Remote sensing study on mangrove depletion Tarut Bay, Saudi Arabia

The development of urban infrastructure, along the east coast of Saudi Arabia during the past 30 years, has caused major disturbance to the coastal environment. The mangrove stands along the coastline, which provide habitat to a wide variety of marine biota, have particularly been harmfully impacted by this human activity. Landsat images of 1973,1987 and 1997 were used to detect mangrove stands along the coast of Tarut bay and Tarut island, Saudi Arabia. To study the temporal changes in the mangrove stands historical Landsat images were geometrically registered and radiometrically corrected. Region masks were employed to isolate the unwanted area from the images. Normalized Difference Vegetation Indices (NDVI) were computed from the satellite images. The analysis of satellite images revealed that the areas of lost mangrove stands from 1973-1987 and 1987-1997 were 196.91 hectares and 63.05 hectares respectively. The total loss of mangrove stands during the past 24 years has been 259.96 hectares. The study shows the need to protect remaining mangroves and other marine habitats in the area.