Exclusive Economic Zones

http://www.nio.org/projects/chakraborty/project_chakra.jsp

Vision:
To improve our understanding of the seas around our exclusive economic zone to translate this knowledge for its sustainable use.
Objectives:
Preparation of comprehensive bathymetric map multibeam echosounder within the Exclusive Economic Zone of India which will serve as base map for oceanographic researchers, communication, Defence, navigation etc.
Understanding of the seafloor roughness and related classification techniques.
Application of soft computational and numerical methods to bathymetry and backscatter data.
Understand the tectonics and morphology of the features in the EEZ.
Sedimentation and paleaoclimate studies from the sediment samples.
General Description: With the adoption of UNCLOS convention, India obtained an exclusive economic juridiction of 200 nautical miles (1 nm =~1.85 km) all along the 7500 km long coastline around her. The Indian exclusive economic zone (EEZ) measures about 2.172 million square kilometers and is about two-third of the landmass of the country. Its living and nonliving resources, oceanography, coastal environment and related social issues directly influence several million people living along this coastline.
Team Members:Pattan JNMukhopadhyay RJauhari PratimaMenezes Andrew Ranade GHNavelkar GSMani Murali RKotnala KLMarathe PrakashParthiban GPrakash Babu CKhedekar VDGaonkar SSWalker Gavin AGanesan PNaik Davidas KNanyasi SKPrabhakaran NFernandes WA
The Department of Ocean Development, New Delhi funds EEZ project, which is initiated in 2003 as a national endeavour. The project plans to explore the entire EEZ by multibeam echosounder and prepare comprehensive bathymetry maps. Such maps will be useful to select sites for varied purposes, viz, laying communication cables, route for navigation, for strategic defence and to model the climate pattern influencing coasts, besides helping comprehensive oceanographic research and living and non-living resource identification.
EEZ of India (Shaded area)
The DOD project envisages a 6 year field and laboratory work between 2003 and 2009. The projet work shall be largely shouldered by National Institute of Oceanography (NIO). National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) is to survey shallower parts of the East coast and National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCAOR) is to provide vessel support.
It is proposed to explore EEZ of India, using state -of-art multimeam swath bathymetry system. Approximately 1800 days work at sea has been estimated for this purpose. This will call for around 30 cruises of 35 days duratio eah for the deep sea and 98 cruises of 8 days duration for the shallow waters. Three vessels - ORV Sagar Kanya (DOD), CRV Sagar Sukti (NIO) and chartered vessel shall be pressed into service in the field.
Research Investigation
Besides preparing stae-of-art detailed bathymetric maps of the entire EEZ at desired scales, a comprehensive research plan has also been developed. It is proposed to carry out geological and geophysical studies of various physiographic features (faults, lineaments, seamounts, hills, ridges, folds, canyons and channels) including their formation and evolution.
In addition, it is intended to systematically attend number of stations to collect sediment, rock and water column samples. The detailed study in this line would increase ou understanding on elemental sources, sediment (+ flux) transport dynamics, depositional environment, monsoonal variations, paleoproductivity, influene if oxygen minimum zone, biogeochemical processes and micropaleontology to calibrate proxy signals for quaternary climate.