Mapping of Aquaculture Potential Zones Using Geospatial Multi-Criteria Method for Sustainable Aquaculture Development-Thiruvallur District

Aquaculture sector has developed rapidly since the last decade and its development have been unregulated, which has caused many ecological problems. In this regard, this study has been undertaken to identify potential zone for sustainable aquaculture development. Thiruvallur district coastal sub-watershed boundary has been taken as the study area which has been delineated using SRTM DEM, toposheet, and also using watershed data collected from the agriculture department, Tamil Nadu. Water sources available in the study area are Pulicat Lake, Buckingham Canal, Arani River, and Kosathalaiyar River. Pulicat and Buckingham Canal are the major sources for aquaculture in the Thiruvallur district since Kosathalaiyar and Arani River are ephemeral in nature. A pair wise comparison matrix has been used to assign weightage to each criterion based on its relative importance. Various thematic maps were integrated into multi-criteria factors such as water quality, soil characteristics, infrastructure factors, and land use type to identify potential aquaculture zone using remote sensing and GIS. To ensure sustainable aquaculture development constrain, parameters have been framed according to coastal aquaculture authority regulations for mangroves, settlement, drinking water source and ecologically sensitive areas. The existing aquaculture farm in the study area has been mapped using Sentinel 2, it is about 660.65 hectares and the potential extend of the area available for aquaculture development estimated using AHP method is about 630 hectares.