Fuleshwari River Based on the results obtained, it can be stated that some of the values of parameters have exceeded the permissible limits as prescribed by NSF. However, the WQI values (F1-61.4, F2-53.2, and F3-47.9) calculated for different sample sites of the River Fuleshwari indicate that the water is not safe for human consumption. It can be considered that the values of WQI in the present investigation were reported to be less than 70, indicating that the water is not suitable for human consumption. After meeting the Fuleshwari and Jorapani rivers, the water quality value is 48, It is under the bad water quality status due to the huge amount of polluted water from domestic and industrial sectors mixed in downstream (Fig. 10), as a result, water quality is very poor which is not used for human consumption 6.3.4. Mahismari river DO, FC, pH, BOD, temperature, total phosphate, nitrates, turbidity, and total solids occur in all types of natural lotic water. The extreme concentration of variables is an indication of pollution due to human interference, and the values obtained in the study are found in the range between WQI 76.4 to WQI 68.2 (Table 9). In northern stretch of the River Mahismari has a good concentration of WQI, indicating safety for consumption, whereas the southern stretch of the river has assessed the occurrences of water pollution at low WQI. 6.3.5. Panchanai River The WQI values for lotic water range from 72.4 to 61.1 as per standards, and in this respect, this water in River Panchanai is not suitable for drinking or other purposes. WQI computation with certain authorized indices has been used to assess the relative water quality at different points of the river Panchanai. This indexing approach results in less reliability when the river passes through the town. The distinct factors, including industrial and domestic purposes of water usage, influence the water quality. Therefore, it must be stated that the water quality depends on human consumption, area, and occurrences of parameters. 7. Discussion Among North Bengal, Siliguri City is one of the fastest and largest urbanized areas, which has a huge potential for sustainable development. The unique demographic and socio-economic characteristics of Siliguri City make it most important. Demographically, it has been discussed that Siliguri City shares 15.95% of the population among the 131 towns of North Bengal. Besides, Siliguri City is a class-I City in terms of population as well as urban amenities. In terms of socio-economic perspective, it can be stated that Siliguri City is the hub of employment, educational opportunities, and a trade center for locals as well as outsiders who come from various parts of India. For sustainable urban development, it is essential to recognize the key challenges brought on by these fast-expanding socio-economic processes and to carefully address these challenges (Aghajani, 2014 ). Siliguri City is undoubtedly the only main commercial and administrative hub of the district that could be expanded in future decades in a more expanding manner in terms of population and spatial extent. Spatial urban development is mainly focused on the construction of roads, residential hubs, and administrative areas, which have deteriorating river water quality. On the other hand, untreated sewage water from polluted sites in urbanized areas reduces the surface and groundwater quality. Siliguri City has many strengths and opportunities for development as well as urbanization. This city is located in the center of the heart of North Bengal. Because of high network connectivity and a suitable location for tourist services and medical service centers of the whole of North Bengal. For that, the connection from all directions of the various cities like Kolkata, Guwahati, Sikkim, Patna, etc., is found to be very easy. One of the biggest strengths of the urbanization of this city is that this has more than five lakh population and commercial, transportation, and tourist services as well as a medical center. In Siliguri city, the impulsive trend of haphazard development and accretive population pressure has damaged the city's current land usage and infrastructure. The rapid growth of the city, with high population inflow from all sides and limited land for residential purposes, has resulted in a phenomenal increase in unplanned settlement growth on the riverbank of the city. Most of the economically backward migrant population comes from neighboring countries like Bangladesh, Nepal, and Bhutan as well as different states of India. These migrants have illegally haphazardly settled on fallow land, low-lying areas, and along the river banks of Mahananda, Fuleshwari, Jorapani, Panchanai, and Mahismari rivers as well as by the sides of railway lines and highway sides, and in all other areas where fallow land is available. The emergence of multi-storeyed housing projects and the presence of restaurants, shopping malls like ‘Big bazar’, ‘Vishal mega marker’, ‘Shopper stops’, ‘Trends’, ‘Vega Circle’ and ‘City center’, and medical treatment center like ‘Anandalok multispeciality hospital’, ‘Neotia’ ‘Dr. Chhang’s Super Specialty Hospital, etc., is also a recent development. A socioeconomically depressed area is also experiencing this contemporary urbanization trend. The unplanned process of land occupation and industrial development as well as the building up of the residential complex, led to increased environmental problems like waterlogging, sewage disposal, water pollution, drainage plugging, etc., in the city. Moreover, it especially effects on river health of Siliguri City. Higher contribution of land use and socio-economic effects on the river health system. Arable land use can harm streams by increasing nonpoint pollution inputs, which have an effect on the water quality and the stream channel and alter flow patterns (Allan, 2004 ). Water quality in city areas has declined, and the nature of urban area river flow is straight channelized as well as having a uniform bed morphology (Maddock, 1999 ). Population density increased with higher demand for water resources for domestic, industrial, commercial, and energy purposes as a result of the combination of contaminants flowing into rivers (Juma et al., 2014 ). Throughout the world, developmental works and modifications have imposed a diverse variety of land use and land cover changes and vice versa. Among these changes, the majority are caused by anthropogenic activity, while some are caused by nature. Modifications and economic activity along the rivers have occurred throughout the past to present times, but concern about the sustainability of land use has a miscellaneous range. So, there is a cause-and-effect relationship between developmental works and land use and land cover changes. In the Sub-Himalayan Plain, Siliguri City has a large activity across the city region. As a consequence of this regard, different developmental works, economic activity, and livelihood have influenced on environment, and the other way round, variability of the water regime of the study area is subject to the livelihood and land use pattern, particularly in the last two to three decades. The rapid increase in population requires proper infrastructure for the availability of services. With respect to public infrastructure such as roads, hospitals, commercial hubs, and educational institutions, Siliguri City has provided better services over the last 2 decades, yet various problems are faced. For this research, the common land use and land cover features have been identified in Siliguri City, such as water bodies, built-up areas, barren land, agricultural land, and vegetation cover, which consists of forest cover and scattered trees distributed over the study area. Built-up areas are mostly prone to flood occurrences because of that made by impervious surfaces which increases the storm runoff and inundation (Tehrany et al. 2013) whereas the green cover region is less prone to flooding because of vegetation cover and open surfaces do not put obstacles in the movement of water (Yin et al. 2017) and also there has positive association between infiltration capability and vegetation cover (Rahamati et al. 2015). The Land use and land cover (LULC) feature of the Siliguri City affects the surface water runoff and increases built-up area both directly and indirectly (Zhang et al. 2010). In particular, land use features have a significant role in influencing the hydrological processes in a river network such as water discharge, water level, and extreme events. LULC change has always happened on Earth, which is found in the demographic and morphometric record. Nowadays, the rate and magnitude of population change are rapid and have become a great concern worldwide. There are many anthropogenic factors responsible for these concerns. The changes in land use and land cover are a net effect of water availability in the rivers themselves. Extreme population effect negatively impacted occupation and settlement encroachment in the adjacent vegetal cover area over the Sub-Himalayan plain. It is spatially exhibited that demographic changes have impacts on Land use and land cover patterns in the Sub-Himalayan city region. It documents brief details of long-term demographic changes and Land use and land cover patterns to evaluate its environmental importance in the concerned issue. Land use and land cover within Siliguri City reveal a complex land use setup. The drainage of the city has a number of utilities and uses for socio-economic development, but with an increase in population day by day, most of the services have faced different kinds of problems and sometimes have steadily diminished. Due to the spread of population changes, socioeconomic factors, and economic governance in the examined part, the land use area expanded rather than the land cover. Notably, the location surroundings of Siliguri have more space covered by tea gardens. Since small farmers believe tea plantations to be more profitable than traditional agricultural approaches, they have converted a significant amount of agricultural land into tea gardens; however, most of their attention has been directed away from the river bed. With the bare land being turned into residential land, there have been significant changes to the land use and land cover over Siliguri City as the study region. The result reveals that the water quality of the rivers was in good status before entering the urbanized area of Siliguri City and later degraded due to rapid population growth, haphazard urbanization, land use change, and the input of untreated