A Proposed System for Understanding the Effects of Urbanization on Mangrove Vegetation

Abstract

Urbanization brings many benefits for human society, but the flora and fauna pays the toll for it.
Over the past few years urbanization has occurred at such a rapid pace that it has altered biodiversity
drastically. One of the natural elements that have suffered are mangroves, exposing coastline to
dangers. In this paper we propose a methodology to understand the correlation between increasing
urbanization and its negative effects on mangrove cover. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index
(NDVI) and Normalized Difference Built-up Index (NDBI) calculation on Landsat8 OLI images can
give a measure to vegetation cover and Urban Heat Index (UHI) which is a measure of urbanization
[1]. These measures combined with other parameters like sewage water outlets in mangrove swamps,
air quality and carbon emissions will prove the basis for analysis of the relation between growth in
urbanization and decrease in mangrove vegetation.