Status of Environment

INTRODUCTION
coastal zone is defined as “coastal waters (to include the land and the consequent) and the adjacent shorelands (including the waters and the consequent), strongly influenced by them and near the coasts of several coastal countries, and includes the islands , transitional and intertidal areas, salt marshes, wetlands and beaches. “cities of the coast, first established in some countries, and have always represented a significant percentage of the total population. Do primary care centers for transportation, tourism, recreation, commercial fishing and industry. This coastal area is a crucial segment of the general economy of the country. A variety of natural hazards regularly threaten coastal areas. extreme weather events like hurricanes, tropical cyclones and Nor’easters are particularly difficult in coastal areas, often causing damage by strong winds, storms, flooding and coastal erosion. Tsunami, whose destructive force is characterized by devastating floods floods are events in a unique way because the costs of offshore earthquakes, landslides, or volcanic activity. Coastal areas are also subject to the consequences of long-term risks, such as chronic coastal erosion, the potential increase in sea level and global climate change.
Coastal hazard events can significantly affect or even alter the natural environment. Its impact is not generally regarded as “disastrous” unless they involve damages to human populations and infrastructure. When people and property are not present, the risks are natural processes that alter the environment. When people and property is present, then the consequences of the risks are very different. The main objective is no longer the natural process associated with an event of serious risk, but the disastrous results that can be measured by the loss of lives, property damage and economic and environmental impact.
The impact of natural hazards are increasingly costly and devastating. Risk of impacts on the environment ever more devastating because human development has altered the capacity of natural systems to recover from these events. Experts believe that the statistics on disaster losses are increasing worldwide due to a combination of factors including an increase in the number of events threatened by global climate change or natural fluctuations in economic activity and rising human exposure in hazardous environments.
Some of the reduction of disaster losses worldwide could also be the result of improvements in disaster monitoring and reporting, especially in developing countries. But the increase in disaster losses in the U.S. seem to be more closely linked to increased human exposure in areas of high risk and the costs of the nation.
The United States has a large and diverse coastline that supports a disproportionate share of the population of the nation. The nation of 451 coastal counties is just over 50 percent of the U.S. population but represent only about 20 percent of the total area of the United States. During the last decade, 17 of the 20 fastest growing counties were located along the coast. In addition, 19 of the 20 counties most densely populated coastal counties in the nation. These coastal counties profits through natural resources, maritime commerce and trade. These coastal counties also have the economic loss due to natural hazards, over-exploitation and exponential population growth. An assessment of the economic benefits and economic loss is briefly discussed below.
economic benefit on the coast of U. S.
Nature Article (May 1997), a group of ecologists assessed the value of ecosystems in coastal areas. It is estimated that the value of marine ecosystem services is approximately U.S. $ 21 billion year. According to Sea Technology magazine, the value of goods and services sold by the ocean and the marine industry in 1995 was estimated at 60 billion U.S. $ year. oil and gas production has become very important and the value of 1996 was over $ 8 billion and annual production at sea is growing. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 77 million pounds (meat weight) of shellfish were collected from the coastal waters of the United States in 1995, with a value of $ 200 million platform .
NOAA Current estimates on recreational uses of coastal areas of the United States includes about 94 million people boat and fish each year, the average American spends 10 days each year recreation on the coast, the coast (with excluding the costs of the Great Lakes) supporting 25 500 recreational facilities, more than 180 million Americans have visited the ocean and bay beaches in 1993, sport fishing contributes $ 13. 5 billion annually to the Santa U.
economy, recreation and coastal tourism generate $ 8 to $ 12 billion annually.
economic losses in the field of U. S. Coastal
Disaster losses in the U.S., the coastal zone is currently estimated conservatively at $ 50 billion annually. The disaster of the loss between 1975 and 1994 is estimated at U.S. $ 500 million. 80 percent of the losses imposed by climate and 10 percent were the result of earthquakes and volcanoes. A major earthquake (magnitude 8 or more) did not reach a large metropolitan area since the earthquake of 1906 in San Francisco. One extreme or catastrophic hurricane (class 4 or 5) not directly hit a major urban area as one that hit Miami, Florida, in 1926. But even without such disasters, which could cause damage to more than U.S. $ 100 million, the overall costs of natural hazards such as extreme weather, droughts and fires, is estimated at 54 billion dollars U.S. per year over the past five years, or about $ 1,000,000,000 a week. In the U.S., direct costs to repair damage to average about $ 20 billion, of which more than 15 billion U.S. dollars is due to tornadoes, hurricanes, floods and earthquakes.
