"The tsunami left a horrific human tragedy in its wake but also some lessons. Among them is the tremendous importance of mangroves, which are one of the world's most threatened tropical ecosystems," said Faizal Parish, director of the Global Environment Centre in Malaysia and co-author. "While no one could have prevented the tsunami, we can use this experience to prevent some of the destruction future events will cause."
The study's authors used before and after satellite photographs of the Cuddalore District in southeastern India and surveys on the ground to reach their conclusions. The study confirms earlier laboratory experiments which have shown that 30 trees per 100 square meters may reduce the maximum flow of a tsunami by more than 90 percent.
The Cuddalore District provided a unique experimental setting to test the benefits of coastal forests against the tsunami. The shoreline there is relatively straight and the beach profile is relatively uniform. It also contains stretches of vegetated and non-vegetated areas and there are well-documented cloud-free pre- and post-tsunami satellite images.
"Coastal vegetation could probably not have protected against catastrophic destruction in areas of maximum tsunami intensity. In less hard hit areas, however, this study shows very clearly that areas with trees suffered less destruction than areas without trees," said Finn Danielsen, director at the Nordic Agen
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Contact: Tom Lalley
tom.lalley@wwfus.org
202-778-9544
World Wildlife Fund
27-Oct-2005