Coastal Vegetation Change Detection Using a Remote Sensing Approach

Abstract

Coastal zones represent varied and highly productive ecosystems such as mangroves, coral reefs, sea grasses, and sand dunes. However, as a result of globalization, anthropological activities have increased in coastal areas, putting these ecosystems under high pressure. This, in turn, has led to the loss of valuable vegetation in the coastal areas of the world. This study was conducted to detect the changes occurring in the coastal vegetation in the Daman district of India. Daman is one of the Union territories of India, which have shown good development in recent years. As a result, the area covered by mangrove vegetation has changed at and near the coast of this district. A remote sensing approach was utilized in this study to detect the changes in vegetation that occurred between the years 2016 and 2021. Landsat ETM+ data were used to derive NDVI images of the study period using ERDAS imagine 2014. Field work covering the entire study area was carried out to classify and assess the accuracy of the vegetation categories, i.e., no vegetation, low vegetation, moderate vegetation, and dense vegetation. Vegetation maps for both the years were prepared using ArcGIS software 10.5. The results indicated that the area with no vegetation decreased during the study period, whereas the rest of the categories, i.e., low vegetation, moderate vegetation, and dense vegetation, showed an increase. This increase in vegetation can be attributed to the Daman official authorities’ efforts to conserve these coastal areas. This will lead to enhanced ecosystem services provided by these ecosystems.

Keywords

• NDVI
• vegetation maps
• mangroves
• India