domestic and industrial effluent water as well as the socio-economic development of the city. Moreover, Mahanada, Jorapani, and Fuleshwari are more affected by the Siliguri city as compared to the Mahismari and Panchanai rivers. The average water quality status of Mahananda, Jorapani, Fuleshwari, Mahismari, and Panchanai was medium, medium, medium, good, and medium, respectively. For instance, the Mahanada River is a major river in Siliguri City, and its threat of pollution by anthropogenic activity due to rapid population growth, socioeconomic development as well as industrialization (Parween et al., 2022 ). Human intervention in the Mahananda River may degrade the river's health (Roy & Kasemi, 2022 ). The same phenomenon is observed in Jorapani, Fuleswari, Mahismari, and Panchanai Rivers. In recent decades continued deterioration in the river quality has been noticeable since the river water is more vulnerable to pollutants from both natural and anthropogenic sources such as industrial sewages, disposed domestic waste, and irrigation drainage water on both sides of the Mahananda River bank (Uddin et al., 2023 ; Uddin et al., 2020 ; Mozumder et al., 2015 ; Rangarajan et al., 2019 ) as well as adjacent river of Siliguri city. Siliguri, which is part of the Darjeeling district of West Bengal, is a significant urbanized metropolis and an important industrial sector within the diverse geographic regions of India due to its strategic location close to both the international and domestic borders. Most domestic and business activities in the Siliguri Municipal Corporation area revolve around the Mahananda River (IDP, 1965 ) as well as other rivers. Every year, the Mahananda, Jorapani, Fuleswari, Mahismari, and Panchanai rivers receive large amounts of effluent water without any purification from different sources like domestic, industrial effluents, unplanned urbanization, and improper management of waste, which significantly affects the quality of its water (Abrahão et al., 2007 ; Mukherjee et al., 2013 ; Roy et al., 2021 ; Shil & Singh, 2019 ). As a result, pollutants have increased gradually due to rapid urbanization as well as a lack of space. In Siliguri, rivers have frequently been exploited as disposal grounds (Shil et al., 2019). 8. Recommendation and conclusion The result of this study has revealed that urban stress, like rapid population growth and socioeconomic development of the city, influenced the deteriorated river water quality because relatively good water quality status was found upstream outside of the urban river, whereas poor water quality was recorded in the city area. The major conclusions from the study are as follows: most of the water quality status was found at the lower level across the five rivers within Siliguri City. The result of the study can lead to suggestions for water quality parameters that must be monitored by the City Government. Therefore, the river needs preventative management procedures to reduce further contamination of its water. To tackle future water pollution-related hazards, for future planning purposes, the state government and municipal corporations should develop proper strategies to reduce the inputs of waste and contaminants from the source of origin. The deterioration of rivers is an emerging issue in Siliguri City. River water is influenced by various anthropogenic activities as a result, river water quality has lost its natural characteristics like temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, BOD, Total solids, turbidity, Nitrates, total phosphate, and faecal coliforms. The establishment of a sewage treatment plant is essential to purify the contaminated water before combining it with the Mahananda, Fuleswari, Jorapani, Panchanai, and Mahismari rivers and proper waste management practices should be considered as sustainable urban management solutions. 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Study\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"1.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6850488/v1/8b2a01176871a9cc1fee93b6.png"},{"id":84323213,"identity":"3c795bd2-e5b6-462f-a985-097334392a74","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-06-10 14:42:09","extension":"png","order_by":2,"title":"Figure 2","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":1061390,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eLocation map of the study area\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"2.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6850488/v1/ca279a1cfd0af6183fd0b771.png"},{"id":84324028,"identity":"72359abc-5f9c-4946-b1ae-891a2837a9e9","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-06-10 14:50:09","extension":"png","order_by":3,"title":"Figure 3","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":62708,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eWater quality parameters according to NSF-WQI.\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"3.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6850488/v1/39a752482188f9285d911ffa.png"},{"id":84324950,"identity":"b2eb78ef-eb27-4e92-92c3-fca36605df5a","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-06-10 14:58:09","extension":"png","order_by":4,"title":"Figure 4","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":43149,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eTrend of population and growth rate in Siliguri City\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"4.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6850488/v1/7141c07c73a44c8c550447d1.png"},{"id":84324952,"identity":"5193012e-df77-4652-95f9-068662936e0b","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-06-10 14:58:09","extension":"png","order_by":5,"title":"Figure 5","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":452403,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eWard-wise population density of Siliguri City (1991, 2001, 2011)\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"5.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6850488/v1/39fdad18d6fb05243817ed1e.png"},{"id":84324029,"identity":"cc0b81a3-1aa7-44cc-a25f-a4ed52e0baa1","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-06-10 14:50:09","extension":"png","order_by":6,"title":"Figure 6","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":584837,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eWard-wise socio-economic development of Siliguri City (1991, 2001, and 2011)\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"6.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6850488/v1/78e65d90b40e024cc81ab40a.png"},{"id":84323221,"identity":"2171fdf3-9837-4be9-81ec-02c0ec980ac5","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-06-10 14:42:09","extension":"png","order_by":7,"title":"Figure 7","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":1123236,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eChanging pattern of land use and land cover of Siliguri City (1991 to 2021)\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"7.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6850488/v1/2ca425f10d4051a2ba3fa7ff.png"},{"id":84324032,"identity":"ff2a2670-f12f-4e5a-acf1-19953eec1c51","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-06-10 14:50:09","extension":"png","order_by":8,"title":"Figure 8","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":12205,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eChanging detection of LULC class (1991 to 2021)\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"8.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6850488/v1/9678ad758e601d739e3d2979.png"},{"id":84323218,"identity":"c67c852b-2efd-470c-80bd-81e9007aabc0","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-06-10 14:42:09","extension":"png","order_by":9,"title":"Figure 9","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":30477,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eChanging pattern of LULC in the study area\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"9.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6850488/v1/9c51ec46133ee7861cd31363.png"},{"id":84323219,"identity":"e39c3660-71c0-4cd2-bff7-005fc61969c2","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-06-10 14:42:09","extension":"png","order_by":10,"title":"Figure 10","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":421701,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eWater quality status of different rivers of Siliguri City\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"10.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6850488/v1/d5212516bcb0264ba2078dec.png"},{"id":84325576,"identity":"a2bd08c9-a1bf-4dbf-9176-ebe71736e21e","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-06-10 15:06:11","extension":"pdf","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":4491688,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"manuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6850488/v1/7b3bbcb9-b3a7-4819-8edc-cafe0ad6f12a.pdf"},{"id":84323207,"identity":"60642f82-71e1-411e-a2ad-5e140112e38e","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-06-10 14:42:09","extension":"docx","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":32756,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"ListofTables.docx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6850488/v1/4c5e06236f661d77611a5391.docx"}],"financialInterests":"The authors declare potential competing interests as follows: Please review the paper for further publication. ","formattedTitle":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePopulation Growth, Socio-Economic Development and River Health in the Context of Siliguri City, West Bengal\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","fulltext":[{"header":"1. Introduction","content":"\u003cp\u003eThe dynamics of the worldwide growth of population are very high nowadays (US Census Bureau, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR56\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2019\u003c/span\u003e), especially in developing countries like India. Such a rapid growth rate has the worst effect on humanity and society as well. Not only is population growth in developing countries, but this growth far exceeds that in developing cities in the present world. The city, Siliguri, is not exceptional from this phenomenon, more likely accelerated population growth. The population is always growing, and their desires for better urban amenities and socioeconomic growth are the main factors influencing opportunities for urbanization in any urban center, particularly in developing nations (Shikary \u0026amp; Rudra, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR47\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e). Towns are mainly focused on economic and technological development, innovation, and social development (McMichael, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR29\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2000\u003c/span\u003e). Urban centers have both positive and negative effects simultaneously (Bradshaw, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR8\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1987\u003c/span\u003e), but especially negative effects on the natural environment in and around urban areas. As compared to the population growth rate, it far exceeds the need for the level of economic development and improvement of people\u0026rsquo;s social needs. Spinning villages into urban centers and later into megacities is one of the major problems for our civilization, due to the enormous negative effects brought on by the impact of such rapid urbanization (Jaysawal \u0026amp; Saha, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR21\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2014\u003c/span\u003e; Vishwanath et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR57\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2013\u003c/span\u003e). Empirically, it is clear that the rapid growth of urban settlements during the past few decades is a consequence of the sharp increase in population (Pradhan, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR35\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e). In the years following independence, the urban landscape saw a dramatic change (KUMAR, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR24\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2015\u003c/span\u003e). According to the World Bank Report, the urban population of India was 17.92 percent in 1960, and it increased to 34.47 percent in 2019. Recently a rapid growth in the urban population in India, the proportion of the urban population to the world population total became 11 percent in 2011, and it\u0026rsquo;s projected to reach 15 percent by 2031 with an urban population size of 600\u0026nbsp;million (UN, 2011) because India has share second largest urban population. Such rapid growth of urban population, which is a major contribution to the large and medium cities, results in huge pressure on limited land, infrastructure, and existing natural resources. Besides, the horizontal and vertical expansion of the city, the fast-growing population as well as urban functions, are gradually depleting the natural resources of million-plus cities and medium-sized cities as well as towns in India (Grimm et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR17\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2000\u003c/span\u003e; Farooq \u0026amp; Ahmad, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR15\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2008\u003c/span\u003e; Mundia \u0026amp; Murayama, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR32\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2010\u003c/span\u003e). This type of phenomenal growth of the urban population of the city is associated with contributions of natural increase in existing urban area populations, migration, and change in the fringe boundary of the existing city areas. Moreover, the process of urbanization has substantially changed the demographic profile and socio-economic structure of both large urban areas and the surrounding them as a result of increasingly more diverse and complex urban environments. Additionally, the exponential population expansion seen in some urban areas has destroyed the environment and human lives.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eDevelopment is a dynamic aspect that should always be measured on various scales (Ohlan, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR33\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2013\u003c/span\u003e; Sharma, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR45\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2012\u003c/span\u003e). Socio-economic development is described as an unstoppable transformation process to improve the social and economic conditions that currently exist in society. Socio-economic development in an area depends on the people's performance in literacy, work participation, population growth as well as infrastructural development (Das, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR12\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1999\u003c/span\u003e; Sultana \u0026amp; Aktar, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR50\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2016\u003c/span\u003e). Socioeconomic development is a multidimensional process of betterment for a large human group and includes both economic development and social transformation.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn the present study, in terms of the socioeconomic development of the people in the city, we take some developmental parameters, namely, social, economic, health, education, transportation, and empowerment. We see that the level of sociodemographic development in Siliguri City can be visualized in a multidimensional framework through the assessment of educational status, health, transport, tourism, and empowerment capability (Sen, 1988). Land use patterns are closely related to the characteristics of anthropogenic activities, which in turn influence the anthropogenic materials delivered into hydrological systems through run-off processes (Lee et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR25\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2009\u003c/span\u003e). Anthropogenic activities can degrade river water flow (Aazami et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR1\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2015\u003c/span\u003e). Land use characteristics are broadly accepted as factors that strongly influence river water quality (K\u0026auml;ndler et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR23\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e; Shi et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR46\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e). The degree of economic development also has a significant impact on nutrient contamination. Population density, infrastructural development as well as industrial and commercial development have been considered to be significant drivers of water quality deterioration in inland rivers (Zhou et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR59\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSiliguri is blessed with various rivers that flow in different parts of this city mainly from the north and north-eastern part to the southern part. One part of the city drains into the Mahananda River and the other half into Jorapani and Fuleswari Rivers. There are some low-lying areas within the watershed of the Mahananda, Jorapani, Fuleswari, Mahismari, and Panchanai Rivers. Today, almost every major city in India faces various problems of urban expansion, poor sewerage, insufficient water supply, and river deterioration (Rahman et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR36\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2009\u003c/span\u003e). Moreover, with the rapid increase in economic development and population concentration in the city there has been an outer expansion of the city boundary along with land use change and environmental degradation (Sarkar \u0026amp; Chouhan, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR43\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2019\u003c/span\u003e). Rivers are an important source of freshwater for any urban area as well as community. River water is very susceptible to contamination since it is exposed to numerous pollutants as a result of anthropogenic and natural activity. Rivers are getting very intensively polluted by wastewater dumping from different sectors like domestic, industrial, commercial, and soil erosion due to land use change, heavy metal pollution, and municipal waste in urban areas. As a result, it affects both environmental and human health. The majority of the deterioration of water bodies is caused by urban activities. The sewage discharge is causing a concentration of high nutrients in urban rivers. However, this problem is not only impacting developing countries but also developing countries where unplanned rapid urbanization, mass population, and industrialization are the key factors that have a negative effect on river water within urban territory (Singh et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR49\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2005\u003c/span\u003e). One of West Bengal's fastest-growing cities, Siliguri is experiencing significant economic growth, particularly in the trade and commerce sectors, which were built around the Mahananda River and four other rivers. It flows across 10 km of this city and plays a significant role in the growth of the economy as well as the urban.