Coastal Zone Mapping through Geospatial Technology for Resource Management of Indian Sundarban, West Bengal, India

The West Bengal part of the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta, popularly known as the Sundarban delta, is a system where intricate estuarine and coastal processes are influenced by adjacent marine, terrestrial and meteorological systems and the dynamic interface amongst the three. Being the center of population growth, coastal sea, ponds/wetlands, estuarine islands in this area are to sustain the negative impact caused by society’s commercial, recreational, and residential activities. Additionally, natural forcing like sea level rise or climate change is a prime issue of concern for this vulnerable tract. Presently, this deltaic system is facing degradation due to natural and anthropogenic causes. Degradation of this littoral tract is manifested in terms of frequent embankment failures, submergence & flooding, beach erosion, siltation within embankment, saline water intrusion in the agricultural field etc. In the above perspective, viable coastal zone management options are to be adopted based on scientific approach retaining socio-economic use of the coastal zone complying with preservation of resources and nature values. Knowledge and understanding of coastal morph dynamic behavior as well as middle to long-term developments therein is essential in this respect. Lack of data pertaining to this coast makes the task all the more difficult than expected and restricts proper estimation of impacts to be caused by the different coastal variables. The present study is aimed at predicting evolution of Sundarbans estuary located at the mouth of Bay of Bengal by a set of physical mathematical model through extrapolation of observed morphological behavior of erosion-accretion. The long term goal of this study is to identify the coupling amongst the coastal processes and mainly two dimensional evolutions (shoreline change) of the form of deltaic island system of West Bengal with special reference to sea level rise which in turn is guided by climate change. This study is carried out so that a greater degree of certainty can be achieved while applying the output as a blue print for the coastal managers and planners for this vulnerable niche. The coastal zone is under heavy pressure from land-based activities located in the catchment of rivers. Traditionally, both scientific research and framework have treated catchments and coasts as separate entities. However, it is increasingly recognized that they should in fact be treated as an integrated whole, encompassing both environmental and socio economic and political systems.