15-Dec-2022: Increase in sea level

The Government stands committed to addressing the global collective action problem of climate change through multilateralism and resolute domestic actions, including, improving the understanding of the subject through various research endeavours. The Government is fully aware that research and knowledge generation are critical aspects of the fight against climate change.

Climate change is a cross-cutting issue spanning various Ministries/ Departments and institutions under them. Research on climate change is mainly sponsored by the Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. Sectoral aspects of climate change are also studied by different Ministries/Departments concerning sectors like agriculture, water resources, human health, power, renewable energy, transport, urban issues / development, etc. Further, a large number of universities and government research institutions such as the Indian Institute of Technologies (IITs), Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Central and State Universities and their departments also carry out climate change related research.

Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), an autonomous institute of MoES has acquired the baseline Airborne Lidar Terrain Mapping (ALTM) elevation data from National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) under ISRO for the Tsunami Inundation modelling and vulnerability mapping. This data is available for the mainland Indian coast up to two kilometres from the coast and would be used for predicting the sea-level rise.

As part of Indian Tsunami Early Warning System, INCOIS has established a real-time network of 36 tide gauges at different locations along the Indian coast to monitor the tsunami waves and provide timely advisories. It has established 4 tide gauges in Andhra Pradesh at the following locations.

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change had notified the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Notification in the year 1991 vide S.O.114(E), dated 19th February 1991 which was superseded by Coastal Regulation Zone Notification 2011 issued vide S.O. 19(E) dated 6th January 2011 and subsequently by Coastal Regulation Zone Notification 2019 issued vide the Notification G.S.R. 37(E) dated 18th January 2019, with a view to ensuring livelihood security to the fisher communities and other local communities, living in the coastal areas, to conserve and protect coastal stretches, its unique environment and its marine area and to promote development through sustainable manner based on scientific principles taking into account the dangers of natural hazards in the coastal areas, and sea level rise due to global warming. As per the said Notifications, coastal areas are declared as Coastal Regulation Zone, wherein setting up and expansion of industries, operation and process are restricted and require prior clearances for permitted and regulated activities as per provisions of the said Notifications.

The CRZ Notification 2019 will, however, be effective, once the Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP) as per the said Notification is prepared or updated by the respective States / UTs and the CZMP as per provisions of CRZ Notification, 2011 shall continue to be followed for appraisal and CRZ clearance to such projects till such time.

The CRZ Notifications are revised or amended based on representation from various Coastal States and UTs, besides other stakeholders.

18-Jun-2021: Climate change to increase sea level in Lakshadweep Islands, will affect airport & residential areas: Study

Sea-level will rise around the Lakshadweep Islands in the range between 0.4 mm/year to 0.9 mm/year, says a study conducted projecting different greenhouse gas scenarios.

The study highlights that the worst possible inundation scenarios projected for Lakshadweep Islands are almost similar under different emission scenarios projected and all the islands in the archipelago would be vulnerable to impact from sea-level rise.

One of the major threats in the coming years is rising sea level and its significant impact on small islands and this is for the first time, that climate model projections were used to assess the potential areas of inundation over the archipelago of Lakshadweep Islands in the Arabian Sea.

 A team of scientists including Aysha Jennath, Athira Krishnan, Saikat Kumar Paul, Prasad K. Bhaskaran jointly from the Department of Architecture & Regional Planning and Department of Ocean Engineering & Naval Architecture, IIT Kharagpur, with support from the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India under the Climate Change Programme (CCP), studied the Climate projections of sea level rise and associated coastal inundation in atoll islands, a ring-shaped coral reef or island.

The study estimated that smaller islands Chetlat and Amini are expected to have major land-loss. Projection mapping indicated that about 60%-70% of existing shoreline would experience land-loss in Amini and about 70%-80% in Chetlat. The present work highlights that, larger islands Minicoy and the capital Kavaratti are also vulnerable to sea-level rise, and expected to experience land-loss along 60% of the existing shoreline. Sea-level rise effects are seen to have the least impact on Androth Island under all emission scenarios.

The research that was published in the journal ‘Regional Studies in Marine Science, Elsevier recently showed that the coastal inundation could have wide socio-economic impact. According to the team, projected inundation due to sea-level rise can impact the islanders as residential areas are quite close to the present coastline. Also, the only airport in the archipelago is located at the southern tip of Agatti Island, and has a high likelihood of damage due to inundation from sea-level rise.

The authors have suggested that keeping in view the impacts from projected sea-level rise for Lakshadweep, it is necessary to have appropriate coastal protection measures and best-practices to formulate planning guidelines.

This study also opens up a new outlook and dimension on future research to assess the directional nature of wave energy, impact of storminess in the Arabian Sea region, islands that are exposed and sheltered and amenities such as potable water, sanitation and so on.

This noteworthy study has practical value and can be immensely useful to policy makers and decision making authorities for both short and long-term planning that benefit the population in Lakshadweep Islands.