Compared with numerous existing forced migration scenarios across the globe, migration from Myanmar to Bangladesh through southeastern border region is unique at least for three reasons-(i) very large number of migrants have been displaced to (ii) a very small area in (iii) a relatively short period of time, creating an obvious cumulative impact on forest cover area of the host country. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the dynamics of refugee migration and deforestation in Bangladesh. Satellite images of Landsat-5 & 8 and Sentinel-2 were classified via four different classification algorithms (SVM, Random Forest, CART, and Max Entropy) to measure major land use and land cover changes, namely, (i) dense forest, (ii) sparse forest, (iii) open area, and (iv) settlement from 1988 to 2018. The analysis revealed a declining trend of dense forest area, majority of which took place from 2016 to 2018 triggered by Rohingya migration. As a whole, the dense forest cover has been effectively halved (8531 ha in 2016 to 4498 ha in 2018) in the span of just two years while refugee settlement has increased nine-folds (271 ha in 2016 to 2679 ha in 2018). Aggregated and indisputable conclusion has been derived indicating that forced Rohingya migration and deforestation are indeed positively correlated.

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted academic life in the United States and beyond. To gain a better understanding of its impact on the academic community, we conducted a large-scale survey at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. We collected multifaceted data from students, staff, and faculty on several aspects of their lives, such as mental and physical health, productivity, and finances. All our respondents expressed mental and physical issues and concerns, such as increased stress and depression levels. Financial difficulties seem to have the most considerable toll on staff and undergraduate students, while productivity challenges were mostly expressed by faculty and graduate students. As universities face many important decisions with respect to mitigating the effects of this pandemic, we present our findings with the intent of shedding light on the challenges faced by various academic groups in the face of the pandemic, calling attention to the differences between groups. We also contribute a discussion highlighting how the results translate to policies for the effective and timely support of the categories of respondents who need them most. Finally, the survey itself, which includes conditional logic allowing for personalized questions, serves as a template for further data collection, facilitating a comparison of the impact on campuses across the United States.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract