English

Abstract

Climatic variation is the important factor for sea level rise and associated problems such as increased coastal erosion, inundation, flooding due to storm surges and salt water intrusion along the coastal zone. Nagapattinam Taluk having coastal length 30.0 (km) of coastline including ecologically and socio economically important low lying coastal wetlands and deltaic plain should also be prepared for the impacts of sea level rise as well as other impact of climate change. Thus, a coastal vulnerability assessment for the Nagapattinam areas to sea level rise is the order of the day. Both coastal zone management policies for sustainable development and guidelines for resource allocation of adaptation options for upcoming problems due to sea level rise, as a scientific approach to coastal vulnerability assessment a coastal vulnerability matrix and a corresponding coastal vulnerability index of a region to sea level rise were developed. In the development of matrix and the index, indicators of impacts for sea level rise in which the commonly available datasets were used. The coastal vulnerability assessment model is used to determine the vulnerability of Nagapatinam coast. By implementing the CVI (SLR) to test the coastal areas, the sensitive of the model is tested. The results shows that, the model can be successfully incorporate with the local properties, with expected impacts of sea level rise and provide important information on the increased coastal erosion, salt water intrusion in the coastal region, especially for the decision makers for optimum resource allocation and adaptation planning.