Coastal Vulnerability Assessment | Index and Sea Level Changes

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Coastal Vulnerability Assessment

• Earth System Science Organization (ESSO) – Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Hyderabad and ESSO-Integrated Coastal and Marine Area Management (ICMAM), Chennai have carried out mapping and demarcating of multi-hazard coastal vulnerability for the states.- in Aug 2014
• On seven dynamic risk variables: - 
• shoreline change rate, 
• sea-level change rate, 
• coastal slope, 
• mean significant wave height, 
• mean tidal range, 
• coastal regional elevation and 
• coastal geomorphology.
• Results:
• The general trend in the vulnerability, demarcated in to four classes (very high, high, medium and low)
• The Gulfs of Kambhat and Kachchh in Gujarat show very high vulnerability indices, with the inlets of Kachchh showing localized vulnerability. 
• Relatively low vulnerability along the zones of Mangroves that help in breaking the large amplitude waves, dissipating the energy and hence act as a natural barrier. 

Sea Level Changes:

• Sea level rise is a very slow phenomenon and can be because of physical factors like 
• normal subsidence, 
• coastal erosion and 
• siltation of river channels along the coastline apart from 
• global warming. 
• INDIA: the trends of sea level rise as estimated to be 1.3mm/year along the Indian coasts during the last 40-50 years. 
• ESSO-INCOIS and the Survey of India continuously monitor the sea level measurements all along the Indian coastline. 
• GLOBAL: 
• 5th Assessment Report (AR5) of IPCC suggests that global mean sea level has risen by 0.19 m over the period 1901-2010. 
• The Report also suggests that sea level rise takes place in the background of several other physical factors like 
• tsunami’s, 
• storm surges and 
• tidal variations, 
• swells, 
• normal deltaic subsidence, 
• coastal erosion and 
• siltation of river channels along the coastline.

Read more about Coastal Vulnerability Index HERE

[Source: PIB]