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Monitoring shrimp farming development from the space: A RS and GIS approach in Kandleru creek area, Andhra Pradesh, India
Shrimp farming in Kandleru creek area Kandleru creek (lies between latitude 14°10'-14°18'N and longitude 79°57'-80°09'E), which is situated south of Nellore (a coastal district in Andhra Pradesh) town and flows from west to east, has been identified as high potential area for large-scale expansion of marine shrimp farming. After a joint survey from DOF and MPEDA that had identified 13,000 ha area suitable for shrimp farming development in the district and 50% of these areas are in either sides of the creek, the shrimp farming activity in Kandleru area boosted up very fast (Anon, 2001). According to Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) in 2001 there were 475 shrimp-farmers involved in farming activities with an area of 2,577 ha (Figure 1). There are other 1,000 ha area that is occasionally under shrimp farming.  Figure 1: Shrimp ponds along the Kanldleru creek, small pump used for water inlet into the ponds. Beside this rapid expansion that coincided with natural resources degradation (conversion of mangrove and agriculture land into shrimp farms) in the study area (Shivkumar et al., 2001), there is also serious concern of significant deterioration of creek water quality due to shrimp farming that appears to be the serious shrimp health problems faced by the farmers. Since all these shrimp farms receiving and discharging water into the creek, the viral pathogen spread over the entire creek and affected the entire population in the farms (Anon, 2001). Application of RS and GIS based Change Detection Method (CDM) Remotely sensed digital data sets acquired by Indian Remote Sensing Satellite (sensor LISS-II, LISS-III and PAN) in 1988 and 2001 (Table 1), topographic maps (1:50,000 scale, prepared by Survey of India) and published information regarding landuse/land cover practices were used as data basis for CDM method. Geographical Positioning System (GPS) was used to establish a number of Ground Control Points (GCPs) during an intensive field visit conducted on February 2002. Table 1: IRS (Indian Remote Sensing Satellite) data used for the study
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