Narrow Results

This paper presents a GIS-based method to calculate the total sediment discharge from river basins to coastal areas. This method uses Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) to calculate the rate of soil erosion and Gross Erosion-Sediment Delivery method (GESD) to calculate the total sediment discharge in a GIS modeling environment. The model is tested using the data of Abe River then applied to four river basins in Asia. Global data sets are used as the input to the current model. The result shows that there are significant variations of sediment discharges due to the precipitation change in these river basins.

The December 26, 2004 tsunami has caused extensive damage in the Union Territory of Andaman & Nicobar Islands, India, affecting 115.36 km of coastline. In order to identify the impacts of tsunami in South Andaman of the Andaman Islands, the study has been carried out using satellite data for pre-tsunami (Feb. 2003) and post-tsunami (March 2005). This paper provides an assessment of damages caused by tsunami and suitable resettlement places for the people using remote sensing and GIS technology. Assessment of tsunami inflicted damage to island ecosystems assumes greater importance owing to their life-sustaining and livelihood support abilities. Apart from the reparation caused to life and property, significant damage has afflicted the ecosystem, which will have long lasting effects. The tsunami-induced damage to coastal ecosystems was studied based on coastal landuse, geomorphology and coastal critical habitat for South Andaman Island using remote sensing and GIS. An area of 3,366 ha of land area was affected by tsunami. Within the coastal ecosystem, coral reef and mangrove were also severely affected. The study of landforms shows that the land is submerged. The severity of damages and their consequences suggest the need for a definite restoration ecology programme.

This paper describes an integrated spatial modeling concept for flood losses which has been developed within the joint research project "XtremRisK". For the final step of an integrated coastal flood risk analysis based on the "risk source-pathway-receptor" approach, the "Cellbased Risk Assessment" (CRA) concept is implemented for the spatial modeling of both tangible and intangible flood losses and their aggregation into the so-called "integrated risk". Finally, all results are utilized for the hazard and risk mapping, which serve as a basis for the decision making on risk management strategies. The different steps of the CRA concept and its applicability for different types of spatial input data are shown in the paper. Furthermore, advantages and limitations of this spatial modeling concept for integrated flood risk analysis are discussed. The practical implementation of the approach is described for the study area Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg (Germany) and the related categories of flood losses. The results show that the newly developed CRA concept is a suitable spatial modeling framework with respect to the comprehensive requirements in this integrated coastal flood risk analysis.