FEMA Coastal erosion study of the Heinz Center for Science, Economics and Environment, estimates that about 25 percent of homes and other structures within 500 meters of the coast of the United States and Great Lakes coasts victims the effects of erosion in the next 60 years. Particularly affected will be areas along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, which should represent 60 percent of nationwide losses. The report estimates that costs for homeowners in the U.S. average more than half a billion dollars a year, and that the development of different areas of high erosion leads to increased losses. Thirty-four floods occurred in Wake County (data source: NDCD and SHELDUS). The total cost of the Gulf Coast map of the coast of Mexico is about 8058 km, of which 3387 km is very high-risk, high risk is 1056 km, 2968 km is moderate risk and 547 km in the category of low risk due to increased sea level. So 42% of the coastline is high risk, moderate risk 37% and 8% lower risk (Robert et al Thieler. Al 2001).
Mitch, one of the most powerful and damaging hurricanes experienced in Central America, just between October 26 and November 1, 1998. A Category V, the event was marked by heavy rains and high winds, dumping the equivalent of one year’s rainfall in less than a week to the region, causing flooding of rivers, floods, landslides and mudslides. Thousands of people were killed and left homeless. Mitch has caused billions of dollars in damage and left the huge tasks of reconstruction, with the loss of decades of development efforts in the region.
The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) estimates that the direct cost of replacing lost and damaged infrastructure in the region after Hurricane Mitch is U.S. $ 5,000 million (Knights, 1999).
Recent large-scale disasters such as Hurricane Mitch and George, and the earthquake in Armenia, Colombia, demonstrated the vulnerability of society. It is widely acknowledged that the recent population growth, rapid urbanization and socio-economic structure of Central America have increased the vulnerability of these countries to natural hazards.
These disasters faced by the inhabitants of both natural and anthropogenic effects lead to the formation of laws and the right to govern.
The legislation and the main events of the U.S. Coastal Zone
The economic losses and economic performance, as felt by the inhabitants of the Earth led to the formation of legislation. This legislation is framed for the sustainable use of natural resources available. When the loss is severe or reward is enormous, the laws need some revision, as a result, it changes periodically. Some of the laws and acts related to the coastal areas of the United States was the National Environmental Policy Act, Clean Water Act, Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act, Ocean Dumping Act of 1972, Law on Water Resources Development 1996 , Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972, Law on Protection of Marine Mammals 1972 Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Conservation and Management Act of 1976 Endangered Species 1973, Country wise Invasive Species Act Pollution Act 1996 Hydrocarbons, 1990, the global environmental response, compensation, and liability act of 1980, Rivers and Harbor Act of 1899, the Submerged Lands Act of 1953, the Coordination of Fisheries and Wildlife Act 1934 Land and Water Conservation Fund Act 1965, Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 and the Coastal Barrier Resources Act 1982.
Therefore, in order to change these laws of integration in different fields and discussed the search.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Assessment of natural hazards
natural hazards is a phenomenon that occurs in the neighborhood and is a threat to people, structures or economic activities and can cause disasters. They are caused by meteorological, biological, geological, seismic, hydrological or conditions or processes in the natural environment. Risk assessment is the estimation process for certain areas, the probability of occurrence of potential – damaging phenomenon of given magnitudes within a specified period of time. risk assessment includes an analysis of formal and informal historical records, and skilled interpretation of existing meteorological, topographical, geological, geomorphological, hydrological, and maps of the territory.
Development Bureau United Nations Relief (UNDRO) defines vulnerability as: “The degree of loss of an element or group of elements at risk as a result of the occurrence of a natural phenomenon of a given magnitude. And expressed in a scale from 0 (no damage) to 1 (total loss). The vulnerability of an element is usually expressed as a percentage of loss (or as a value between 0 and 1) to a certain level of seriousness of the risk. The measure of loss of use depends on the element of risk, and therefore can be measured as the ratio between the number of people killed or injured in the total population, as the cost of repair or the degree of physical harm is defined on an appropriate scale. In a large number of elements, such as heritage buildings, can be defined in terms of percentage of buildings that particular experience some level of damage.
The assessment is an interdisciplinary process undertaken in stages and involves site investigations and the collection, evaluation and interpretation of information from various sources concerning both direct and indirect losses, effects of short and long term. This determines not only what has happened and what assistance might be necessary, but also the definition of objectives and relevance of the assistance can be effective for the victims. It requires attention to both short-term needs and long-term implications.
