Delineation of Coastal Regulation Zone of an Ecologically Sensitive Coastal Region in the Southern Indian Peninsula: A GIS Approach

The coastal ecosystems in India are facing a large array of natural and anthropogenic stresses due to climate change and economic developments. Therefore, proper management of these sensitive regions towards a holistic sustainable development is the need of the hour. Coastal regulation zones (CRZ) are created for regulation of activities in the coastal area for the protection of coastal and sea resources under 1986 Environment Protection Act, of India. This research was carried out along the Eastern Ramanathapuram coast of Tamil Nadu in the Indian Peninsula to delineate the coastal regulation zone using GIS. To understand and categorize the most sensitive coastal region. Our analysis further splits CRZ region into CRZ-I A, CRZI B, CRZ II, III-A, and CRZ III B, CRZ-IV B in compliance with Regulation 2019. Here, aligned with the CRZ compliance, 500m buffer area is taken from HTL (High Tide Level) towards the landward side in the ecosensitive coastline, and 100 m buffer area is taken along creeks and estuaries, as per the guidelines of CRZ Notification, 2019. The output is integrated with land use/land cover map of 2020 and population density to analyseand categorize various coastal zones in the study area.