Restoration of Pulicat Lagoon, Monitoring Lagoon Ecosystem Health and Lagoon Management Plan

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The Project

A comprehensive Lagoon Use Management Plan including Marine Spatial Plan and blue economy opportunities for Pulicat Lagoon will be developed with robust action plans for implementation of interventions. Specific focus will be on restoring the lagoon ecosystem and enabling enhanced livelihood by addressing critical existing challenges such as fisheries, pollution, livelihood, tourism and bar mouth dynamics through policy-relevant research. In addition, strategies for reduction and recycling of marine debris and plastics will be demonstrated through pilot interventions. The lagoon use management plan would outline a strategy to ensure sustainable use and improved water quality of the lagoon through zoning of activities as a part of Marine Spatial Planning.

Keywords

Shoreline

Conservation

Livelihood

Fisheries

Tourism

Disaster

Pollution

Pulicat Restoration

Aim

  • Preparation of a “Lagoon Use Management Plan” outlining a strategy to ensure sustainable resource use and ecological health of the lagoon by identifying priority issues and specific management actions to improve the needs of a diverse set of users and stakeholders of the lagoon and
  • Development of pilot interventions in the Pulicat Lagoon including marine litter with specific focus on plastics investment formulation.

Objectives

  • Shoreline Management and Bar-mouth dynamics

    • Determination of hydrological and ecological flows
    • Determination of long-term and short-term coastal erosion and accretion dynamics along the lagoon coast
    • Determination of coastal processes, beach profile and sediment movement to understand the bar mouth dynamics
    • Development of a shoreline management plan for the coast of Pulicat lagoon for recommendation on implementation of green coastal infrastructure
    • Development of conceptual green infrastructure mitigation measures
    • Cost-benefit analysis of living shorelines

  • Conservation Management

    • Characterizing flora and fauna (including avifauna) and establishing conservationbenchmarks by developing indicators
    • Mapping of the Ecologically Sensitive Areas (ESA) and determination Of highly stressed zones
    • Restoration of lost/ degraded ecosystems in the lagoon as pilot
    • Development of a robust lagoon conservation management plan

  • Livelihood Management

    • Strengthen access to livelihood resources among the fishing, farming and non-natural resource dependent communities.
    • Minimize exposure to physical and social vulnerabilities due to climate and non-climate factors
    • Identify and evaluate ecosystem goods and services for the lagoon’s natural resources
    • Improve access to health and education
    • Enhance gender balanced collectives and build their decision making, access to market and institutional linkages and networking capacities to bring out strategic changes among marginalized men and women.

  • Fisheries Management

    • Development of a fisheries (shell and fin fish) management plan
    • Zoning Of 1M TA sites based on Marine Spatial plan (MSP)
    • Sustainable Fishery Management Plan

  • Tourism Management

    • Assess existing tourism status and diversification of tourist areas
    • Determine the physical, social, ecological and environmental carrying capacities
    • Development of Tourism management plan

  • Disaster management

    • Demarcation of composite hazard line including flood and erosion lines
    • Determine vulnerability, and disaster risk categories
    • Assess risk zones and population at risk

  • Pollution Management

    • Assessment of water, sediment and biotic health of the lagoon
    • Determining the impacts of land-based sources of pollution and management of waste water entering the lagoon
    • Development of a lagoon ecosystem health report card

  • Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation

    • Quantification of greenhouse gas (C02, CH4 and N20) emissions from the lagoon various environmental matrices and ecosystem components
    • Determine the N-source-sink dynamics and developa Nitrogen budget for the lagoon

Expected Outcome

  • Development of comprehensive Lagoon Use Management Plan including Marine Spatial Plan and Blue Economy opportunities for Pulicat
  • Creation of trans-boundary institutional structure and establishment of Pulicat Development Authority for Wetland Conservation

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