The United States is becoming increasingly vulnerable to natural hazards mainly due to changes in population density and national wealth. Because of this, people and infrastructure have been concentrated in areas prone to disasters. Natural hazards threaten the sustainable development of the United States, destroying years of development efforts and investments, a new application for companies for the reconstruction and rehabilitation, and changing development priorities away from long-term objectives, while immediate needs are met. For most of the 20th century, the United States has largely spared the expense of natural disasters. Much has been achieved in understanding the impacts that various risks in human and natural environments. Some research activities were initiated following the major hazard events of recent years. Unfortunately, much of this research is fragmented and has not been included in any comprehensive database on disaster losses.
natural hazards such as hurricanes and earthquakes should not become disasters. With proper planning, including proper environmental management, much of the risk can be reduced. The risks posed by natural disasters in the United States are compounded by social and environmental trends such as rapid urbanization and unplanned human settlements, poor engineering construction, inadequate infrastructure, poverty and poor environmental practices such as deforestation and land degradation.
Given the high cost of natural disasters in the nation, the focus has shifted in recent years to expand beyond the emergency preparedness and response to include a greater emphasis on long-term reduction of disaster losses. They therefore require a quantitative risk assessment of vulnerability to natural coastal areas. This quantitative assessment of natural hazards is to minimize or a person or a community’s vulnerability to future disaster damage. Over the years there has been progress in reducing the impact of risk by improving the predictions, forecasts, warnings, especially for weather hazards such as hurricanes and floods. general improvement in the prediction of hurricanes and tsunamis, and the river and the lake level estimates was possible using the latest computer simulation technology. NOAA’s National Weather Service (NWS) is currently working with several new technology systems that are designed to significantly improve future capabilities in flood forecasting. Although there are many techniques available to assess the vulnerability due to natural disasters remains quantitatively necessary to recognize the scientific and technological information needs across the various disciplines and integration-related harm. Despite significant progress in research and science associated with natural disasters over the past 20 years, and improvements in technology and understanding of natural hazards and how to access your vulnerability requires a database in real-time quantitative scientific line.
Universities and research institutions (in particular, the National Science Foundation), along with government agencies such as NOAA and USGS to maintain the scientific responsibility of the hazards associated with, have contributed to progress in the scientific study of natural hazards . Now available more quantitative information on the origins and development of hazard events, but the concept of integration of data sets available are delayed.
This study is to integrate all fields in the evaluation of coastal vulnerability. Maps delineate risk areas at the national, state and local levels are necessary to provide a fuller assessment of the risks using the information on a variety of natural phenomena such as hurricanes, floods, tsunamis, hurricanes, typhoons, landslides, fires, droughts, earthquakes, etc. Much of this information already exists, but issues such as data integration, compatibility, scale, precision and resolution shall be addressed to make the information locally. best methods and models are also required to conduct vulnerability assessments of risk that can complement the highly variable local conditions and characteristics. This requires site-specific models to improve estimates.
geographical information systems based on computer can be used to analyze the risks of information and provide national data for risk assessment for state and local governments to quickly and easily. Specific models can be generated using GIS software. New features high-resolution remote sensing could be considered for use in large-scale risk assessment and vulnerability. Thus, remote sensing and GIS should be integrated and the model for quantitative assessment of vulnerability to natural hazards.
The improvements in monitoring, data collection and processing account for the bulk of the progress achieved in the short term weather forecasting. improved modeling capabilities, along with a deeper understanding of the variables, such as global climate change and rising sea level, are needed to improve long-range forecasts and planning for coastal hazard impacts.
the integration of GIS / modeling of vulnerability to natural hazards
GIS is a powerful tool that can be used to assess vulnerability to natural disasters (PCI). Because these techniques, mapping of natural disasters and vulnerability assessment can be carried out for the coastal zone. These maps help authorities for rapid assessment of potential effects of natural disasters and implement appropriate measures to reduce their impact. These data will help planners and decision makers to take positive action in time.
GIS applications in the coastal zone are diverse and based on cases. studies of applications such as (a mapping) coastal (b) monitoring the environment, (c) modeling of coastal processes, (d) navigation and management of port facilities, (e) the expense of the environment or risk assessment, (f) coastal management, strategic planning, and (g) coastal ecological models could be done through GIS.
Coastal mapping focuses mainly on thematic mapping of coastal areas, including the allocation of the chlorophyll from TM data (Chen et al. 1996). Environmental monitoring is one of the CZM routine tasks, including monitoring of water quality and habitat and diversity, and see the beach. Modelling of coastal processes change the physical environment in the coastal zone includes the simulation of the effects of sea level rise (Ruth and Pieper 1994, Grossman and Eberhardt 1992, Zeng and Cowell 1998, 1999, Hennecke 2000), Evaluation of a Human change coastal intervention (Huang et al. 1999), using historical data to predict future costs of change (Sims et al. 1995) and the study of beach morphodynamics (Humphries and Ligdas, 1997). There are two subcategories of the dangers of the questions, in particular, activities in the short and long term. The first is exemplified by the oil spill monitoring and forecasting (BELORADO, 1990), while the latter is demonstrated by the coastal risk / vulnerability assessment due to climate change (Lee et al. 1992, Sims et al. 1995; Deniels et al. 1996, Hickey et al. 1997, Zeng and Cowell 1999, Hennecke et al. 2000 Esnard et al. 2001). coastal management / strategic planning will involve the assessment of environmental sustainability, social and economic sustainability. As mentioned above, studies in coastal areas should be integrated remote sensing and GIS for analysis.
