Urban sprawl transforms urban–rural linkages and indiscriminately exploits natural resources, degrading the ecosystems in peri-urban areas (PUAs). In India, the absence of a planning mechanism to steer and manage this transformation of PUAs worsens the problem, with arbitrary changes in land-use–land-cover (LULC) adversely impacting biodiversity, climate, productivity and water resources. In PUAs, the environmental carrying capacity determined by the ecosystem services (ES) model can play a significant role in sustaining the ecology and economy of urban and rural areas. Recent research links LULC change with ES potential. Understanding LULC and ES dynamics in PUAs can promote synergy between future land planning and conservation of ecosystems. This paper presents an ecosystems-based approach to peri-urban development and environmental conservation management to promote sustainability of Indian cities. A generic, qualitative assessment of multiple ES potential for the LULC is obtained using the “expert matrix method” in a data-scarce scenario. The proposed approach is operationalized in a potentially developing PUA of Chennai. LULC change and ES dynamics are analyzed for two time periods in a GIS platform. It is observed that the study area experienced fast peri-urbanization between 2011 and 2015 as a result of which there is a decline in the provisioning and regulating ES potential. Multiple ES potential mapping shows LULC type—Water bodies, Forest and Agricultural land as crucial in providing and maintaining the ES potential of the study area. Spatially, the western part of the study area displays a low potential for ES and hence can be explored further for peri-urban development.

城市扩张改变了城乡联系并不加选择地开发自然资源，使城郊地区 (PUA) 的生态系统退化。在印度，缺乏引导和管理 PUA 转变的规划机制使问题更加恶化，土地利用 - 土地覆盖 (LULC) 的任意变化会对生物多样性、气候、生产力和水资源产生不利影响。在 PUA 中，由生态系统服务（ES）模型确定的环境承载能力可以在维持城乡生态和经济方面发挥重要作用。最近的研究将 LULC 变化与 ES 潜力联系起来。了解 PUA 中的 LULC 和 ES 动态可以促进未来土地规划与生态系统保护之间的协同作用。本文介绍了一种基于生态系统的城市周边开发和环境保护管理方法，以促进印度城市的可持续性。在数据稀缺的情况下，使用“专家矩阵方法”获得了对 LULC 的多个 ES 潜力的通用、定性评估。提议的方法已在钦奈潜在发展中的 PUA 中实施。在 GIS 平台中分析了两个时间段的 LULC 变化和 ES 动态。据观察，研究区在 2011 年至 2015 年间经历了快速的城市周边化，因此供应和调节 ES 潜力下降。多重 ES 潜力绘图显示 LULC 类型——水体、森林和农业用地对于提供和维持研究区域的 ES 潜力至关重要。在空间上，