Damage Assessment of Cyclone on the Mangrove Forest Using Remote Sensing Techniques

Mangroves are considered as the unique ecosystems that thrive in the inter-tidal zones of tropical and subtropical coastlines. Beyond their ecological significance, mangroves are invaluable to communities as they offer protection against coastal erosion, sustain fisheries, and serve as a sustainable source of livelihood for many coastal populations. The present study aimed to investigate the impact of cyclone "Bulbul" on the mangrove ecosystem in the Sundarbans, India. In the present study, the NDVI simulation was employed for the Landsat8 data acquired for pre- and post-cyclone periods to investigate the dynamics in the forest cover. The ISODATA algorithm was performed for the Landsat8 data to classify the land cover classes. The performance of the classifier was validated with the ground truth observation supported by Google Earth (Overall accuracy=94%, Kappa coefficient =0.771813). The statistical analysis on the NDVIs retrieved for the mangrove category from ISODATA classifier shown that the biomass content of the forest has significantly reduced after the impact of the cyclone (NDVI
max
(Pre-cyclone)=0.47, NDVI
max
(Post-cyclone)=0.40). Hence, this study provides a broad insight into the damage assessment of the mangroves population