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National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR)
The National Centre for Coastal Research (established as Integrated coastal and Marine Area Project Directorate, 1998), Ministry of Earth Sciences,  is mandated to develop and improve the country's capabilities in addressing the challenging problems prevailing in the coastal zone, which have societal, economical and environmental implications.

The genesis of the centre was almost two decades back, when  in 1997, Government of India implemented Environment Management Capacity Building (EMCB) programme for a period of five years, funded by the International Development Association through the World Bank and an  “Integrated Coastal and Marine Area Management Project Directorate (ICMAM-PD)” was setup in Chennai in January,1998 by the Department of Ocean Development (presently Ministry of Earth sciences) with the approval of Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs to implement the EMCB programme. After completion of the World Bank assignment, it was decided to continue the same as a long-term R&D activity with a mandate to promote research addressing issues related to coastal areas. Now, the activities of NCCR are an integral part of the Ministry's mission to offer scientific and technical support to coastal communities and stakeholders for integrated and sustainable use of resources towards socio-economic benefit of the society.

The centre undertakes research activities and programmes aimed at improving our understanding of coastal and marine areas and to address issues related to coastal processes, ecosystems, shoreline erosion, pollution, hazards and coastal vulnerability.

Coastal Processes & Hazards
Natural hazards and extreme events in the coastal zone are becoming more frequent and energetic, and in future scenarios this tendency will remain or even increase due to climate changes. Coastal erosion and flooding affect coastlines around the world including India and as per ADB report every year about 400 hectares of coastal land, 75000 hectares of crop areas, 34000 residential houses and industrial establishments are affected by coastal erosion and flooding. Sea level rise, changes in storms and wave climate as a consequence of global climate change are expected to increase the size and magnitude of flooded and eroding coastal areas, thus having profound impacts on coastal communities and ecosystems. In order to protect the coastline for future generation, a comprehensive understanding and holistic estimation of these coastal changes, impact assessment of extreme events on coastline is primary requirement for evolving sustainable coastal development strategies. The unplanned infrastructure combined with poor implementation of planning, relief and rehabilitation measures increases the human, physical and economic losses sustained during and after a disaster. With the second highest population, increasing urbanisation and added high risk due extreme events, the Indian coast is highly vulnerable and hence coastal vulnerability is a key criterion to be studied for protection of habitat and infrastructure and to advise the Government in formulation of mitigation measures. The centre has been working on two major objectives


 * Understanding of Coastal Processes through Monitoring, Modelling and prediction and development of Shoreline Management Plans along the Indian coast
 * Assessment of Coastal Vulnerability due to Climate Change, Sea Level Rise and Natural Hazards

Coastal Water Quality
Marine pollution is a global challenge for both the developed and developing countries. Economic development and population growth, much of it along the world’s coasts, and increasing agriculture and livestock production, industrial and municipal waste all contribute to marine pollution. Some of the marine pollutants end up in the marine environment and can cause harmful effects on aquatic species, human health through food web transfer, reduce biodiversity and productivity and depletion of the marine living resources. India’s long coastline spans across nine maritime States and five Union territories including Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshadweep Islands. The coastal areas of India are densely populated and ~30% of its human population are dependent on the rich exploitable coastal and marine resources. However, the coastal waters are subject to a high rate of pollution due to population growth, settlements, rapid development of industries, expansion of harbors and ports, tourism related activities in the coastal zone. The disposal of municipal, industrial wastes and numerous recreational and commercial activities along the coast not only degrade the water quality but also pose a serious threat to marine biota, food chain and human health.

To identify the periodical changes in seawater quality, the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) erstwhile the Department of Ocean Development (DOD) has been implementing a nationally coordinated research programme on "Coastal Ocean Monitoring and Prediction System (COMAPS)" since 1990 which is presently called "Sea Water Quality Monitoring (SWQM)" Programme. The data generated under this program is probably the only long term dataset on the coastal water quality available in the country.

In addition to the regular SWQM program, an additional program was designed to understand the transport, dispersion and quantification of pollutants in the coastal waters and predict the pollution level based on the indicative water quality parameters like  i.e., temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, biochemical oxygen demand, nutrients and pathogenic bacteria.The program aims at assessing the spatio-temporal variability of the coastal water quality and develop a prediction system with 5-day forecast for the benefit of beach goers and other coastal stakeholders.

