Determination of Mangrove Adequacy as Natural Coastal Defence Against Wave Dynamics Using Remote Sensing Analysis for Southern Kedah Coastline

Malaysia had been hit by the Indian Ocean Tsunami (IOT) 2004 which has took 68
lives of Malaysia and thousands lives from the other affected countries. Kedah was
one of the most affected states in northern Peninsular Malaysia. It is proved that less
severe damaged found at area with presence of mangroves fringe on its coastline. It
also has been proven by many researches on mangroves’ abilities in protecting the
coastline by reducing the impact of the wave actions. However, if the Peninsular
Malaysia is about to hit by tsunami again, it is unidentified if the current mangrove
forest along the coastlines are able to reduce the impact of the tsunami’s waves just
like how they did before. Therefore, this study aims to fully acknowledged and assess
current condition of the mangrove forest along the Kedah’s coastline and evaluate their
performances as the reliable natural coastal protector towards wave actions.