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe concept of river health was first proposed in the US Clean Water Act in 1972, which referred to \u0026ldquo;the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation\u0026rsquo;s waters\u0026rdquo; (Act, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR4\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1972\u003c/span\u003e). Rapid urbanization and economic development are important causes of water pollution in the region (Shan et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR44\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2016\u003c/span\u003e). Water shortages and structural and functional deterioration of the rivers are serious issues (Yang et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR58\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2013\u003c/span\u003e). The Water Quality Index (WQI) model was developed by Horton in the 1960s and is based on 10 parameters of water quality deemed significant in most water bodies (Horton, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR19\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1965\u003c/span\u003e). Brown, with support from the National Sanitation Foundation developed a more rigorous version of Horton\u0026rsquo;s WQI model, the NSF-WQI, for which a panel of 142 water quality experts informed the parameter selection weighting (Abbasi, \u0026amp; Abbasi, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR2\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2012\u003c/span\u003e). For the fulfillment of the third objective of this study, to measure the Water Quality samples were collected from five locations over the Mahananda River main streams encircling both urbanized and non-urbanized parts of Siliguri City from July to August of 2023 and collected samples were 14 water quality indicators considered; pH, temperature, conductivity, turbidity, total hardness, DO, BOD, COD, NO3 for assessing water quality. There is no research on how population growth, socioeconomic development as well as urban growth, affect the water quality of the Mahananda, Jorapani, Fuleswari, Mahismari, and Panchanai Rivers. The article's main focus is on the study of the relationship between population growth and socioeconomic development security in the future, as well as the issues it will bring about because, if future socioeconomic needs of the population are not met at the necessary level, it will affect their lifestyle and social life. In the urban center, the degree of population growth and socioeconomic development has negative effects on the natural environment. Under the natural environment, river deterioration and their health are emerging issues in urban centers in cities located on river sites. In Asian developing countries, Rapid population growth and socioeconomic development are a great threat to human life and natural resources, like river deterioration, river pollution, shortages of drinking water, soil erosion, deforestation, and increased solid waste management (Sadigov, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR41\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"2. Objectives","content":"\u003cp\u003eThe present study attempts to examine the following aims: i. To study the trend of population growth and assess the level of socio-economic development of Siliguri City; ii. To analyze population growth and socio-economic development influences on the deterioration of urban river health in the city.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"3. The rationale of the study","content":"\u003cp\u003eThe present study design was conceptually higher population growth and socioeconomic development, as well as rapid urbanization, simultaneously affecting the deterioration of urban river health. Siliguri has been the fastest-growing urban center of North Bengal last few decades. In this regard, a few cities, including Siliguri, have seen tremendous growth in the number of \u0026ldquo;citizens\u0026rdquo; as quickly as Siliguri has, giving the impression of unsustainable urbanization. As a result, being a commercial hub, with high transportation as well as a break of Bulk points due to a rapid expansion and strategic location, Siliguri always pulled a large number of the population towards it. Besides, this population influx is accompanied by land use change, increasing construction as well as increasing waste generation, and it has the worst effect on the Mahananda, Fuleshwari, Jorapani, Mahismari, and Panchanai rivers of Siliguri City.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"4. Study area","content":"\u003cp\u003eSiliguri is one of the fastest-growing metropolitan cities and the third-largest urban agglomeration of West Bengal after Kolkata and Asansol. It acts as a major commerce center of North Bengal as well as North East India. The City Centres interact with the Jalpaiguri district and Darjeeling Himalayan foothills on the bank of the Mahananda River, the geographical extension of the study area is 26\u003csup\u003e0\u003c/sup\u003e30\u0026apos;50\u0026quot;N to 26\u003csup\u003e0\u003c/sup\u003e55\u0026apos;28\u0026quot;N latitudes and from 88\u003csup\u003e0\u003c/sup\u003e14\u0026apos;34\u0026quot;E to 88\u003csup\u003e0\u003c/sup\u003e35\u0026apos;32\u0026quot;longitude (Fig. 1) with an average elevation of 120m from mean sea level. It is known as the \u0026quot;Chicken\u0026apos;s Neck\u0026quot; for its favorable geographical position and functions as the \u0026quot; Gateway of North-East India\u0026rdquo;, \u0026lsquo;A Transit Town\u0026rsquo;, etc. It is situated in a narrow corridor that connects Nepal in the northwest, Bangladesh in the south, and Bhutan in the north (District Census Handbook, 2011). Siliguri City is a major tourist attraction center, serving trade and service hub in the entire North-East India, which attracts a large number of migrants.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 1931, Siliguri was a non-municipal town/ village covering only 6067. The city got municipality status in 1949 with an area of 15.54 Sq.km with a rapid growth rate population due to the partition of West Bengal from East Pakistan which was made worse by political unrest in 1971 (Mallick et al., 2023) and another neighbour country, as a result, Siliguri became a Refugee center. Later, it became a transition point of transportation hub, employment generation as well as and trade center.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRapid economic, strategic location, and population growth are major architects of the rapid urbanization of Siliguri City. The city is growing gradually throughout North Bengal due to its geographic location and importance in terms of communication. According to the Census of India, from 1931 to 2011, the population increased from 6067 to 513264. The population density of Siliguri city is 12165 persons per sq. km in the last 2011 census (Census, 2011). According to the 2011 Census, Siliguri City shares a 41.90 sq. km area with the city\u0026rsquo;s population increasing more quickly, from more than three lakhs in 1991 to more than five lakhs in 2011 (Bhattacharyya \u0026amp; Mitra, 2013). We must recognize its incredible growth rate last three decades from 1991 to 2011, and the population of the city has more than doubled (Ghosh, 2018).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn this regard, the rapid increase in the number of citizens in Siliguri City gives it a look of unsustainable urbanization compared to other cities. As a result, Siliguri City became a commercial, tourism, medical as well and transportation hub. Siliguri City attracts a large number of people from different parts of the country as well as adjacent rural people from different districts of West Bengal. These rapid urbanization and population growth are affecting on natural environment especially in urban River health in Siliguri City due to haphazard sewerage, lack of solid waste management, without purification of industrial and domestic water put on the river. The city\u0026rsquo;s high potential to accommodate the migrant population in the informal labor market is a result of the prevalence of squatters and slums in the city area. Siliguri is one of the oldest cities in West Bengal as well as the North Eastern states of India. Since its emergence, the pull factors of urbanization of the city are education, transportation, health, tourism, and market facilities. This city has attracted immigrants from nearby regions due to its combination of socioeconomic features. Excessive population growth is associated rapid expansion of built-up areas of Siliguri City in three decades. As a result, the city is expanding in a haphazard and unplanned manner. Siliguri is a class I town in India that has a higher trend toward concentration of urban population (Samanta, 2017). As an emerging city, Siliguri has a diversity of physical and socio-economic aspects; but the city is not included in the smart city project of the Government of India (Chakraborti et al., 2018; Das, 2011) Siliguri City has now become as much a center of socio-cultural activities as the town is cosmopolitan in nature. It is comprised of diverse ethnic Bengali, Nepali, Bhutia, Marwari, and Bihari people, with a substantial portion of Rajbanshi, the original inhabitants of the area. Siliguri is the point of location from where the cargo must be transferred from one carrier to another. Naturally, commerce has developed into one of Siliguri\u0026apos;s enduring economic pillars. From the perspective of trading, the three T\u0026rsquo;s, that is, Tea, Tourism, and Timber, have been major economic products.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"5. Data sources and methodology","content":"\u003cdiv id=\"Sec6\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\n \u003ch2\u003e5.1 Data sources\u003c/h2\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eFor the present study, we used both primary and secondary data. Hence, in the present research, the demographic and socio-economic data, pattern, and changing scenario of land use and land cover as well as water quality index of the study area have been collected as follows the sources (Table 1).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv id=\"Sec7\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\n \u003ch2\u003e5.2 Sample selection\u003c/h2\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eTo investigate river health assessment, we collected 20 water samples from various sites across five rivers, namely Mahananda, Jorapani, Fuleswari, Mahismari, and Panchanai Rivers (Table 2). The sampling sites were selected from both the urbanized Siliguri City and non-urbanized areas outside Siliguri City while considering factors such as accessibility to the site, flow of the river, proximity to households, and mixing zone of pollutants from domestic and commercial waste. Two sampling sites outside Siliguri of each river have been taken 0.5 km away from the main boundary of Siliguri. Water samples were collected in a plastic bottle (500 mL) from 30cm below the water surface.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eIn the study, water samples were collected for assessment of river quality because nowadays surrounding areas of rivers are more active with different anthropogenic activities, namely growing built-up areas, industrial waste, connecting the sewage water, domestic and commercial waste, and new markets. For the study of water quality, we have considered various physical, chemical, and biological parameters as follows\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv id=\"Sec8\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\n \u003ch2\u003e5.3 Methodology\u003c/h2\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eFor the assessment of socioeconomic development, we used a composite index by population-related development data like population density, sex ratio, literacy rate, and work participation rate, and GIS and remote sensing have been integrated for analysis of Land use and land cover map last 40 years. Supervised classification using maximum likelihood classification was used to develop of land use and land cover (LULC) map of Siliguri City for the years 1991, 2001, 2011, and 2021.