Abstract:
Goa, endowed with natural & scenic beauty, is famous for its silvery sand & golden coastline. In the recent years, a lot of changes (both natural & man-made) have occurred rapidly which have direct impact on the human environment. These changes in the nature have to be delineated for better understanding and for taking the necessary mitigate or remedial measures. Further, the management of natural resources has become a complex task as more & more socio-economic activities such as urban development, agriculture, waste disposal, nature conservation, shipping, harbor development, fisheries etc., are taking place. Present paper discusses the geomorphology of coastal features as observed and maps the land use changes that have occurred during the period from January 1999 and March 2001 due to rapid pace of urbanization, detected on the basis of field observation and with the use of IRS-1C Satellite Imageries using RS & GIS methodologies. In all, about fourteen (14) coastal features have been observed from various band combinations and their characteristics have been delineated. From the study, it is observed that 1) there is an overall increase in the barren area within the mining belt in March 2001, 2) an overall decrease in the thick vegetation (category) shown by the vegetation index images, and 3) highly turbid water in the northern region indicating active sedimentation along the coast moving in the southeasterly direction.
