Seagrasses may be affected by changes in coastal morphology caused by coastal development projects and are also vulnerable to high water turbidity that may arise from sediment spill in marine dredging and reclamation operations. Owing to their ecological importance and vulnerability, seagrass beds are a major concern when assessing the environmental impacts of coastal developments and in formulating management plans to reduce environmental impacts to acceptable limits.

Environmental impact studies include mapping the locations and extent of the seagrass beds on a GIS database in order to facilitate the assessment of impacts from various sources. The seagrass beds are assessed for species diversity and more importantly, their abundance, in terms of percentage of substrate covered by seagrass or shoot density per unit area. Monitoring of seagrasses include shoot growth rate, biomass, sugar content in rhizomes and shoot density and/or cover.