Sea Level Rise and Coastal Vulnerability along the Eastern Coast of India through Geo-spatial Technologies

Abstract

The study emphasizes the local and regional level coastal vulnerability in the context of climate change induced present sea level rise using Sea level and tidal gauge data and advanced geo spatial technologies along the eastern coast of India. The coast is a potential hot spot zone were found the immediate effect of sea level rise. Presently climate change induced global warming and the melting of ice sheets and continental glaciers continually increase the sea level, which leads the natural hazards such as Tsunami, storm surges, thermal expansion of sea water and cyclones. The study was used SRTM global DEM with 90 m resolution to derive the coastal elevation, inundation risk zones along the eastern coast of India. The sea level rise scenario has been explained by using a 5th order polynomial curve which also interpolates and extrapolate the gaps within the available data of four tidal gauge stations. The results show that northern portion (Ganga-Brahmaputra delta region) of the coast, mostly affected by the sea level rise (4.7 mm per year) where the Sundarban region is the most vulnerable region due to the lower elevation (ranges 0 to 20 m) and higher tidal influence. Also Visakhapatnam and Bhubaneswar have a higher rate of sea level rise respectively 0.73 and 0.43 which increase the erosional activity and probable inundation level. As this study reveals the level of vulnerability, it helps to develop mitigation and adaptation measures in those most vulnerable areas to sea level rise problems. The final results support and suggests planners and decision makers in the spatial identification for the future strategies.