Coastal population is causing a great damage to the coastal environment because of their traditional livelihood activities. ‘Dry Fish Processing’ in the coastal area is one of the major threats to coastal environment. Naturally available solar energy is the main resource for this alternate livelihood activity of fishing folks in the coastal region. ‘Dry Fish Processing in the Open Sun’ is the traditional method which yields unhygienic final products to the user community. Moreover, this type of processing leads to environmental issues and hygienic problems to the coastal population. To overcome these issues and problems, it is important for the social scientist, environmentalist, industries and the educational institutions to introduce appropriate low-cost and acceptable models for their applications. The technology ‘Dry Fish Processing with Solar Dryers’ is not new to the society. The units which are available in the market and with the industries are very expensive and costly. As an alternative, considering the basic physical parameters like moisture content, moisture loss, amount of moisture to be removed from the specific sample, heat energy needed for drying, and heat energy collected on the collector surface, three different cost-effective models have been designed and fabricated. The performance of the models has been studied with hourly variation of collector efficiencies of the modes.

The work on coastal environment and the status of coastal population is not satisfactory, compared to other areas of research in the remote area like Ramanathapuram district of Tamil Nadu. The damages caused to the coastal environment can be minimized by introducing low-cost, available and appropriate technologies. The contributions of social scientist to ‘conservation of coastal environment’ include:

• Reviving traditional technologies and adopting them to prevailing conditions.
• Integrating traditional science and technological disciplines in practical solutions for local problems
• Carrying research in most advanced and sophisticated sciences and technologies as required for community upliftment.
• Planning a program of technological innovation as an intervention in the existing system.
• Harnessing the principles of science and technology to overcome underdevelopment

The coastal environmental conservation refers to a distinct approach in intervention for the economic development of the community in the coastal region.

Environmental Sciences Journal, SWAT Hydrological Model, Upper Bernam River Basin, Malaysia, Soil and Water Assessment Tool, Geographic Information System, Water Resources, Remote Sensing Technology, Agricultural Research Service, Universal Soil Loss Equation, GIS Database, Landsat Thematic Mapper Imageries, Meteorological Data, Government Departments.