EVALUATION OF PHYSICAL SENSITIVITY OF MAZANDARAN COASTLINE BASED ON ESI

Coastal area produces biological resources and covers the supporting processes which are important to local, regional and global environment. So the procedure of socio-economical development guidance in coastal areas will employ the most effective and edaptable coastal areas sensitivity criteria to develope the effective management of coastals. As a results the coastal area will be preserved reduced and rationally and permanently used and recognized.This reality shows the necessity of special care to coastal areas protection. In this research the ESI method of NOAA is used for physical categorizing of Mazandaran coastline against the release of polluted material specially oil. The study area in this research considered part ofshore that on land coastal use stretched to 3 KM from backshore boundary and marine boundary corresponds to depth line of -10 meters. Then based on proposed models by NOAA and divided by using Geographic Information System(GIS). As a result the total 214557/68 hectare study area consist of 66/88 percent sheltered sand/mud flats , 9/13 percent mixed sand and gravel beaches, 15/79 percent exposed, solid man-made structures, 8/02 percent vegetated low banks and 0/15 percent scrub-shrub wetlands. The study result shows that 84/18 percent of coastal area in case of oil pollution holds the pollutant material which easily cannot be cleaned.Therefor special attention must be paid to coastal management in this province.

کلیدواژه ها:

Coastal Areas ، Backshore ، National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration( NOAA) ، Geographic Information System(GIS) ، Mazandaran ، Environmental Sensitivity Index(ESI