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eThe WQI was calculated using the National Sanitation Foundation WQI (NSF-WQI) by the instrument LABTRONICS MODEL LT-6.1 (Water and soil analysis kit). Outside and inside site point data used for assessment of water quality index in different rivers of Siliguri City. Brown created the NSF WQI in 1965 (Abrah\u0026atilde;o et al., \u003cspan class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2007\u003c/span\u003e) as an adaptation of the Horton model (Lumb et al., \u003cspan class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2011\u003c/span\u003e). It has been used to evaluate surface water quality in different domains. Similar to the Horton model, it incorporates the four basic WQI components.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eThe parameters for water quality were chosen using the Delphi method (Ewaid, \u003cspan class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e; Rocha et al., \u003cspan class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2015\u003c/span\u003e; Tomas et al., \u003cspan class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e). The NSF index proposed eleven water quality parameters classified into five groups: i. Physical characteristics (temperature, turbidity, and total solids), ii. Chemical characteristics (pH and dissolved oxygen), iii. Microbiological characteristics (faecal coliforms and BOD), iv. Nutrient characteristics (total phosphate and nitrates), and v. Toxic characteristics (pesticides and toxic compounds) (Sutadian et al., \u003cspan class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2016\u003c/span\u003e; Abbasi \u0026amp; Abbasi, \u003cspan class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2012\u003c/span\u003e) (Fig. 3). The Brown model suggested that the toxic parameters groups be added, where most other WQI models omitted toxic elements (Brown et al., \u003cspan class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1970\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eBased on the opinions of an expert panel, the parameter sub-indexing was established. Sub-index values ranged from 0 to 1, with a sub-index value of 1 being regarded when the measured value was considered to be within the suggested guideline values and a sub-index value of 0 otherwise (Lumb et al., \u003cspan class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2011\u003c/span\u003e; Sutadian et al., \u003cspan class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2016\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eThe parameter weight values used by the model are uneven and add up to 1. The original NSF model prescribed weight values for DO (0.17), FC (0.16), pH (0.11), BOD (0.11), temperature (0.10), total phosphate (0.10), nitrates (0.10), turbidity (0.08), and total solids (0.07). The environmental importance of water quality metrics was also taken into account by this model when allocating the parameter weight value (Harkins, \u003cspan class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1974\u003c/span\u003e). The original NSF model used a simple additive aggregation function-like equation (i). In 1973, Brown proposed an alternative aggregation function (Brown et al., 1973)- the multiplicative function shown in equation (ii).\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003cdiv id=\"Equa\" class=\"Equation\"\u003e\n \u003cdiv class=\"mathdisplay\" id=\"FileID_Equa\" name=\"EquationSource\"\u003e$$\\:WQI={\\sum\\:}_{i=1}^{n}\\text{S}\\text{i}\\text{W}\\text{i}\\dots\\:\\dots\\:\\dots\\:\\dots\\:\\dots\\:\\dots\\:\\dots\\:\\dots\\:\\dots\\:\\dots\\:\\dots\\:..\\:\\left(\\text{i}\\right)$$\u003c/div\u003e\n \u003c/div\u003e\n \u003cdiv id=\"Equb\" class=\"Equation\"\u003e\n \u003cdiv class=\"mathdisplay\" id=\"FileID_Equb\" name=\"EquationSource\"\u003e$$\\:WQI=\\prod\\:_{i=1}^{n}\\text{S}\\text{i}\\text{W}\\text{i}\\dots\\:\\dots\\:\\dots\\:\\dots\\:\\dots\\:\\dots\\:\\dots\\:\\dots\\:\\dots\\:\\dots\\:\\dots\\:\\dots\\:.\\left(ii\\right)$$\u003c/div\u003e\n \u003c/div\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eWhere WQI is the water quality index, n indicates the number of selected parameters, Wi denotes individual parameter weightage, and Wi indicates the experimental value or field value of parameters.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eThe output values of the WQI model range from 0 to 100. The value 0 indicates the worst water quality and the value 100 indicates excellent water quality (Table\u0026nbsp;4).\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eThe model gives five water quality classes:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"6. Results","content":"\u003cdiv id=\"Sec10\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\n \u003ch2\u003e6.1 Population growth\u003c/h2\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eGrowth is a dynamic process. The growth of the population in terms of time, space, and functional behaviour of people denotes an important step toward understanding urban growth. Siliguri City has witnessed phenomenal growth in population since the pre-independence period due to its significant geographical location as well as diverse functions. Siliguri was a small village with a population of only 784 (O\u0026rsquo;Malley, 1907), now it is known as Saktigarh colony, located in the southern part of the city on the bank of the Mahananda River. In the year 1907, Siliguri was a subdivision of the Darjeeling district as per the declaration of the British government. After that, its population continued to grow rapidly, and in 1931, it attained urban status. Later in 1949, with the formation of Siliguri municipality, it was declared a municipality. At the time of independence and the partition of Bengal, a large number of refugees came from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), which may have contributed to the rapid growth of the population of Siliguri town. In the 1981 census, it was declared as a Class-I town with a population of 154378. In the year of 1994, it was declared a Municipal Corporation. The Siliguri municipality has 30 wards with a total area of 15.54 sq. km up of 1994. Following the declaration of corporation status in the same year, 17 extra wards were added to the city, bringing its total area to 41.90 sq. km. Siliguri Municipal Corporation was incorporated into two districts, namely Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri. Out of 47 wards, 33 wards are under the Darjeeling and the remaining 14 wards fall in the Jalpaiguri district (CDP, 2015). The population size has increased from 6067 in 1931 to 513264 in 2011. The highest growth rates were observed at 209.81 percent from 1941 to 1951, followed by 117.73 percent from 1991 to 2001, and population size increased by more than 3 and 2 times in just a decade, respectively. In the latest decades, the decadal growth rate has been slower at 8.66% (Table\u0026nbsp;5).\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eFigure\u0026nbsp;4 presents the trend of the population that has gradually increased from 1921 to 1991; after 1991, it is a remarkable increase due to changes in the administrative area as well as migration. The growth rate rapidly increased from 1941 to 1951, after 1951 it had a decreasing trend until 1991, and it increased by 117.73 percent in 2001. Recently decadal growth rate has declined.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eThe annual growth rate of 5.70 percent over the period 1931\u0026ndash;2011, and the growth rate has always remained higher than the urban population growth rate in the district as well as the state. Therefore, Siliguri City has turned into the second-largest urban agglomeration in West Bengal after the Kolkata Municipal Corporation due to it promising higher geographical network connectivity as well as flourishing diversity of economic activities. The Municipality Corporation was formed in 1994. After 1994, the level of infrastructural development has been higher, like educational institutions and health facilities as well as network connectivity.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eTable 6 shows the demographic and socio-economic profile of Siliguri City from 1991 to 2011. The sex ratio is an important indicator of city development. The sex ratio was 824 and 885 females per 1000 males in 1991 and 2001, respectively, which is lower than the national average. However, in the year 2011 sex ratio was higher, 946 females per 1000 males, compared to the national average. It marked that Siliguri became a balanced sex ratio with respect to India. Population density can be considered a significant tool in the analysis of urban growth, and it indicates the distribution of man and land ratio. The density of the population was 13960.75 persons per sq. km in the year 1991, but it slightly declined to 12249.74 persons per sq. km due to the expansion of the municipality boundary from 15.54 sq. km to 41.90 sq. km.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eFigure\u0026nbsp;5 shows that wards number 6, 18, and 20 of the city recorded a very high density of population in 1991, due to these wards constituted the core of the city where commercial, educational, and administrative activity are concentrated. On the other hand, spatial variation in population density gradually decreasing in the central part of Siliguri. It has been recorded that remarkable changes have been found in wards number 40, 43, 46, and 47, being situated in the periphery area, where density has increased during the last decades (2001\u0026ndash;2011). This is due to a lack of space and the prevalence of high land prices in the city core, which forces many people to settle in the outskirts, as a result, the south-western and western parts of the city have seen significant changes in land use, population pressure, and socio-economic activities in recent years.