Ullal beach was highly vulnerable beach

Mangalore, Apr 27 (UNI) Ullal beach in Daxina Kannada district of Karnataka was highly vulnerable beach among the eight coastal erosion vulnerable sites identified under an Integrated Coastal Zone Management Plan (ICZMP) and Coastal Zone Information System (CZIS) for Mangalore Coast.

In a paper presented at the one-day workshop on "Integrated Coastal Zone Management Plan" Prof G S Dwarakish of Department of Applied Mechanics and Hydraulics at the National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK) said that according to a study by the Coastal Vulnerability Index (CVI) the Ullal beach was highly vulnerable compared to other beaches with the CVI value being 1.74.

Hosabettu beach followed Ullal beach with CVI value of 0.70.

Talapady and Gudde Kopla beaches on the Mangalore Coast were grouped under moderate vulnerability category and the remaining beaches were classified under low vulnerability category.

He said that both Tannirbavi and Panambur Beaches were having equal CVI value of 0.26 which were situated on the southern side of New Mangalore Port Trust (NMPT) south breakwater and northern side of NMPT north breakwater. Also, from the shoreline change analysis and bathymetry analysis, it was found that there was no large scale erosion/deposition since the contours were placed parallel to each other.

Prof Dwarkish said that if the littoral drift was predominant among the coast, then there must be deposition on one side and erosion on other side of these two NMPT breakwater. But no such phenomenon was observed at these two locations and hence it can be concluded that these two beaches subjected to onshore-offshore sediment transport in particular and Mangalore coast in general.

Based on this it can be conclude that Mangalore coast is in dynamic equilibrium.

He said that CVI study was determined using six variables of geomorphology, shoreline change rate, coastal slope, relative sea level change maximum significant wave height and mean tidal range.

The calculated CVI values for Mangalore coast ranged from 0.18 to 1.74, he said adding that out of the six parameters considered to calculate CVI, the most influential variables were geomorphology, shoreline change and significant wave height.

UNI