Development of an expert system for satellite based mudbank studies using matlab

Master of Science in Computational Science 2013-2015 EXT T.K Manoj Kumar L. Sheela Nair (Scientist E) "National Centre for Earth Science Studies (NCESS), Thiruvananthapuram"

Mudbanks, locally called Chakara or zones of biorhythm (Balchand et aI., 1987) are those areas of sea adjoining the coast, which have a special property of dampening the waves resulting in clearly demarcated areas of calm turbid waters during the roughest monsoon period. The main attraction of the mudbank is the excellent fisheries potential they offer to the fishing industry. The mudbanks of Kerala have a significant impact on the socio economic life especially of the coastal community as this phenomenon is usually associated with very high biological productivity and increased fish catch. The technical importance of mudbanks in coastal engineering is that, it influences the shoreline dynamics. Also, they protect the coast from severe erosion. So, it is important for the researchers to study and acquire more knowledge regarding the mudbanks. This study mainly focuses on the developing an expert system in MATLAB, which can be used for the identification of the mudbank locations along the Kerala coast using satellite images and measuring its sizes. In this study, the image processing application of MATLAB is used. The mudbanks were identified using satellite images of MODIS Aqua obtained from NASA/GSFC website.