Panaji:Union govt has granted its approval to state govt to engage a Netherlands-based company to evaluate the causes of erosion on Goa’s beaches in relation to local wave-driven currents, storm/cyclone erosion, and discharge at river mouths. The state will pay Deltares, the Dutch company, around Rs 32 lakh for the study.
“We have got the approval from Union govt to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the company,” environment secretary Arun Kumar Mishra told TOI.Over the ten-year period from 2004-06 to 2014-16, Goa has lost 15 hectares of land along its coast to erosion, according to a study by ISRO’s Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad. The study also showed that Candolim — one of Goa’s most popular beaches for tourism — may have lost a significant chunk to erosion.
Candolim’s coast has been identified by the study as one of the country’s “erosional hotspots”. The high rate of erosion has been attributed to the earlier grounding of the River Princess off Candolim, which saw years of delay before it was removed. Research was taken up to quantify shoreline changes along India’s coast using remote sensing satellite images. State govt received a detailed proposal from Deltares, which will support local agencies in their studies on the local coastal morphology and their knowledge basis for decision-making on mitigation measures.
“We will assess the local situation from literature and in-house data. The aim is to provide a conceptual overview of the functioning of the local morphological system. We will discuss the outcome and the deliverable will be a concise report,” said the proposal submitted by Deltares to the environment department.
A three-day visit has been planned to the area with Deltares’ staff. “We can check the site characteristics and meet local authorities and stakeholders. Our aim is to create a joint understanding of the causes of erosion, to provide confirmation for the approach and perform first capacity building on the relevant coastal processes. We will summarise the discussed approach and further detail this in a concise report after the meeting,” the proposal said. The firm will support the modelling of the morphological system, and technical assistance will be provided to a local agency for the modelling of the morphological system and interpretation of the results, which will help obtain a quantification of the sediment transport rates.