Rapid eco-physical impact assessment of tropical cyclones using geospatial technology: a case from severe cyclonic storms Amphan

The tropical cyclones are very destructive during landfall, generating high wind speeds, heavy intensive rainfall, and severe storm surges with huge coastal inundations that have massive socioeconomic and ecological catastrophic effects on human beings and the economic well-being. The sizable ecological effects of cyclonic storms cannot be ignored because of the uncertainty of impact, intensity induced by a warming ocean, and sea level rise. The Super Cyclonic Storm Amphan which falls under the category five classifications under the scheme of the India Meteorological Department (IMD), on the basis the maximum sustained wind speeds gusting up to 168 km/h affected parts of West Bengal and Odisha in India, and south-west Bangladesh between May 16 and 20, 2020. In this work, we have focused on the coastal districts of Kendrapada, Bhadrak, Balasore in Odisha, Purba Medinipur, and South Twenty-Four Parganas in West Bengal, India and, Khulna, Barisal division of Bangladesh that have been seriously affected by the Super Cyclonic Storm Amphan. The objective of the study is to analyze the eco-physical assessment of tropical cyclone Amphan using geospatial technology. Therefore, shoreline change detection and enhance vegetation index have been used in this research work to systematically analyze the eco-physical impact parameters of Cyclonic Storm Amphan using ortho-rectified Landsat 8/OLI imagery and MODIS dataset of USGS with high spatial resolutions of 30–500 m. The result highlights that about 60.33% of the total transects of the study area was eroded, but only 24.99% of the total transects experienced accretion, and 14.68% of the total transects depicted stability. The scientific study will benefit coastal managers and policymakers in formulating action plans for coastal zone management, natural resilience, and sustainable future development.