Geoinformatics based assessment of coastal multi-hazard vulnerability along the East Coast of India

Abstract

Climate change is one of the major threatens that coastal areas facing, and these coastal areas already stressed by large population. Past 4 decades tremendous tropical cyclones and associated flood are dismantled the coastline and resulted inundation and displacement of the coastal landforms. In the present study, coastal multi hazard vulnerability mapping has been carried out along the Krishna–Godavari deltaic plain, eastern coast of India. The study area consisting of four district include East Godavari, West Godavari, Krishna and Gundur which are the area affected by coastal hazards and climate variability. The area witnessed a high erosion rate up to 18 m/year in comparison to other regions in the state. Further this area exhibit low elevated topography, therefore sea level rise would lead to permanent inundation. In the study also identified about that 1147 sq km area is falling under multi hazard zone and around 102 coastal villages are under threat. This study revealed that the use of multi layer information combined with geospatial tools is most reliable and coast effective approach for disaster preparedness and adaptation. The result obtained from the present study may serve the baseline information for disaster management planning in the area.