Centre for Remote Sensing, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, India.
Coastal areas are very valuable in view of human beings and more dynamics for land use due to urbanization and industrialization. It is essential to assess the land use/land cover changes for coastal zone management, technologies like Remote sensing and GIS were used to monitor the coastal land use dynamics for the Chennai coast covers stretch of approximately 125kms from Pulicat Lake (North) to Kovalam creek (South). Survey of India Toposheet, Land sat and IRSLISS III satellite data were used for the years 1976, 1999 and 2007. The maps were compared and changes were attributed; and show that the drastic changes in land use profile. Vegetation cover decreased from 15.49% to 11.19% during 19992007 & 19.49% to 15.77% (19761999) respectively. Due to the increased population the settlement and built up areas increased considerably 16.82% (1976), 26.20% (1999) and 31.91% (2007). Field observation shows the current status and issues of coastal environmental problems. Study suggested some remedial measures to protect the coastal environment.
Landuse/landcover, Chennai coast, Remote Sensing, Coastal Environment
