_____________________________________________________________________________________________________ *Corresponding author: Email: nilay@csws.in; Journal of Geography, Environment and Earth Science International 4(4): 1-8, 2016; Article no.JGEESI.22383 ISSN: 2454-7352 SCIENCEDOMAIN international www.sciencedomain.org Coastal Sand Dune Systems: Location, Formation, Morphological Characteristics Analysis through Vegetation Processes Estimation Nilay Kanti Barman 1* , Ashis Kumar Paul 2 , Soumendu Chatterjee 3 , Goutam Bera 2 and Amrit Kamila 2 1 Department of Geography, Hijli College, Kharagpur, India. 2 Department of Geography and Environment Management, Vidyasagar University, Midnapore, India. 3 Department of Geography, Presidency University, Kolkata, India. Authors’ contributions This work was carried out in collaboration between all authors. Authors AKP and SC designed the study, wrote the protocol and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. Author GB managed the literature searches. Author AK developed the portrait and sketch of the figures. Author NKB analyzed the study performed the spectroscopy analysis managed the experimental process and identified the species of plant. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. Article Information DOI: 10.9734/JGEESI/2016/22383 Editor(s): (1) Zeyuan Qiu, Department of Chemistry and Environmental Sciences, New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA. Reviewers: (1) Alexandre Marques da Silva, Sao Paulo State University, Brazil. (2) J. J. Kasper Zubillaga, Instituto de Ciencias del Mar y Limnología U.N.A.M, Mexico. (3) Anonymous, University of Bologna, Italy. Complete Peer review History: http://sciencedomain.org/review-history/12697 Received 30 th September 2015 Accepted 24 th November 2015 Published 16 th December 2015 ABSTRACT Most of the beaches are covered by vegetated sand dumps called sand dunes, built up through dry beach sand blown inland and trapped by plants and other obstructions. As sand accumulates, the dunes become higher and wider. Stable sand dunes play an important role to protect the coastline. They act as a buffer against wave damage during storms, protecting the land behind from salt water intrusion. This sand barrier allows the development of more complex plant communities in areas protected from salt water inundation, sea spray and strong winds. Plants play a vital role in this process, acting as a windbreak and trapping the deposited sand particles. A characteristic of these Original Research Article