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eThe study also reveals that the literacy rate in the city population increased from 74.24 percent in 19991 to 85.91 percent in 2011. Besides, the female literacy rate increased from 68.81 percent to 82.11 percent in 1991 and 2011 respectively. In the 20-year gap, the female literacy rate is higher (13.3 percent) compared to the overall literacy rate (11.68 percent). It means a decrease in gender disparity due to city development. Siliguri is also known as the \u0026lsquo;city of migrants. However, the nature of migration has changed over the periods. Siliguri became a city from a large village at the beginning of the twentieth century due to the influx of migrants from across the neighbouring countries after India was partitioned in 1947. Here, 48.90 percent were migrants to the population in 1991, but it declined to 27.99 percent. Moved after birth is the main reason for migration, followed by employment (22.56 percent), marriage (19.44 percent), others (14.10 percent), business (7.74 percent), education (2.56 percent), and Natural calamities like drought, floods, etc. (0.34) in 1991. Except for marriage and moving with a household, the reasons for migration have declined in Siliguri City from 1991 to 2011. Siliguri City has experienced increasing occupational transformation in the people of various social and age groups due to rapid urbanization and diversification of economic activities. The analysis of work participation rate in Siliguri City during the period 1991\u0026ndash;2011. In 1991, the total work participation rate was 51.75 percent, whereas, after 20 years in 2011, the work participation rate of the city increased to 54.13 percent.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv id=\"Sec11\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\n \u003ch2\u003e6.2 Socio-economic development\u003c/h2\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eThe availability of the data limited the analysis of socioeconomic development, indicating a few indicators, such as sex ratio, population density, literacy rate, and workforce participation. The composite index of all the selected indicators presents an overall scenario of development ward-wise of Siliguri City.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eFigure 6 presents the composite indices for the identification of development. Ward numbers 11, 19, and 21 consist of highly developed areas, and ward numbers 2, 10, 7, 8, and 17 are under the group of very low socio-economically developed in 1991. In the year 2001, only three wards namely, 14, 15, and 16 recorded very high socio-economically development due to the core administrative and commercial area of the city, and oppositely wards number 1, 5, 6, 11, 28, 43, and 46 has been low socio-economically conditions because the periphery of the city, low lying riverside area as well as the flow the railway. Out of 47 wards, 7 wards belonged to very high socio-economic development groups, and 13, 22, 23, and 25 wards added this group in 2011. On the other hand, only 1, 5, 28, 35, and 42 are socio-economically backward due to the periphery of the city as well as low-lying areas. The result found that most of the wards transitioned from lower to higher socio-economic conditions from 1991 to 2011.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eAccording to the land use and land cover map, water bodies, vegetation cover, built-up area, barren land, and agricultural land constituted the major part of Siliguri City. During this period, built-up areas have rapidly increased (Fig. 7 and Table 7), and the sudden growth of the built-up area is also causing the decrease of agricultural land, barren land as well as vegetation cover.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eTable\u0026nbsp;7 shows that 3.13 percent of the land was classified as water bodies in 1991, this number decreased to 2.70 percent in 2021, indicating primarily the conversion of residential areas and scarcity of water resources, while the percentage of agricultural land experienced a sharp decline from 6.26 percent in 1991 to 6.10 percent in 2001 and then to 0.68 percent in 2021. Between 1991 and 2021, the area covered by agriculture as a result of its conversion to a built-up area continued to increase. Similarly, Barren land has been experiencing a reduction from 26.06 percent in 1991 to 13.67 percent in 2011 and then to 6.62 percent in 2021 (Fig.\u0026nbsp;9). Most of the barren land is covered by residential complexes and other economic activity. Vegetation cover has declined over the period, 37.69 percent in 1991, this percent decreased to 20.02 percent in 2011 and 16.39 percent in 2021(Fig.\u0026nbsp;8). Vegetation cover has decreased today by nearly half a percentage of 1991, it has an adverse effect on river health and the ecosystem with urban temperature. Built-up has continued to develop, primarily in and around Siliguri City, at the expense of construction and by absorbing agricultural regions, especially in areas close to urban centers. When explaining the LULC shifting circumstances, the loss of cropland was particularly noticeable. The development of economic activity as a kind of economic governance is linked to the changing behaviour of LULC. On the other hand, built-up areas of the city gradually increased from 26.85 percent in 1991 to 43.11 percent in 2001 and then to 60.89 percent in 2011 now 73.61 percent in 2021 (Table\u0026nbsp;7, 8; Fig.\u0026nbsp;8, 9). The build-up area of Siliguri has increased by more than 2 times in the last 40 years. In this connection, it is also mentioned that business is considered an important economic activity in Siliguri City, but nowadays, business as a whole in Siliguri City has gradually increased. Other indicators of population change are rarely found there due to in-migration, tourism, and medical facilities, e.g., the North-East corridor as well as North Bengal, which provides specific services. From the collected data it is found that in the year 1991 vegetation covered 37.69 percent area followed by built-up area (26.85 percent), barren land (26.06 percent), agriculture (6.26 percent), and water body (3.13 percent) while in 2021 built-up area covers the 73.61 percent area followed by vegetation cover (16.39 percent), barren land cover (6.62 percent), water body (2.70 percent) and built-up area (0.68 percent).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv id=\"Sec12\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\n \u003ch2\u003e6.3 River Health\u003c/h2\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eThe WQI and water quality status of Mahananda, Fuleswari, Jorapani, Mahismari, and Panchanai were obtained using the NSF-WQI method, and the calculated score of NSF-WQI for each sampling site has been presented. The result shows that based on the NSF-WQI method, Fuleshwari and Jorapani had medium to worse WQI results than Mahananda and Panchanai rivers. The average water quality index values of Mahananda, Jorapani, Fuleshwari, Mahismari, and Panchanai were 58.85, 54.83, 54.17, 71.33, and 65.67, respectively, and the status of water quality was medium, medium, medium, good, and medium, respectively (Table 9).\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003cdiv id=\"Sec13\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e\n \u003ch2\u003e6.3.1. Mahananda River\u003c/h2\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eThe result shows that the water quality index was obtained by calculating the number of each of the water quality indices in the area, which is compared to water quality criteria according to the National Sanitation Foundation-Water Quality Index. The calculation of WQI can be found for the upstream sampling site M1 with an NSF-WQI score of 70.1. However, the subsequent sampling sites displayed medium to bad water quality status for M2 (64.5), M3 (59.3), M4 (56.5), M5 (54.3), and M6 (48.4) implying the impacts of urban and municipal waste into the river water (Fig.\u0026nbsp;10). A spatial distribution study, which visualized the NSF-WQI interpolation score, further validated this claim. Based on the score of the NSF-WQI, the order of water quality status in the sampling sites followed the order of M1\u0026thinsp;\u0026gt;\u0026thinsp;M2\u0026thinsp;\u0026gt;\u0026thinsp;M3\u0026thinsp;\u0026gt;\u0026thinsp;M4\u0026thinsp;\u0026gt;\u0026thinsp;M5\u0026thinsp;\u0026gt;\u0026thinsp;M6. The sequence also indicated that the water quality of the river was in good status before entering the urbanized area of Siliguri City and later degraded due to the input of untreated domestic and industrial effluent water, which continued to flow outside of the city boundary and further to the downstream sampling sites M6. These results pointed out sampling sites M2, M3, M4, and M5 as the main hotspot zones for the deterioration of river water quality. Although river water quality was not found to be in a worse condition in the upper stream of the river, it might be frequently impacted if solid waste and untreated water continued to be dumped at its existing level.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/div\u003e\n \u003cdiv id=\"Sec14\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e\n \u003ch2\u003e6.3.2. Jorapani river\u003c/h2\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eThe WQI values of the present investigation from different sampling points at River Jorapani are calculated as per the several parameters mentioned earlier. However, the use of these sample parameters has always been linked to the area in which the water of the river is influenced, so that it is possible to identify which physical, chemical, and biological variables are being measured. The values below or above values from permissible limits as prescribed by NSF indicate the variable concentration of physical, chemical, and biological properties. Along the River Jorapani, water samples from the sample points (J1 to J3) showed low concentration of WQI (48.1 to 62.3) well below permissible levels as per the standards, indicating that the river water is not exactly for human consumption.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/div\u003e\n \u003cdiv id=\"Sec15\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e\n \u003ch2\u003e6.3.3. Fuleshwari River\u003c/h2\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eBased on the results obtained, it can be stated that some of the values of parameters have exceeded the permissible limits as prescribed by NSF. However, the WQI values (F1-61.4, F2-53.2, and F3-47.9) calculated for different sample sites of the River Fuleshwari indicate that the water is not safe for human consumption. It can be considered that the values of WQI in the present investigation were reported to be less than 70, indicating that the water is not suitable for human consumption.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eAfter meeting the Fuleshwari and Jorapani rivers, the water quality value is 48, It is under the bad water quality status due to the huge amount of polluted water from domestic and industrial sectors mixed in downstream (Fig.