Report by OD bureau; Bhubaneswar: The Integrated Coastal Zone Management Project (ICZMP) of Odisha organized the second advisory committee meeting of the Regional Coastal Process Study (Primary Data Collection) on 24th August 2012 at Bhubaneswar. The expert committee was constituted to monitor and guide the progress of country’s first ever Regional Coastal Process Study for the entire coast of Odisha under World Bank aided ICZM Project.

The committee has reviewed the quarterly progress of the Regional Coastal Process Study on primary data collection along the Odisha coast. The committee also assessed the methodology and the scientific strategy adopted for the RCPS on three broad parameters viz. Coastal Energy Inputs, Coastal Sediments and Coastal geomorphology. 

The quarterly progress report and the forth-coming Monsoon Work Plan for RCPS are presented by Dr. P. Chandramohan, Director of INDOMER the consultant for RCP Study. He shared elaborately the methodology and the strategy for accomplishing the monsoon work plan to the expert advisory committee. 

The meeting was organized under the Chairmanship of Dr Ajit Kumar Pattnaik, Project Director of ICZMP Odisha. “The study would cover the entire 480kms of the coastline of Odisha based on the sediment cell and the output of the study will be useful for the preparation of “Shoreline Management Plan” and ICZM Plan for the Odisha coast,” he said after the review meeting.

The consultancy for Collection and Processing of Primary Data in connection with Regional Coastal Process Study (RCPS) under ICZM Project was awarded to INDOMER Coastal Hydraulics (P) Ltd., Chennai and the study was initiated on May 2012 after the approval of the inception report approved by the advisory committee

Considering the technical issues involved in the consultancy a technical advisory committee is constituted with the eminent scientists and experts from premier institutes of the country with good knowledge and experience in the field.

The key framework for RCP Study referred as the development of a conceptual model on hydrodynamics, sediment transport, and coastal circulation which leads for development of shoreline management plans from the critical areas. A major aspect of this study would be primary data collection from the field that is the monitoring, measurement and analyses of coastal process and geomorphology based on the Sediment Cell. The study consists of collection of data on Coastal Energy (such as waves, winds tides, and currents), coastal Sediments and   coastal Morphology in the project domain of development of impact models.

The consultant has taken up the study and has completed the deployment of equipment based on Sediment Cell Delineation and started generating the data on waves, tides, winds and currents. Bathymetric Survey and Sampling of Water & Sediments from Rivers for Pre-Monsoon Season have been completed. Beach Profile measurement and analyses from water & sediment samples are in progress.

The expert committee meeting was attended by the senior scientists and key resource persons from the field of oceanography.