Integrated Coastal Zone Management Project

Integrated Coastal Zone Management Project is a World Bank supported project that aims to build national capacity for implementation of comprehensive coastal management approach in the country.

Background

In the wake of various IPCC reports regarding rise of global mean sea level, the Government of India had carried out mapping and demarcating of multi-hazard coastal vulnerability for the entire coast of India. Based on the recommendations of the expert committee report of the Prof M. S. Swaminathan, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) is making efforts to implement an Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) Plan for India instead of uniform Coastal Regulatory Zone (CRZ) framework. Accordingly, the Central Government has issued CRZ-2011 notification with a view to ensure livelihood security to the fisher communities and other local communities living in the coastal areas.

In furtherance to this, the MoEF had launched an Integrated Coastal Zone Management Project by establishing a Society of Integrated Coastal Management (SICOM).

Components

Under the project, SICOM would be implementing the four components as follows:

• National Coastal Management Programme
• ICZM-West Bengal
• ICZM-Orissa
• ICZM-Gujarat

The National component includes following:

• Demarcation of hazard line for mapping the entire coastline of the mainland of the country
• A National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSCM) has been established within the campus of Anna University, Chennai with its regional centres in each of the coastal States/Union territories to promote research and development in the area of coastal management including addressing issues of coastal communities.

In general, it is expected that east coast of India will be more vulnerable than the west coast because of its low lying nature and hence the tendency of coastal flooding will rise if the sea level rises significantly. Multi-hazard approach that fully accounts for holistic coastal vulnerability arising from the Earthquake, Cyclones, Flood, Storm Surge and Tsunami etc. is considered for developing hazard resistant design criteria for construction of on-shore infrastructure viz. houses, buildings, special economic zones (SEZs), ports, construction of bridges for evacuation of habitants in low lying zones like Sundarbans, Bay Islands etc., Industrial and Infrastructure Corridors. Future projections of sea level involve uncertainties which make it difficult to predict impacts with sufficient level of confidence. India’s National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) outlines a strategy that aims to enable the country adapt to climate change and enhances the ecological sustainability of our development path.