Training of river mouths of the Kerala Coast in India

The coastal regions of Kerala are mostly dynamic in nature and is accentuated as the result of various developmental activities taking place along the coastline. Choking of river mouths and sandbar formation is a persistent perennial problem occurring in the tropical states of the Indian sub-continent during non-monsoon seasons. Predominant sediment transport is attributed as a major reason for this occurrence. Critical locations along the Kerala coast were identified to be Cheruvathur, Korapuzha, and Chettuvai. Training of river mouths was identified as the long-term solution for the aforementioned problem, and, hence, the same were proposed for construction after carrying out a detailed study by adopting numerical modeling techniques. The magnitude and direction of the net sediment drift was evaluated. The patterns of shoreline changes corresponding to the proposed training walls were assessed. Wave transformation studies for typical monthly wave climate were performed to analyze the phase and amplitude variation in the presence of proposed structures. The detailed analysis of the results from the numerical model that were analyzed are presented and discussed in this paper. Post implementation of the proposed training walls, desirable effects were yielded.