Humanity has just crossed a major landmark in its history with the majority of people now living in cities. Cities have long been known to be society's predominant engine of innovation and wealth creation, yet they are also its main source of crime, pollution, and disease. The inexorable trend toward urbanization worldwide presents an urgent challenge for developing a predictive, quantitative theory of urban organization and sustainable development.

In this paper we illustrate the socio-economic dynamics of peri-urban zones of Indian Metropolitan cities, which are at the heart of the current urban liberalisation. For this, we study the impact of the water purchasing agreement the Metropolitan water board signed with some farmers of peri-urban areas of Chennai (formerly Madras).

Human-induced modifications on land and water are posing a serious threat to geo-environment in general and groundwater regime in particular along the fringe areas of most cities in the world.