A STUDY ON DISSIPATION OF COASTAL GEOMORPHOLOGICAL FEATURES IN PART OF EAST COAST FROM CUDDALORE TO CHIDAMBARAM, TAMIL NADU USING REMOTE SENSING & GIS TECHNIQUES.

The coastal zone of India has been affected by many natural hazards like storms, cyclones, floods and tsunami. The present study covers the area from Cuddalore to Chidambaram of Cuddalore district, which is part of the southeast coast of India and focuses on the coastal geomorphological changes by the help of LANDSAT ETM data & IRS P6 data for 2000 and 2012 respectively. The area of interest is located on the east coast of Tamil Nadu from Cuddalore to Chidambaram. Based on the 2000 data, the scale variable for each geomorphological feature was optimized by comparing manually digitized training samples with automatically recognized image objects. Classification rule sets were developed to extract the feature types of interest. The classification settings were then applied to both IRSP6 LISS III & LANDSAT ETM, which allowed the detection of geomorphological features to change between 2000 and 2012. From 2000 to 2012, changes of geomorphological features were calculated from two attributed table and changes, which were derived from the subtracted overlay map. The geomorphic units under different heads namely, features formed by present day wave action, features formed due to sea level oscillations; land and sea water interaction have been presented. The influence of sea level oscillations, land and sea interaction forms a diverse coastal geomorphology along the coastal area of interest. The details of features such as beach, sandy dune, flood plain, water logged area, mangrove area, back water, lake, river and coast plain have been recorded and the formation as well as significance of their occurrence is presented. The coastal geomorphology of the study area clearly established not only the sea level oscillations but also variations in climatic conditions in this part of the coast. The present study shows that remote sensing and GIS techniques can play an important role for making better planning and rational use of natural resources in the future.