12.MONITORING THE IMPACT OF ANTHROPOGENIC ACTIVITIES ON THE COASTAL ECOSYSTEM USING REMOTE SENSING SATELLITE DATA BY ALPANA SHUKLA1 AND H.B. CHAUHAN2

Abstract

The Coastal Zone in most countries including India is under severe and increasing pressure due to rapid urbanization, pollution, tourism development, over exploitation of coastal resources (especially biological resources) and continued development in hazard prone areas. With development in economy and world trade, sea route is the most economical and viable for goods transport. In addition to population pressure, fishing, recreational activities, coast has become the dumping ground for sewage, various pollutants and hazardous materials. In such circumstances, it becomes of paramount importance to make judicious use of resources of coastal zone and make development in sustainable manner. Environmentally effective coastal zone management depends upon accurate and comprehensive scientific data on which policy decisions can be based. Scientific data on coastal wetlands/landform/land use, coastal processes and water quality of near shore waters is needed. Remote sensing data because of its repetitive, multispectral and synoptic nature have proved to be extremely useful in providing information on various components of the coastal environment (Nayak 1977, Chauhan et al., 2004b). The Gujarat state is situated at the western part of India and having the largest shoreline of about 1600 km in all maritime states. The shoreline of the Gulf of Kachchh ( the study-area for the present exercise) is marked by extensive mudflats and is highly indented with a number of cliff and rocky islands. At many places coral reefs can be observed. This area also produces salt at very large scale. In absence of many riverine systems, fluvial discharge is very negligible and mainly dominated by the marine processes. In the wake of developmental activities, this ecosystem has certain impact on it. To observe this impact, remote sensing data spanning 20 years (1980 to current), were used. Landuse maps of these areas were prepared using these data and change in various categories like, mangroves, corals; mudflats were measured to find out the impact of various anthropogenic activities. It was observed that mangroves have reduced and coral reef has got degraded in this region during the span of the present study. Large stretches of mudflats have also been converted for industrial infrastructure development. The result of the present study show that Remote sensing data along with GIS should be used for the monitoring of d evelopmental activities so that they can be done in sustainable manner with minimum impact on coastal ecosystems.
KEY WORD: Coastal Zone, Ecosystem, Anthropogenic Activities, Mangrove, Coral reef