Using Remote Sensing and GIS to Detect Shoreline Change

Proposal: Using Remote Sensing and GIS to Detect Shoreline Change
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Proposal: Using Remote Sensing and GIS to Detect Shoreline Change
Introduction
Bubiyan Island is situated at the head of the Persian Gulf. This island is owned by Kuwait and is actually the biggest of a group of 8 islands situated southwest of the mouth of river Shatt Al-Arab that separates Iran and Iraq (Gray, 2011). Bubiyan is roughly 40 kilometers (25 miles) long and 24 kilometers (15 miles) wide covering an area of 863 square kilometers (333 square miles) (Khalaf and Al-Awadhi 2012). Bubiyan Island’s topography is low and flat. Marshes of salt run virtually the whole length of Bubiyan’s coastline and the northwest coast is very much indented swampland (Ahmadi, 2008). At the center of this island are intermittent wadis. The Ottoman Turks established a storehouse in the year 1902 close to Cape Al-Qayd, Bubiyan’s easternmost section, although it was later on deserted. For a long time, Iraq has maintained a claim to this island (O'Sullivan, 2009). The sediments and waters in Bubiyan are fed from the Euphrates River and Tigris River which pour into the Gulf through the Shat al Arab channel (Ramadan, Al-Nasrallah and Gregory 2010). Bubiyan island is a wetland wilderness with plenty of wildlife. It is undoubtedly a very marvelous natural resource of Kuwait (Nakhleh, 2009; Tucker 2014).
Shoreline changes may be due to human activities or natural causes. Sea-level rise is one of the main natural causes of shoreline changes. The rise in sea-level often brings about loss of land in coastal areas by way of permanent submergence of coastal landscape and/or coastal erosion (Cozannet et al., 2014; Evans, 2010). Human activities or anthropogenic factors alongside the coastline for instance shrimp farming, port development, and land reclamation; human activities in watersheds and river catchments for instance diversion and river damming; and offshore human activities like mining of sand and dredging, together with the natural forces usually worsen coastal erosion (Prasetya, 2011; Spong, 2012). This research study seeks to obtain a better understanding of the anthropogenic as well as natural factors that contribute to the change in coastline in and around Bubiyan island.
Background of the study
Ecological or environmental benefits
This study will bring environmental or ecological benefits in that it would highlight how human activities contribute to the change in shoreline in and around the island of Bubiyan in the Kuwait-Iraq border. It is notable that at present, the south section of Bubiyan island has been earmarked as a site for future urban development for instance tourist resorts as well as building a very large port – the Mubarak Alkabeer port (Habibur, 2013). As such, this research study will inform the revelant stakeholders of this proposed port including the Kuwaiti government and the port developers themselves, of how the construction of this port would impact shoreline of the island. It would be important that necessary actions be undertaken so that human activities do not exacerbate coastal erosion at Bubiyan island.
Social benefits
This study will demonstrate how making...