V. R. Shinde & D. M. Mahajan / Journal of Basic sciences, 2015, 1, 20-27. March 2015 Page20 Journal of Basic Sciences, 2015, 1, 20-27 Carbon pool analysis of urban parks (Chh. Sambhaji Garden and Chittaranjan Vatika, Pune) V. R. Shinde a,* and D. M. Mahajan b a Department of Environmental Science, Abeda Inamdar Senior College of Arts, Science & Commerce, Affiliated to Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune, Maharashtra, INDIA. b Department of Botany, Waghire College, Saswad, Tal. Purandar, Dist. Pune, Maharashtra Affiliated to Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune, Maharashtra, INDIA. Corresponding author’s E-mail address: vrsnirvana@gmail.com 1 Introduction Change is a fundamental characteristic of the environment. But what is disturbing today are that human activities that leads to an unprecedented acceleration in changes. The scientific evidence suggests that the earth’s climate is changing, the atmosphere is warming and this trend will continue 1. By the year 2050, scientists predict that the world will be warmer by an average of between 1.5 and 4.5 0 C. Carbon dioxide, which remains in the atmosphere for around 200 years, is responsible for more than 55% of the current global warming from GHGs produced by human activities 2 . Its concentration has increased by more than 30 % since pre-industrial times (around 1750), and currently increases by 1 % every year. Since the early 20th century, Earth's mean surface temperature has increased by about 0.8 °C (1.4 °F), with about two-thirds of the increase occurring since 1980. Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and scientists are more than 90% certain that it is primarily caused by increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases Abstract: Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration has been increasing progressively for last two centuries resulting in climate change. There are two alternatives to reduce CO 2 ; one is to decrease carbon emissions and second is to increase carbon sink. Therefore, this study is going to focus on carbon pool, specifically in terms of urban parks vegetation. As we know, urban trees can help to mitigate climate change by sequestering atmospheric carbon. Thus, the need of the hour is to probe ways and means of managing the levels of GHGs in the atmosphere. Urban parks and gardens are considered as lungs of the cities & have the ability to remove significant amounts of air pollutants, therefore improving environmental quality (Nowak et.al, 2006) & providing a wide variety of ecological services. Development of sustainable green cities in the near future is the prior and important need of today’s fast urbanizing world. In this study, GPS Instrument and GIS-Arc view 9.3 to 10.1, - a recent software of Geographic Information System (GIS) were used as measuring the urban forest is one of the first steps toward understanding this resource and developing appropriate management plans. The inventory process yields baseline reports that serve as benchmarks on which future changes in C pool size would be calculated. In both the gardens, it ids found that Indigenous plant species even though present in less number sequester more carbon-dioxide. Keywords: Carbon sinks, Carbon sequestration, Sustainable Development, GPS, GIS- Arc view