Coastal Zones

Biography

Biography: Dr Ashutosh Mohanty

Abstract

Presently in India the coastal policy and program already proposed to having well defined zones and coherent management units (planning and regulation zone), which subsequently become the dominant part of the coastal management processes. Most CZM projects around the world use arbitrary land-ward and sea-ward boundaries from physical reference as unit of management. Others also use administrative boundary for delineation of coastal zone thinking that impact coming from outside the area. In case of India, coastal zone are defined as coastal stretch of 500m from high tide line (HTL) for land-ward boundary and low tide line (LTL) as the sea-ward boundary. The super cyclone 1999 was the grim reminder, how the coastal population (around10,000 died) of Orissa ultimately pay the price for unscientific arbitary way of demarcating coastal zone by policy makers. Hence the correct way to delineate coastal zone management unit should be based on development of robust criteria which are the representative of coastal natural system. In this paper, approaches, methodologies, criteria derived from coastal natural system, their justifications and analyses supporting their delineation are described. The criteria considered for land-ward delimitation of coastal zone of Orissa are 20 m contour line above mean sea level, areas of unconsolidated sediments, geomorphic division, tidal effects, block boundary (Administrative boundary) and for sea ward delimitation 100 meters bathymetry are used. Further coherent management units for land-ward are delineated bases on geomorphic units. The sea-ward delineation should be notified by official Gazetee of India for various management purposes. The resulting coherent management unit can be a support infrastructure of data base framework to monitor coastal ecosystem.