A Study of Vegetation Geomorphology Relationship along the sections of Balasore and Kanthi Coastal Plains, India

Coastal geomorphology deals with the various landforms and different processes involved in the development of coast. In the alluvium coast, biology plays a significant role as a coastal process. The present study aims at the role of vegetation in the geomorphic system, with the main consideration of flora. The study has been conducted in an alluvium coast along the Bay of Bengal adjacent to the sections of Balasore and Kanthi coastal plain. The geomorphological map and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) have been generated with the help of Landsat 5 TM, Landsat 8 OLI & SOI Toposheet with the help of Arc GIS & Erdas Imagine software. The ground truthing of relationships between geomorphological units & vegetation types are established with the help of GPS survey and counting of species type. The selected nine environmental transects of Balasore and Kanthi coastal plains i.e. Dagara, Kankadapal, Talsari, Udaipur, Digha, Shankarpur, Tajpur, Mandarmani & Junput have been considered for assessing the role of vegetation in sediment accretion and sediment surface stability. The study shows that the surface stability is achieved with dense vegetation covers and their types in Mangrove Swamp, Salt marsh and sand dunes whereas; the erosional area of geomorphic units has less vegetation cover and insignificant species type. The perfect relationship are found in the shore transect of Balasore-Kanthi coastal interface area (New Digha to Bichitrapur). Finally, it is also observed that the above area is less disturbed by human activities in compare to others.