An advanced GIS based approach for the assessment of coastal inundation in the storm surge region (Krishna District) of Andhra Pradesh, INDIA

Climate change leads coastal areas to suffer from rising sea levels, flooding, storm surges and cyclones which can cause irreparable harm to people and their assets. The mapping of these alterations to the coastline can assist in sustainable coastal development and surveillance. The current research emphasized the susceptibility of coastal inundation in the Krishna District of Andhra Pradesh, which is the State’s most vulnerable place to flooding and cyclonic storms. The Indian Meteorological Department website (mausam.imd.gov.in) was accessed to get latitudinal and longitudinal data on cyclonic storms that hit the area recently. The satellite imagery was acquired from Google Earth and USGS (earthexplorer.usgs.gov) to map the coastal settlements within 25 km radius of the coastline and to generate Digital Elevation Model (DEM) to identify the coastal inundation vulnerability up to 5.0 M contour elevation (2m, 3m, 4m and 5m). According to findings, there was a small impact of coastal inundation up to 4 meter sea level rise, so the research primarily concentrated on the assessment of coastal inundation with 5 meter sea level rise. A total of 512 settlements studied for coastal inundation encompassed an area of about 11405.4 hectares. The DEM identified that a large number of settlements in the Krishna District are on the verge of coastal inundation. About 125 settlements (24.5% settlements) with an area of approximately 2099.5 hectares are most vulnerable to coastal submergence, accounting for 18.5% of the studied area. This damage exposure assessment helps local government and policymakers to counteract extreme inundation events.