Development of decision supporting system for coastal protection a case study for kavaratti island

Abstract

The Islands of Lakshadweep archipelago are located about 404 km away from the west coast of India. It has more fragile ecosystems such as corals, seagrass and are sensitive to the sea level rise and climate change. In the recent decade, these islands are adversely affected by the natural events and anthropogenic activities. In this context, it is very essential to understand the hydrodynamic environment and the effect of developmental activities on the Islands coast. The present research focused on the development of decision newlinesupporting system for Kavaratti Island of Lakshadweep archipelago to understand the coastal processes and effect of anthropogenic activities on the coast of Island. In addition to them, this study also identified the eroding coastal areas and provides suitable conceptual shore protection measures along the coast of island using various numerical models. The meso-scale circulation features have been studied during 2015 to understand the inter-island flow dynamics. Meso-scale model predictions revealed that the circulation features are more newlineintensive on the northern side of the Kavaratti Island due to the bathymetry gradient, orientation and spatial distance of neighboring Islands such as Amini and Agatti. This model results used as boundary conditions to simulate the hydrodynamic conditions such as currents, waves and sediment transport along the coast of Kavaratti Island. The integrated numerical modelling system (Hydrodynamics, Sediment transport, Spectral wave) was performed to analyze the nearshore dynamics and sediment movement along the coast of Kavaratti Island for all the seasons of 2015. The model predictions indicated that the longshore sediment movement is high from the fishing jetty to the western jetty, at chicken neck area of east coast and the south tip of Island due to wave-induced currents and tidal influx. This longshore drift is estimated using the developed real-time wireless sensor network system in the lagoon of Kavaratti Island. newline newline