Post- Tsunami Impact Assessment Reports
Added to website: 06 April 2005
At the invitation of the Department of Marine & Coastal Resources, the Department of National Park, Wildlife & Plant Conservation, and the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Royal Thai Government; the UK based NGO, Coral Cay Conservation (CCC), undertook a study of the coral reefs of the Surin Islands Marine National Park to assess the level of damage that had occurred as a result of the tsunami of December 26th 2004. A team of CCC marine scientists carried a programme of underwater surveys around the islands; the first week spent identifying and quantifying specific indictors of tsunami-induced damage, the second undertaking a preliminary assessment of the current state of the extant marine resources of the islands.
A project-specific methodology was developed for this study, with a high resolution IKONOS (TM) satellite image being processed to ascertain the nature of the reefal areas and to identify survey locations. The surveys took place around the islands at a series of spatially representative sites. In total, 1424 sub-transects were surveyed, equating to over 28 kilometres of reef. These data were imported to a Geographic Information System (GIS), which georeferenced them to the satellite image, and allowed the data to be processed to produce ‘maps’, facilitating visual interpretation of the data. The GIS outputs have been used to recommend appropriate sites for the implementation of a programme to monitor the rate and extent of coral recovery.
Live hard coral cover was found to be exceptionally high on the north-east coast of the island of North Surin, with an average value of 75% and a maximum value of 90%. Interesting patterns developed in the data set where areas of high proportional tsunami related coral damage were found in areas that previous to the tsunami did not have substantial live hard coral cover. Whilst at the localised scale, the tsunami would have far-reaching ecological consequences on these areas, overall, in the Surin National Park, it was calculated that only 8% of the pre-tsunami coral quantity or coverage may potentially have been lost to the tsunami if all of this damaged coral subsequently now dies. Encouragingly however, signs of coral regrowth were discovered and documented. It would appear that healthy coral reef systems such as those of Surin can begin to regenerate rapidly even in the aftermath of a natural event as momentous as a tsunami.
The full reports are available to download
- The Impact of the December 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami on the Coral Reef Resources of Mu Ko Surin Marine National Park, Thailand
- April 2005, 31 pages 1.1 MB
- The Coral Reef Resources of Mu Ko Surin National Park, Thailand
- April 2005, 46 pages 635 KB
For a full list of reports available to download please visit Downloadable Reports and Publications
