Marine Geographic Overview of Coastline Changes with a View of Locating Submerged structures in Ancient Harbour Poompuhar

Abstract

Tamil Nadu's coast is lined with numerous ports. A coastal investigation was carried out along the submerged harbour city of Poompuhar. Many historic ports are placed far hinterland whilst the remaining ports are located on the coasts and partly submerged underneath the sea. The earliest evidence of maritime activity along the Indian coast dates to the fourth millennium B.C. As a result, numerous outlying settlements were submerged in the sea or relocated to the hinterland as a result of coastline changes. Geospatial evaluation of coastline modifications at a selected location consists of topographic sheets, satellite imageries, and collected MBES data across the study area. Archaeological websites play a prime position in figuring out palaeo-coastline. The development of geographic information system (GIS) analysis capabilities can be applied in archaeology research. The current state of the ancient port of Poompuhar and the possible causes of shoreline changes at various locations along the coast are discussed in this paper. The semantic representation of Poompuhar is done using the MBES data procured by the research vessels of the National Institute of Ocean Technology.