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5.93 per cent of State's coastline is high erosion area, says varsity study

BHUBANESWAR: At least 25 km of coastline of Orissa face erosion to an extent five metre per year, according to a study of National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management, Anna University, Chennai.

Anna University has submitted the findings of a study, which was sponsored by the Ministry of Environment and Forest to the State government recently. Basic objective of the study was to generate comprehensive data for taking decision on application received by the ministry on the various projects along the coast.

Professor R. Ramesh, Director, NCSCM, recently made a presentation on the study before top government officials, academicians, and representatives of non-government organisations.

In the studying of the shoreline changes, remote sensing technology coupled with limited DGPS (Differential Global Positioning System) surveys, integrated in GIS (Geographic Information System) platform was adopted to collect historical shoreline information.

According to sources in the State Forest and Environment department, for the coast of Orissa, the base maps were prepared on 1:50,000 scale using Survey of India/ and onscreen digitization of coastline using various satellite images on 1:50,000 scale and stored as four different layers in GIS environment for the years 1972, 1990, 2000 and 2010.

“Based on the study, 5.93 per cent of State's total coastline is high erosion area, 13.59 per cent is medium erosion and 25.77 per cent is low erosion coast,” sources said adding that 45.29 per cent of State's coast that comes around over 200 km was under different stages of erosion. In medium erosion category, the coast changes from two metres to five metres per year while in low erosion, the magnitude of erosion is from 0.5 metre to 2 metre per year.

Satellite data

The NCSCM said no ground-truthing was done. The study was the interpretation of the satellite data of multiple dates. The university wanted that feedback on the physical observation to improve the report.

Departmental sources said based on this quick assessment, the highly erosion zone would be treated as no go zone. In medium and low erosion zone development or project would be allowed but with protection measure. In stable and accretion zone project would allowed.

However, an extensive coastal process study was being carried out under Integrated Coastal Zone Management project covering the entire Orissa coast. Sources said the study includes the analysis of the coastal processes and the physical survey of the entire coast line.

Based on the outputs of the study the shoreline management plan (SMP) would be formulated.

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