Mangrove Distribution and Morphology Changes in the Mullipallam Creek, South Eastern Coast of India

Abstract

The Mangrove forest is globally important for the productivity of the coastal environment and is a good nursery site for aquatic organisms. The objective of the present paper was to create thematic maps of the wetland ecosystem and to analyse its changes, while making Remote Sensing and GIS techniques contributions to the Mullipallam region. Remotely sensed satellite data were used to detect changes in the mangrove cover for a period of 16 years (1991-2007). We found that an area of about 165.4 ha of dense mangrove degraded from 1999 to 2007 due to anthropogenic and shoreline erosion but sparse mangroves area significantly increased during this period due conservation and restoration activities. A Morphodynamics study (1929-2007) found that the migration of the River Cauvery tributaries in the wetland system had shifted towards the eastern side of the creek and the confluence of River Koraiyar had migrated towards the N-NNE direction. We observed that in recent decades mangrove forest have swiftly degraded because of intensified human activities.

Keywords

• Mangroves
• Morphology
• Conservation
• Restoration
• Muthupet.