Quantitative estimation of shoreline changes using remote sensing and GIS: A case study in the parts of Cuddalore district, East coast of Tamil Nadu, India

An attempt is being made to elucidate the effect of shoreline changes ersion and accretion along the parts of Cuddalore district coastal area. The spatial variability of shoreline changes are studied using IRS 1B LISS-I 1991, IRS 1D LISS-III 2001 with IRS 1D PAN merged data, IRS P6 LISS-IV data 2006 and Resourcesat-2 data 2012. The Survey of India toposheets of (1971) used for this study. The kind and extent of shoreline changes were investigated by using GPS during ground truth verification. Erosion during the period 1971 to 1991 was 0.81 km², 1991 to 2001 was 4.91, 2001 to 2006 was 0.39 and 2006 to 2012 was 1.27 km² respectively. The accretion during the period 1971 to 1991 was 4.07 km², 1991 to 2001 was No change, 2001 to 2006 was 1.13 and 2006 to 2012 was 0.21 km² respectively. Erosion and accretion were also observed in specific geographical areas such as beach, plantation, land with scrub, river, mangrove forest, villages and urban coast. In overall these areas the erosion dominates, suggesting the many of the natural disasters occur in the study period. The results are analyzed and presented in this paper. The study results revealed that 3.21 km² area erosion of the shoreline occurred in the past 41 years.