The categories of GIS applications in coastal areas could be substantially divided into three levels.
a) Level 1: as data management and mapping tools,
b) Level 2: as a basis for data analysis (consultation) and mapping tools and
c) Level 3: How tools and decision support (modeling / simulation).
Most current implementations of GIS costs are still at level 1 and 2. It is expected that level 3 implementations will increase rapidly in the near future, as the continuous improvement of GIS more features and an intuitive interface that is available on the market. So for the study of quantitative assessment of the level of vulnerability of Natural Hazards 3 application shall be adopted.
The two basic approach of analysis to be followed for the development of geospatial databases are listed below.
Integrated approach:
a) the integration of different levels of implementation,
b) integration of vector and bitmap (data and functions)
c) the integration of different skills and knowledge
d) the integration of different scales of time and space.
Due to the nature of integration, the GIS should consider the long-term integration. This includes the vertical integration includes different applications (and potential) levels, and horizontal integration with the participation of other stakeholders. Therefore, these issues must be addressed by the database design, data exchange tool to gain (analysis) and the exchange of experiences.
Multi-criteria analysis
a) Multi – factors that control
From the coastal system has a complex hierarchical structure forcing multiple exercises on each of the subsystems, no matter what aspect of the system to investigate multi-variable analysis is an essential method for the coastal environment.
b) multi – disciplinary approach for decision Apart from the many factors, there are groups of different interests of coastal communities, then, good solutions to coastal problems can only be derived from a multidisciplinary approach.
Output analysis
I. historical and real-time natural hazards will be collected by satellite remote sensing, aerial photographs and other conventional means integrated with GIS and RDBMS. This translates into a geo database.
II. Through the modeling technique and the use of GIS RDBMS can assess the likelihood of experiencing some natural hazards in the future, and an estimate of the intensity and the level of likely impact.
Each disaster will be evaluated by three characteristics:
1. It is likely to occur, i. e. , The expected frequency;
2. likely range of impact, i. e. , The size and position of the expected impact and
3. Probable impact i. e. , The strength and potential damage.
III. The severity of natural hazards will be quantified in terms of the presence of greatness as a parameter of the event in its entirety () in terms of effect would occur in a given location (site parameter).
IV. Quantitative vulnerability to natural hazards, some weight must be added to the column of attributes (slope, subsurface geology, the ongoing action, the action of the waves, meteorology, wind action, etc. ) The values given in the columns of attributes can be calculated with the help of a formula modeled in GIS.
Natural Hazards = (Wgeology Wslope + + + + Wwind Wsiesmisivity Wmeteo
+ + Wgeomorphology WETC …) (1)
Based on the above formula, the values of vulnerability to natural disasters could be retrieved by clicking on any of the parcels on the map of coastal areas. These values are meaningless to end users. To make the most acceptable outcome, a separate domain should be created in which the resulting values are divided into three classes: high risk areas, high, moderate and low
Weight Class:
Values below 30 low hazard areas
Values between 30-40 moderate risk zone
Values 40-50 High Risk Area
Values between 50-60 Very High Risk Area
V. risk mitigation plan should be developed and be in possession of these five -
• Identification of natural hazards that can affect the community,
• assessing the vulnerability of communities to natural hazards
• assess the capacity of communities to respond to a natural disaster
• assessment of current policies and ordinances of the community in relation to the mitigation of risk and
• development of risk mitigation strategies that can be implemented to reduce future vulnerability.
VI. With all the factors mentioned site-specific models for assessing the vulnerability of natural hazards can create a GIS for the coastal zone of the United States. This will serve as a starting point for further amendments to it in the area with U. S coast.
CONCLUSION
coastal counties of the United States in possession of financial gain through natural resources, trade and maritime commerce and economic loss through natural hazards, over-exploitation and exponential population growth. About 80 percent of the losses were due to bad weather and 10 percent were caused by earthquakes and volcanoes. So to minimize losses due to natural disasters of a computer-based methodology is adopted for the database recovery geospatial natural hazards and provide information on national data for risk assessment for state and local governments . site-specific models have been proposed for the coast of the United States through the integration of GIS software and high-resolution remote sensing to quantify the risk and vulnerability to large scale. This modeling study could also apply to developing countries like India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, etc for the assessment of vulnerability to natural disasters in coastal areas.