Ecosystem Services - Achievements

Projects on Ecosystem Modelling (R & D) have been successfully implemented for semi-enclosed coastal water bodies such as Chilika lagoon, Cochin backwaters, Sunderbans and for open coast shelf waters (Southwest coast). The interventions based on these studies have resulted in improvement of the productivity and as well as the overall biodiversity of these coastal water bodies. For ex. the artificial dredging of the Chilika mouth has led to improvement of the water quality in the lake.

The capability in doing ecosystem modelling for the shallow water (estuaries, lagoon, backwaters etc) to open coastal waters (SW coastal waters of India) has improved considerably.
Several model coefficients/constants for ecosystem models have been determined through field and laboratory experiments.
Benthic index was developed for assessing the ecological quality of the coastal waters of Kochi.

A number of training programs on ecosystem modeling have been conducted for different stake holders like the State Government/University Faculty & Researchers/NGOs etc.