Automatic Detection and Analysis of the Shoreline Change Rate at Maravanthe Coast, India

Abstract

Maravanthe Beach has been witnessing erosion due to waves caused by tidal forces, destroying vegetation, and causing enormous damage to people’s lives, livestock, and property. Hence, an attempt has been made to understand the shoreline change analysis using the automatic shoreline extraction method and determine the rate of change in terms of erosion and accretion rate before and after the construction of coastal structures during the period from 2014 to 2023. The SWAT model was applied to analyze the influence of surface runoff on shoreline changes near Maravanthe Beach for the periods 2004–2014 and 2012–2023. Also, runoff was chosen as one of the parameters for validation of the analysis. It was noticed that the shoreline stretch had experienced significant erosion prior to the construction of shore protection infrastructure. Soon after the deployment of certain shore structures, the shoreline progressed from a high erosion stretch to a low erosion stretch. This study reveals that Maravanthe Beach witnessed greater erosion during the period 2014–2018 than it did from 2019–2023 and also observed a decrease in erosion from 11% to 3% and an increase in the accretion zones from 2 to 9%.