GIS based beach sand budget analysis through seasonal beach profiling using cartographic techniques

Seasonal morphological variations and effect of oceanographic processes such as erosion or accretion along beaches are important aspects to understand the sand budget. The nature of the beach and their seasonal cyclic changes are probable reasons of seasonal morphological variations. The primary objective of the present study is to estimate coastal beach sand budget using Geoinformatics techniques. The study area is 113 km long coastal belt covering parts of Midnapore–Balasore coast. The field data has been collected using GPS and Theodolite, following standard cartographic techniques. Besides, Remote Sensing and GIS techniques have been used in identifying the coastal features, mapping and spatial analysis. Therefore, eighteen beach profiles have been taken during the post and pre-monsoon seasons of the year 2008 and 2009. Within the specific zones, beach erosion and/or accumulation between post and pre-monsoon season has been quantified. The result shows that up to pre-monsoon season, the beach is significantly recovered with gradual decrease in beach gradient. Further, along each profile Digital Elevation Models corresponding to post and pre monsoons periods have been generated, which has subsequently utilized in the estimation of beach recovery along each profile and also estimation of beach sand budget of the study region.