\u0026nbsp;10), as a result, water quality is very poor which is not used for human consumption\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/div\u003e\n \u003cdiv id=\"Sec16\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e\n \u003ch2\u003e6.3.4. Mahismari river\u003c/h2\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eDO, FC, pH, BOD, temperature, total phosphate, nitrates, turbidity, and total solids occur in all types of natural lotic water. The extreme concentration of variables is an indication of pollution due to human interference, and the values obtained in the study are found in the range between WQI 76.4 to WQI 68.2 (Table\u0026nbsp;9). In northern stretch of the River Mahismari has a good concentration of WQI, indicating safety for consumption, whereas the southern stretch of the river has assessed the occurrences of water pollution at low WQI.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/div\u003e\n \u003cdiv id=\"Sec17\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e\n \u003ch2\u003e6.3.5. Panchanai River\u003c/h2\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eThe WQI values for lotic water range from 72.4 to 61.1 as per standards, and in this respect, this water in River Panchanai is not suitable for drinking or other purposes. WQI computation with certain authorized indices has been used to assess the relative water quality at different points of the river Panchanai. This indexing approach results in less reliability when the river passes through the town. The distinct factors, including industrial and domestic purposes of water usage, influence the water quality. Therefore, it must be stated that the water quality depends on human consumption, area, and occurrences of parameters.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"7. Discussion","content":"\u003cp\u003eAmong North Bengal, Siliguri City is one of the fastest and largest urbanized areas, which has a huge potential for sustainable development. The unique demographic and socio-economic characteristics of Siliguri City make it most important. Demographically, it has been discussed that Siliguri City shares 15.95% of the population among the 131 towns of North Bengal. Besides, Siliguri City is a class-I City in terms of population as well as urban amenities.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn terms of socio-economic perspective, it can be stated that Siliguri City is the hub of employment, educational opportunities, and a trade center for locals as well as outsiders who come from various parts of India. For sustainable urban development, it is essential to recognize the key challenges brought on by these fast-expanding socio-economic processes and to carefully address these challenges (Aghajani, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR5\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2014\u003c/span\u003e). Siliguri City is undoubtedly the only main commercial and administrative hub of the district that could be expanded in future decades in a more expanding manner in terms of population and spatial extent. Spatial urban development is mainly focused on the construction of roads, residential hubs, and administrative areas, which have deteriorating river water quality. On the other hand, untreated sewage water from polluted sites in urbanized areas reduces the surface and groundwater quality. Siliguri City has many strengths and opportunities for development as well as urbanization. This city is located in the center of the heart of North Bengal. Because of high network connectivity and a suitable location for tourist services and medical service centers of the whole of North Bengal. For that, the connection from all directions of the various cities like Kolkata, Guwahati, Sikkim, Patna, etc., is found to be very easy. One of the biggest strengths of the urbanization of this city is that this has more than five lakh population and commercial, transportation, and tourist services as well as a medical center. In Siliguri city, the impulsive trend of haphazard development and accretive population pressure has damaged the city's current land usage and infrastructure. The rapid growth of the city, with high population inflow from all sides and limited land for residential purposes, has resulted in a phenomenal increase in unplanned settlement growth on the riverbank of the city.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eMost of the economically backward migrant population comes from neighboring countries like Bangladesh, Nepal, and Bhutan as well as different states of India. These migrants have illegally haphazardly settled on fallow land, low-lying areas, and along the river banks of Mahananda, Fuleshwari, Jorapani, Panchanai, and Mahismari rivers as well as by the sides of railway lines and highway sides, and in all other areas where fallow land is available. The emergence of multi-storeyed housing projects and the presence of restaurants, shopping malls like \u0026lsquo;Big bazar\u0026rsquo;, \u0026lsquo;Vishal mega marker\u0026rsquo;, \u0026lsquo;Shopper stops\u0026rsquo;, \u0026lsquo;Trends\u0026rsquo;, \u0026lsquo;Vega Circle\u0026rsquo; and \u0026lsquo;City center\u0026rsquo;, and medical treatment center like \u0026lsquo;Anandalok multispeciality hospital\u0026rsquo;, \u0026lsquo;Neotia\u0026rsquo; \u0026lsquo;Dr. Chhang\u0026rsquo;s Super Specialty Hospital, etc., is also a recent development. A socioeconomically depressed area is also experiencing this contemporary urbanization trend. The unplanned process of land occupation and industrial development as well as the building up of the residential complex, led to increased environmental problems like waterlogging, sewage disposal, water pollution, drainage plugging, etc., in the city. Moreover, it especially effects on river health of Siliguri City.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eHigher contribution of land use and socio-economic effects on the river health system. Arable land use can harm streams by increasing nonpoint pollution inputs, which have an effect on the water quality and the stream channel and alter flow patterns (Allan, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR6\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2004\u003c/span\u003e). Water quality in city areas has declined, and the nature of urban area river flow is straight channelized as well as having a uniform bed morphology (Maddock, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR27\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1999\u003c/span\u003e). Population density increased with higher demand for water resources for domestic, industrial, commercial, and energy purposes as a result of the combination of contaminants flowing into rivers (Juma et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR22\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2014\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThroughout the world, developmental works and modifications have imposed a diverse variety of land use and land cover changes and vice versa. Among these changes, the majority are caused by anthropogenic activity, while some are caused by nature. Modifications and economic activity along the rivers have occurred throughout the past to present times, but concern about the sustainability of land use has a miscellaneous range. So, there is a cause-and-effect relationship between developmental works and land use and land cover changes. In the Sub-Himalayan Plain, Siliguri City has a large activity across the city region. As a consequence of this regard, different developmental works, economic activity, and livelihood have influenced on environment, and the other way round, variability of the water regime of the study area is subject to the livelihood and land use pattern, particularly in the last two to three decades. The rapid increase in population requires proper infrastructure for the availability of services. With respect to public infrastructure such as roads, hospitals, commercial hubs, and educational institutions, Siliguri City has provided better services over the last 2 decades, yet various problems are faced.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFor this research, the common land use and land cover features have been identified in Siliguri City, such as water bodies, built-up areas, barren land, agricultural land, and vegetation cover, which consists of forest cover and scattered trees distributed over the study area. Built-up areas are mostly prone to flood occurrences because of that made by impervious surfaces which increases the storm runoff and inundation (Tehrany et al. 2013) whereas the green cover region is less prone to flooding because of vegetation cover and open surfaces do not put obstacles in the movement of water (Yin et al. 2017) and also there has positive association between infiltration capability and vegetation cover (Rahamati et al. 2015).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Land use and land cover (LULC) feature of the Siliguri City affects the surface water runoff and increases built-up area both directly and indirectly (Zhang et al. 2010). In particular, land use features have a significant role in influencing the hydrological processes in a river network such as water discharge, water level, and extreme events. LULC change has always happened on Earth, which is found in the demographic and morphometric record. Nowadays, the rate and magnitude of population change are rapid and have become a great concern worldwide. There are many anthropogenic factors responsible for these concerns. The changes in land use and land cover are a net effect of water availability in the rivers themselves. Extreme population effect negatively impacted occupation and settlement encroachment in the adjacent vegetal cover area over the Sub-Himalayan plain. It is spatially exhibited that demographic changes have impacts on Land use and land cover patterns in the Sub-Himalayan city region. It documents brief details of long-term demographic changes and Land use and land cover patterns to evaluate its environmental importance in the concerned issue. Land use and land cover within Siliguri City reveal a complex land use setup. The drainage of the city has a number of utilities and uses for socio-economic development, but with an increase in population day by day, most of the services have faced different kinds of problems and sometimes have steadily diminished. Due to the spread of population changes, socioeconomic factors, and economic governance in the examined part, the land use area expanded rather than the land cover. Notably, the location surroundings of Siliguri have more space covered by tea gardens. Since small farmers believe tea plantations to be more profitable than traditional agricultural approaches, they have converted a significant amount of agricultural land into tea gardens; however, most of their attention has been directed away from the river bed. With the bare land being turned into residential land, there have been significant changes to the land use and land cover over Siliguri City as the study region.