IAPRS & SIS, Vol.34, Part 7, “Resource and Environmental Monitoring”, Hyderabad, India, 2002 
  
  
as well as proposals to establish ports and new industries in the 
Gulf of Kachchh region has posed severe threat to the rich 
marine life. Earlier to 1950, mangrove forests were in very 
good condition in the Gulf, dense and often reaching upto 14 m 
or so, represented by Brugueria sp along with species of 
Avicennia, Rhizophora, Aegiceras corniculatum, Ceriops tagal 
and Sonneratia apetala (Chavan 1985). Today, Brugueria sp is 
totally absent, Sonneratia apetala, Rhizophora mucronata and 
Ceriops tagal have become vulnerable species and Aegiceras 
corniculatum has become endangered (Nayak and Bahuguna 
2001). Coral reefs in the Gulf are located in the northern-most 
latitude of the Indian Ocean. Earlier the growth of corals here 
was extensive and rich but the present day corals are scanty 
(Singh 2000). There are 56 coral species recorded from the 
Gulf out of which 44 are hard coral species (Singh 2000). 
Ikedella misakiensis a rare coral species is found in the Gulf of 
Kachchh (It has been reported from only 3 places in the world). 
Ikedosoma pirotanens*-, another species of coral is only found 
to occur in the Gulf of Kachchh. For the present study the core 
Marine National Park area has been studied. 
3. DATABASE GENERATED 
As this is an attempt to establish methodology for vital habitats 
management, the two vital habitats of the core Marine National 
Park (MNP) region have been studied, namely, mangroves and 
coral reefs. 
3.1 Spatial Database 
Habitat Maps 
Coastal wetland maps, mangrove habitats maps and coral reef 
habitat maps (prepared using Landsat MSS, Landsat TM, 
SPOT, IRS LISS II, IRS LISS III of period 1975-2001) 
prepared earlier (Nayak et al. 1989, Pandeya et al. 1989, Nayak 
et al. 1992, Bahuguna et al. 1992, Bahuguna and Nayak 1996, 
Bahuguna and Nayak 1998, Navalgund and Bahuguna 1999, 
Nayak and Bahuguna 2001), were converted into digital 
database. The mangrove habitat maps have been generated 
from 1986 to 2001 showing extent of dense mangroves, sparse 
mangroves, degraded mangroves, defoliated mangroves, 
mudflats, march vegetation, etc. The coral reef habitat maps 
generated from 1990 to 2001 show the type of reef, area 
covered by reef flat, mud depositions on the reef, sand, and 
algae. The coastal wetland maps of the core MNP have been 
generated from 1975 to 1993 and indicate the extent of 
wetlands between LTL and HTL. The classification accuracy 
of the maps was estimated to be 84-93% at 90% confidence 
level. 
Coral reef eco-morphological maps 
Coral reefs exhibit distinctive patterns of morphological and 
ecological zones, which are determined by the morphology; 
spatial and temporal variations; interaction between the 
hydrodynamic processes (waves and tides); geomorphic 
processes (sediment generation, sorting and transport) and 
ecological process (abundance, composition, growth form, 
cover and productivity in biological communities). 
Communities of species and/or substrata often exhibit 
considerable variability and several distinct communities may 
inhabit each morphological zone. After appropriate image 
corrections and image enhancements techniques each IRS LISS 
III (of period 1998-2001) dataset has been classified using 
Maximum Likelihood Classifier. Sufficient ground information 
404 
has been used to generate signatures for classifying. IRS LISS 
IIT and PAN merged data helped in boundary delineation and in 
generating signatures. Contextual editing was done to improve 
the classification accuracy. The classification accuracy of these 
maps is 86-87% at 90% confidence level. The eco- 
morphological zones of the Kalubhar reef are shown in Fig.1. 
  
    
+ 
Source: IRS LISS III 
Teig M 4 5 
E. a 
Data of 29 Jan 2001 
EN Reef slope {1 Algae on sand & mud 
BEEN Algal Ridge (QI Sandy beach/patch 
B88 Live corals & algae EE] Mangroves 
El Shallow reef flat [CJ Algae on mud 
Reef flat (mud, sand,rubbles) EZZ] Turbid water 
  
CJ Mud 
  
  
Fig.1: Eco-morphological zones of 
Kalubhar Reef 
Dominant Community Maps of Mangroves 
The dominant communities of the mangroves were mapped 
using IRS LISS III data. A combination of the physiographic 
and structural attributes of mangrove wetlands, together with 
local conditions of topography and hydrology, were used to 
formulate the classification system to map dominant mangrove 
communities using RS data (Nayak and Bahuguna 2001, 
Bahuguna and Nayak 1996). Any change in community settings 
over the years indicates habitat setting change or change due to 
environmental conditions, developmental impact, etc. In fact 
the first indicator that a mangrove habitat is degrading is the 
occurrence of mono-species in the habitat, especially, 
Avicennia. The classification system helps to develop proper 
ecosystem management goals for the diverse types of mangrove 
wetlands around the tropical as well as subtropical coastlines of 
the world (Bahuguna & Nayak 1996). For zoning the mangrove 
communities IRS LISS III data including middle infrared band 
was subjected to image corrections and enhancements. Band- 
ratio was carried out for each period as follows, Red/NIR, 
MIR/NIR, Red/MIR. Classification was then carried out using 
the hybrid colour composite image comprising ratioed products 
with individual LISS III band data was generated. Validation 
exercises were carried out in which 108 points were verified on 
ground out of which four failures were encountered. The 
accuracy was thus estimated to be 94% at 90% confidence 
level. Fig.2 shows the dominant mangrove communities of the 
region.