Nearly 90% of the geographical area of Andhra Pradesh’s 706 villages and eight towns falls under the Coastal Multi-Hazard Zone (CMZ), and is, therefore, vulnerable to flooding due to sea erosion.
This means that 3.2 million people and their assets in these villages are at high risk, while 5.1 million people belonging to the rest of the villages are partially affected and at medium to low risk.
In fact, more coastal villages between East Godavari and Nellore are facing threats from coastal flooding, according to scientists from the Hyderabad-based Indian National Center for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) of the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES). It has been said in a study done. ,
The study revealed that there has been an alarming rate of erosion and deposition across Andhra Pradesh in the last 48 years till 2019, with the highest erosion recorded over an area of 66.3 km along West Godavari, East Godavari and Krishna districts, the main due to dynamic coastal process
Moderate erosion was recorded in some stretches between Nellore and Visakhapatnam in a stretch of 33.9 km and low erosion was recorded in 180.3 km. The remaining portion of 662.9 km recorded an accretion.
The coastal stretches under Krishna-Godavari delta including East Godavari, Krishna, West Godavari, Guntur, Prakasam and Nellore districts are low-lying and hence, found to be highly vulnerable, while Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram, Srikakulam and Prakasam districts were comparatively less vulnerable . They were on a comparatively higher plane.
An analysis of coastal villages along the CMZ revealed that 1,420 census villages and 15 towns involving 8.3 million people were falling under the CMZ, according to the study led by INCOIS director T. Srinivasa Kumar and senior scientists TM Balakrishnan Nair, Sudhir Joseph, PA Francis. , PC Mohanty and RS Mahendra.
They observed that East Godavari (18%), West Godavari (10%), Guntur (11%) and Krishna (30%) districts were showing high percentage of CMZ area due to low altitude and high long coastline with sea exposure. Highly vulnerable to widespread flooding.
The present study used peak water levels recorded by tide nets for the past century and published data to extrapolate potential trends over 100-year recurrence intervals. The CMZ estimation demarcated potential inundation areas due to ocean-borne disasters using satellite, aerial and remote sensing information and high-resolution topographic data up to two km.
The confirmation of Hudhud cyclone-induced storm surge flooding as useful in coastal disaster management and disaster mitigation and preparedness was also strongly correlated with the corresponding CMZ scenario. But, scientists have warned that the actual flood could be much higher.