Appraisal of tsunami inundation and run-up along the coast of Kanyakumari District, India - GIS analysis

oleh: Sakthivel Saravanan, Manoharan Rajamanickam, Jeyaraj Dajkumar Sahayam, Jeyakodi Loveson Immanuel, Nainarpandian Chandrasekar

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: Elsevier 2007-09-01

Deskripsi

On 26 December 2004, a tsunami severely affected almost allthe coastal villages of Kanyakumari District, India. It was oneof the worst affected coastal sectors of South India. An attempthas been made here to assess the impact of the tsunami hazardon coastal landforms and the level of inundation using GIS techniques.The areas of inundation were surveyed and mapped by fixing regulartransects along the coastal regions. The percentage of inundatedarea in the total area was estimated. It was found that inundationwas higher on low-lying coasts and relatively less on elevatedcoasts. In some cases, the extent of inundation was a few kilometresin relation to other coasts, but the percentage of inundatedarea in the total coastal area was high. The extent of inundationalong the study area varied from 50 m to 450 m. Inundation wasminimal in coastal villages like Kanyakumari, Agastheeswaram,Madhysoodhanapuram and Dharmapuram, but extensive at Colachel.The percentage of inundated area in the total area ranges from8% (Dharmapuram) to 39% (Colachel). The degree of inundationwas controlled by coastal geomorphological features such as sanddunes, cliffs, coastal vegetation, nature and configuration ofthe beach, not to mention the angle and velocity of the invadingtsunami surge.