Sustainable coastal zone management strategies for unconsolidated deltaic odisha, the northern part of east indian coast

Abstract

Context: The coastal areas are exposed to variety of geomorphic driving force as these are the zones of interaction between marine and terrestrial systems and hazardous processes that originate from both land and sea. Diversity makes them very sensitive to those processes and responses. Coastal environment are now under an increasing pressure from both rapid anthropogenic development and predicted consequences of climate change such as sea-level rise, coastal erosion and extreme weather events. In light of this, effective Beach Management Tools are necessary to ensure the conservation and prosperity of maritime environments. Methodology: The present study comprises the fundamental methods (Human Perception Survey, coastal processes study through some numerical model, Remote Sensing for identification of coastal environmental alteration at different time and space, Statistical analysis of secondary data to detect the relationship among different coastal processes along with the anthropogenic processes) of coastal research to detect the appropriate Beach Management Tools for the studied coast. Results: Results of the present work are devoted to the sustainable coastal zone management options and opportunities through Beach Management Tools. The efforts include land use planning, micro zonation of land use, Environmental zoning approach, appropriate coastal defense structure and coastal zone regulations with administrative jurisdictions. It is very much indispensable to build the co-operation and integration among the different coastal agencies and also amendment of some coastal zone related act to ensure the sustainable Beach Management. Conclusion: This study was done at a convincingly small spatial scale (Gram Panchayat), where it may be feasible to put into practice Beach Management Programme. Specifically, the results from this study may help beach managers to better understand beach management in different coastal stretches of low-lying coast.