ICAR-CMFRI | Marine Fisheries Information Service Technical & Extension Series No. 243, 2020 16 Preliminary assessment, restoration and aquaculture support for a small wetland P. U. Zacharia 1 , J. Haritha 2 , Shamiya Hasan 2 , G. Rojith 1 , Sharon Benny 1 , Dhanya Joseph 1 , G. N. Roshen 1 , V. H. Sajna 1 , P. Kaladharan 1 , A. Sipson 1 and Shelton Padua 1 1 ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Kochi-682 018, Kerala 2 Academy of Climate Change Education and Research, Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur, Kerala E-mail: zachariapu@gmail.com Research Communications Introduction Climate variability induced rainfalls, runoffs, floods and storm water drastically changes the physico-chemical, hydrological, biodiversity and microbial profile of wetland eco-systems. Enhancing village level nutritional security being a national priority, small regional wetlands can contribute significantly as a key habitat for aquaculture production. In view of the significance of ecological and economic functions of wetlands and the threats they face, their monitoring and protection is needed. Regional wetland restoration has been identified as among the prospective climate resilient strategies, with farming of stress tolerant fish species as well as native species, so as to maintain the regional biodiversity profile (Rojith and Zacharia, 2015). The impact on the regional wetland could be cumulative of climatic and non-climatic factors. Scavia et al. 2002 states that the most important non-climatic factors comprise drainage of wetlands, overharvesting, discharge of sewage, deforestation, land reclamation, habitat fragmentation, eutrophication, pollution and the introduction of invasive alien species. The hydrology of surface layer of wetlands gets affected by atmospheric inputs such as ratio of precipitation to evapotranspiration (Ferrati et al., 2005). An effective eco restoration requires knowledge about wetland dynamics Abstract In line with the strategy of regional wetland datasets integration to a common national digital platform, map of small wetlands less than 2.2 ha in Kochi Taluk was prepared. A representative small wetland at Edakochi village of Kerala was selected through maps and field visits for preliminary assessment and restoration. Shuttle Radar Topography Mission’s Digital Elevation Model (DEM) was used to assess the general elevation, slope and flow accumulation pattern of the selected wetland along with assessment of the catchment area and drainage pattern. Restoration works of the selected wetland was carried out vis-a-vis side bund strengthening and sluice gate fortification. The comparative analysis of water quality assessment of wetland before and after restoration revealed improvement in water quality parameters as well as increase in water level. The Dissolved Oxygen level of the aquatic system was found to have increased substantially along with other several favourable changes in water parameters due to the restoration activities. The restored wetland at Edakochi was further utilised for multispecies farming of prawns, Pearl spot, Milk fish and Grey mullet and the harvest indicated sustainable yield. Aquaculture practice in wetlands with real time scientific advisories could ensure continuous data generation and village level climate resilience. Keywords: Small wetland, Geospatial, Restoration, Aquaculture, Climate resilience brought to you by CORE View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk provided by CMFRI Digital Repository