Assessment, Monitoring and Mapping of Coastal Zone is essential for ensuring that the coastal area and the adjoining seas are ‘free’ from degradation from both natural processes and human activities. The coastal area mapping services will develop comprehensive and accurate maps of the distributions, quantities and qualities of diverse resources within the coastal zone. It is anticipated that this will help address impacts of natural processes and human activities on coastal habitats such as storm-surge on flora and fauna distribution, mangrove ecosystems and other wetlands. The Coastal Zone Mapping service will develop land-use/land-cover maps of coastal habitats, classification of vegetation and land cover changes. These will provide coastal zone managers and planners information on the drivers and effect of the changes in the different coastal habitats.

Coastal sensitivity maps will be produced from a blend of high resolution optical/infrared imageries, social and economic data alongside ecological features. Mapping tools to be developed will adopt a two-stage process to understand and map ecosystem services. Vegetation classification maps for the different coastal habitats will be generated at a regional scale from optical and infra-red imageries. Targeted monitoring of sensitive habitats will be carried out periodically from aerial platforms.

Outputs from the service will be disseminated via a web tool and would provide critical coastal zone geospatial data needed for prudent management of resources and infrastructure.