The Marine Ecotoxicology program is being implemented to study the effects of toxic chemicals on biological organisms for pollution mitigation and regulatory measures for the sustainable maintenance of ecosystem or components of the ecosystem. Toxicity bioassay experiments are being conducted on marine organisms for priority chemicals like metals and organics. The data generated from the laboratory based experiments are used for deriving the numerical seawater quality criteria as ‘safe levels’ for the designated best use classes of the coastal and marine waters of the country.

The problems of marine debris or marine litter are now recognized internationally alongside other major global challenges facing the marine environment as it causes a wide spectrum of environmental, economic, human health and aesthetic problem. It is estimated that eight million tonnes of plastic waste are finding its way into the oceans each year. The  slow rate of degradation of most marine litter items, mainly plastics, together with the continuously growing quantity of the litter is leading to a gradual increase in marine litter found at sea, on sea floor and on the shore posing a complex challenge.

In the face of these challenges, the "Sustainable Development Goal 14: Life below water" commits countries to be united over what is a truly global responsibility – the protection of our oceans and the lives that depend on it by significantly reducing marine pollution of all kinds.

Coastal Habitats & Ecosystems
The coastal ecosystems occur where the land meets the sea and that includes a diverse set of habitat types like the mangroves, coral reefs, seagrass beds, estuaries and lagoons, backwaters etc. These ecosystems provide a wide range of services for the welfare of humans both directly and indirectly that includes provisioning services (fisheries); regulating services (carbon sequestration, prevention of erosion, moderation of extreme events); supporting services (element and nutrient cycling) and cultural services (tourism and recreational). The quality of the ecosystem services depends on the resilience of the ecosystems.

NCCR has been a fore runner in the development of scientific tools and techniques for the management of coastal critical habitats like Mangroves, Coral reefs and turtle nesting grounds and had developed GIS based critical habitat information system for 11 critical habitats along the Indian coast namely  Gulf of Mannar (GoM), Gulf of Kachchh, Lakshadweep Islands, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Malvan and Sundarbans, Pichavaram, Coringa, Karwar Island, Gahirmatha and Cochin backwaters during the 10th and 11th plan period. However, these ecosystems are facing a multitude of local and global challenges caused by human activities such as urbanization, engineering modifications, over fishing etc resulting in progressive transformation of the ecology these ecosystems.

The coral reefs of Gulf of Mannar are facing threats due to natural causes (climate change, ocean acidification, and coral bleaching) and man-made activities like indiscriminate fishing and trawling. The National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR) has established a Field Research Center in Gulf of Mannar Biosphere Reserve (GoMBR) for effective conservation and management of coastal resources and also to improve the livelihood status of the coastal communities. In an effort to protect and preserve the coastal ecosystem and understand the health of the ecosystems in terms of productivity, NCCR undertakes projects under two major domains namely


 * Coastal Resource Assessment and Management
 * Ecosystem based services - an approach for the management of coastal areas

Capacity Building & Training
National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR), Ministry of Earth Sciences is committed towards its capacity building programmes with the objective to increase the coastal stakeholders’ knowledge on coastal zone problems, implications of adaptive and Integrated coastal zone management t (ICZM) for informed decision making. The training programmes, are offered to stakeholders at different levels of the governance network with the aim to increase the capacity of participants to understand the reality of India’s coastal zone, meet development challenges, evaluate the need for action to prevent or remedy these challenges, as well as to achieve changes in attitude which are necessary for sustainable development and management of the coastal zone. Training programme are designed with practical sessions wherein trainees are encouraged to work independently on GIS, image processing software, design field data collection programmes and run numerical models on coastal hazards. Both open source (QGIS, MapWindow) and commercial GIS (ArcGIS) and Image Processing software (ERDAS Imagine & ENVI), are used in the practical sessions. Numerical models such a TUNAMI-N2, Litpack, GNOME, SDAS are included in the practical session based on the need of the programme. Field data collection using GPS and field survey techniques are taught during a one day field trip. The trainee’s area taught about field data collection using GPS, satellite image processing, development of a spatial database in GIS, spatial analysis and interpretations of results for management purpose using case studies specifically designed for each training course.