Study of Disaster Mitigation for Car Nicobar Isl and Using Remote Sensing and GIS

Abstract

December 26th 2004 earthquake wi th 9.3 Mw caused one of the deadl ies t Tsunami in the human history . Subsidence of land mass t o 1.5 m along the e astern part of ent ire Andaman and Nicobar islands and up l i ft of 1.5 m in the western margins of the island system were observed. Most of the islands are const i tuted wi th folded mountain bel ts, except Car Nicobar. The epicenter of December 26, 2004 Sumatra earthquake was 163 km away from Great Nicobar, the southernmost island and hence i t was strongly fe l t in the ent ire Andaman & Nicobar group of i slands including Car Nicobar. Evidence of subsidence was also observed at the Car Nicobar the northernmost island of the Nicobar group (N9.2 o lat . , E92.4 o long). Car Nicobar is being almost f lat terrain to the east and an e levated terrain wi th maximum elevat ion of about 70 m to the west and hence the destruct ive Tsunami waves engul fed in t he eastern part of the island. This island was worst af fected in terms of damage and loss of li fe . The objective of this study is to mi t igate the impact of disasters in the form of Tsunami and earthquake and cyclone for the Car Nicobar Island. Remote sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS) are important tools to prepare thematic maps by incorporat ing the e levat ion data, to del ineate the extent of t sunami inundat ion and the areas to locate potent ial hazard zones of Car Nicobar Island. Preparat ion of i nundat ion maps of coastal areas helps to ident i fy regions from tsunami at tack. Tsunami risk analysis helps to manage the evacuation planning and to diminish the loss of the li fe by tsunami . Preparat ion of land-use pat tern is re levant for rehabi l i tation man agement and to reduce potent ial damages. From the past source, i t i s very c lear that the Car Nicobar was most af fected by se ismic induced tsunami. The study is carried out to sort out the risks of potent ial inundat ion area due to the tsunami along heavily populated coast l ine and provides demarcat ions of sui table si tes for rehabi l i tat ion and tools to generate the evacuation plane to mi t igate disaster happening.