Description

The coastal zones are exposed to variety of hazards due to interactions between marine, terrestrial and atmospheric systems with respect to hazardous processes and complexities of coastal areas in terms of geological, geomorphological, hydrological, ecological, economical and sociological aspects in responding to those processes. The human occupancies of geomorphologically hazard prone lands of the coastal belt are not avoided at present in and around the Bay of Bengal shores due to increasing population pressure and available economic options in the sea and adjacent lands. The dramatic increase in terms of losses and casualties in response to natural disasters like wind, storms surge induced flooding, seismic hazards and tsunami incidence of Bay of Bengal coast during the previous decades has prompted a major national scientific initiative into the probable causes and possible mitigation strategies. This book is aimed at developing a conceptual framework for coastal risk assessment and discusses how to collect and analyze the database for mapping risk zones.