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe result reveals that the water quality of the rivers was in good status before entering the urbanized area of Siliguri City and later degraded due to rapid population growth, haphazard urbanization, land use change, and the input of untreated domestic and industrial effluent water as well as the socio-economic development of the city. Moreover, Mahanada, Jorapani, and Fuleshwari are more affected by the Siliguri city as compared to the Mahismari and Panchanai rivers. The average water quality status of Mahananda, Jorapani, Fuleshwari, Mahismari, and Panchanai was medium, medium, medium, good, and medium, respectively.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFor instance, the Mahanada River is a major river in Siliguri City, and its threat of pollution by anthropogenic activity due to rapid population growth, socioeconomic development as well as industrialization (Parween et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR34\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e). Human intervention in the Mahananda River may degrade the river's health (Roy \u0026amp; Kasemi, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR39\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e). The same phenomenon is observed in Jorapani, Fuleswari, Mahismari, and Panchanai Rivers. In recent decades continued deterioration in the river quality has been noticeable since the river water is more vulnerable to pollutants from both natural and anthropogenic sources such as industrial sewages, disposed domestic waste, and irrigation drainage water on both sides of the Mahananda River bank (Uddin et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR54\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e; Uddin et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR53\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e; Mozumder et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR30\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2015\u003c/span\u003e; Rangarajan et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR37\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2019\u003c/span\u003e) as well as adjacent river of Siliguri city. Siliguri, which is part of the Darjeeling district of West Bengal, is a significant urbanized metropolis and an important industrial sector within the diverse geographic regions of India due to its strategic location close to both the international and domestic borders. Most domestic and business activities in the Siliguri Municipal Corporation area revolve around the Mahananda River (IDP, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR20\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1965\u003c/span\u003e) as well as other rivers. Every year, the Mahananda, Jorapani, Fuleswari, Mahismari, and Panchanai rivers receive large amounts of effluent water without any purification from different sources like domestic, industrial effluents, unplanned urbanization, and improper management of waste, which significantly affects the quality of its water (Abrah\u0026atilde;o et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR3\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2007\u003c/span\u003e; Mukherjee et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR31\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2013\u003c/span\u003e; Roy et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR40\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e; Shil \u0026amp; Singh, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR48\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2019\u003c/span\u003e). As a result, pollutants have increased gradually due to rapid urbanization as well as a lack of space. In Siliguri, rivers have frequently been exploited as disposal grounds (Shil et al., 2019).\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"8. Recommendation and conclusion","content":"\u003cp\u003eThe result of this study has revealed that urban stress, like rapid population growth and socioeconomic development of the city, influenced the deteriorated river water quality because relatively good water quality status was found upstream outside of the urban river, whereas poor water quality was recorded in the city area. The major conclusions from the study are as follows: most of the water quality status was found at the lower level across the five rivers within Siliguri City. The result of the study can lead to suggestions for water quality parameters that must be monitored by the City Government. Therefore, the river needs preventative management procedures to reduce further contamination of its water. To tackle future water pollution-related hazards, for future planning purposes, the state government and municipal corporations should develop proper strategies to reduce the inputs of waste and contaminants from the source of origin. The deterioration of rivers is an emerging issue in Siliguri City. River water is influenced by various anthropogenic activities as a result, river water quality has lost its natural characteristics like temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, BOD, Total solids, turbidity, Nitrates, total phosphate, and faecal coliforms. The establishment of a sewage treatment plant is essential to purify the contaminated water before combining it with the Mahananda, Fuleswari, Jorapani, Panchanai, and Mahismari rivers and proper waste management practices should be considered as sustainable urban management solutions. The result of the study reflects that population pressure and socio-economic development influence river water quality as well as identifying the potential sources of contaminants. This study has various limitations that should be addressed in further studies. Firstly, River health is based on only the NSF water quality index. Secondly, population growth and socioeconomic development impact river health in Siliguri City, so it is difficult to determine various rivers in the city.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"References","content":"\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAazami, J., Esmaili-Sari, A., Abdoli, A., Sohrabi, H., \u0026amp; Van den Brink, P. J. (2015). Monitoring and assessment of water health quality in the Tajan River, Iran using physicochemical, fish and macroinvertebrates indices. \u003cem\u003eJournal of Environmental Health Science and Engineering\u003c/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003e13\u003c/em\u003e, 1-12.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAbbasi, T., \u0026amp; Abbasi, S. A. 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Assessment of plain river ecosystem function based on improved gray system model and analytic hierarchy process for the Fuyang River, Haihe River Basin, China. \u003cem\u003eEcological modelling\u003c/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003e268\u003c/em\u003e, 37-47.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eZhou, Y., Ma, J., Zhang, Y., Qin, B., Jeppesen, E., Shi, K., ... \u0026amp; Gao, G. (2017). Improving water quality in China: environmental investment pays dividends. \u003cem\u003eWater Research\u003c/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003e118\u003c/em\u003e, 152-159.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e"},{"header":"Tables","content":"\u003cp\u003eTables 1 to 9 are available in the Supplementary Files section.\u003c/p\u003e"}],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":true,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"University of North Bengal","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":false,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":false,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Population Growth, Socio-Economic Development, LULC, Water Quality Index, and Siliguri City","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6850488/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6850488/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eThe study aims to investigate the trend of population growth and assess the level of socio-economic development and its impact on the deterioration of river health in Siliguri City. A composite index was used for socio-economic development, and maximum likelihood classification was used to develop a land use and land cover (LULC) change map of Siliguri City since 1991. The water quality index (WQI) was calculated using the National Sanitation Foundation WQI (NSF-WQI) by the instrument LABTRONICS MODEL LT-6.1. The result of the study population concentration has gradually increased due to migration and diverse economic activities, but the growth rate has declined relatively in previous decades. As a result, agricultural land, barren land, as well as vegetation cover have rapidly converted to built-up areas as well as affected river water quality. The deuteriations of water quality in the city are required for the sustainable management of river health and urban ecosystems through effective planning and policies.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Population Growth, Socio-Economic Development and River Health in the Context of Siliguri City, West Bengal","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-06-10 14:42:04","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6850488/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"43e25282-ac3c-4d9a-8064-d0e5125bb47e","owner":[],"postedDate":"June 10th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[{"id":49718726,"name":"City Management and Urban Policy"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-06-10T14:42:04+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-06-10 14:42:04","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-6850488","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-6850488","identity":"rs-6850488","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}