Abstract: The research discussed in this presentation is part of the project titled "Exploring India’s Medieval Coastline using Geospatial Analysis and Historical Records" (2018-2023; funded by MoES). In this project, we examined coastal heritage structures using historical maps, remote sensing, and GIS. The selection of study sites was based on the availability of historical maps, with one such site being Kollam. Historically, Kollam has been a significant seaport on the Malabar Coast of India, extensively mapped due to its political, strategic, and trade importance. The coastal information found in these older maps is invaluable, providing unique insights as comparable data for that period's coastline are scarce.
This work combines qualitative and quantitative analyses to assess shoreline changes using various statistical and mathematical methods. We introduce a novel weighted-average method (WAM) that captures detailed shoreline change patterns over both long and short periods by incorporating shorelines from five different time frames. Utilizing the WAM, we calculated the average shoreline modification for both a longer period (136 years with intervals of 34 years) and a shorter period (annual changes over five years) along the 9 km stretch of the Kollam coast in Kerala, India.
This research facilitated collaboration among members of different programs at NIAS, leading to the publication of findings in a paper bearing the same title.
About the speakers: Dr M.B.Rajani is Associate Professor at NIAS. Her primary research has two inter-related facets: analysing cultural landscapes using geospatial data to identify new features of archaeological interest and advancing the usage of such analysis towards preservation of built heritage in the face of rapid urbanization.
Dr Rudrodip Majumdar is an Assistant Professor at NIAS. He is actively engaged in the evaluation of Energy Transition Pathways using a data-driven bottom-up approach. In general, he is interested in developing realistic computational models for interdisciplinary issues around sustainability.