E. A. KONTAR
P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of
Sciences, 36, Nakhimovsky
Prospect, Moscow 117851, Russia (e-mail: ekontar@ocean.fsu.edu)
On December 26, 2004 the devastating tsunami waves cause terrible humanitarian disaster affecting thousands of kilometres of coastal belt of the Indian Ocean in SE Asia. Many coastal wetlands get affected by the large inflow of salt seawater and littoral sediment deposits during the tsunami, with longer-term effects including changes in their hydrogeology caused by changes to coastlines and damage to sea-defences. Many water quality and associated problems generated by tsunami and influencing coastal environments are related to past and on-going contamination of terrestrial groundwaters because those groundwaters are now seeping out along shorelines affected by tsunami. For example, chronic inputs of fertilizers and sewage on land over several decades has resulted in higher groundwater nitrogen which, because of slow yet persistent discharge along the coast, eventually results in coastal marine eutrophication. Such inputs contribute to the increased occurrences of coastal hypoxia, nuisance algal blooms, and associated ecosystem consequences, and significantly accelerated by tsunami as well as increasing of magnitude of saltwater intrusion. Tsunami has created an accelerating process of salt water intrusion and fresh water contaminations in affected regions that requires a drastic remediation measures. These measures have to be economically feasible, environmentally sound and socially acceptable. We basically estimated economic, environment and social impacts of tsunami and the feasibility of remediation measures to overcome the damage of the seawater groundwater interaction system in tsunami affected areas.