Coastal Vulnerability Assessment Index

In News

• Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) has carried out coastal vulnerability assessment for the entire Indian coast at the state level.

What is  Coastal Vulnerability?

• Coastal vulnerability is a spatial concept that identifies people and places that are susceptible to disturbances resulting from coastal hazards. 
• Hazards in the coastal environment, such as coastal storms and erosion, pose significant threats to coastal physical, economic, and social systems. 

About the Assessment Index

• Under the Coastal Vulnerability Assessment Index (CVI), INCOIS has brought out an Atlas comprising 156 maps on 1:1,00,000 scales to prepare a CVI.
• These maps determine the coastal risks due to future sea-level rise based on the physical and geological parameters for the Indian coast.
• The CVI uses the relative risk that physical changes will occur as sea-level rises are quantified based on parameters like:
  • Tidal range
  • Wave height
  • Coastal slope
  • Coastal elevation
  • Shoreline change rate
  • Geomorphology
  • Historical rate of relative sea-level change
• Multi-Hazard Vulnerability Mapping (MHVM):
  • A coastal Multi-Hazard Vulnerability Mapping (MHVM) was also carried out using above mentioned parameters.
  • These parameters were synthesized to derive the composite hazard zones that can be inundated along with the coastal low-lying areas due to extreme flooding events.
  • This MHVM mapping was carried out for the entire mainland of India on a 1:25000 scale.
  • These maps depict the coastal low-lying areas exposed to coastal inundation.

What are the Benefits 

• Coastal vulnerability assessments can be useful information for coastal disaster management and building resilient coastal communities.
• India has a coastline of 7516.6 Km i.e. 6100 km of mainland coastline plus coastline of 1197 Indian islands touching 13 States and Union Territories (UTs).

Source: TH