Mapping the wetlands of Thane creek and surrounding area using Remotely sensed Sentinel-2b data, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Document Type : Primary Research paper

Authors

1 PhD. Research Scholar, Department of Earth Sciences, Annamalai University, Tamil Nadu, India

2 Professor, Department of Earth Sciences, Annamalai University, Tamil Nadu, India

3 Project Associate, Centre for Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, Karnataka, India

Abstract

Mumbai is surrounded by many wetlands, including mudflats, mangroves, saltpans, creeks, freshwater lakes, and estuaries. Because the city is so developed, the greatest threat to the wetland ecology is population growth and urbanisation.Thane Creek is more important than the others in those wetlands because it borders the most valuable mangroves and mudflats. Thane Creek (also Thana Creek) is an inlet in the Arabian Sea shoreline that connects Mumbai (Bombay) to the Konkan region of India.Sentinel 2b data was used to map the distribution of wetland habitats in the study area. This study identified four separate units: creek, mangrove, mudflats and urban from a supervised classification using Sentinel 2b data. The classification is based on the defined spectral signatures for the supervised representative samples required for each land cover class.
Thane is the most significant creek in the Mumbai region. 55.5 km 2 area was classified as the creek, around 30 % of the total study area. Similarly, 43.5 km 2 area was classified as the mangroves, which is around 23 %. When classifying mudflats, they covered 51 km 2 area, around 27 % of the total study area. Urban growth is rapid in this part. As a result, 37.73 km 2 area was classified as a metropolitan area.
Mudflats in the study area are in massively unsafe conditions because of urbanisation. This study confirmed that the Mangrove area is more stable because of strict orders of the High Court compared to the past, though they are under threat by urbanisation.

Keywords

Int. J. of Aquatic Science
Volume 12, Issue 2 - Serial Number 2
June 2021
Pages 3467-3474

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