Modelling land susceptibility to erosion in the coastal area of Bangladesh: A geospatial approach

Abstract

This research aimed to develop a widely applicable raster GIS-based model for analysing susceptibility of coastal lands to erosion. The model, Land Susceptibility to Coastal Erosion (LSCE), was applied for the coastal area of Bangladesh as a case study. This study included three coastal zones (western, central and eastern) that cover the entire coastal area of the country. The outputs of the model comprised physical susceptibility of the coastal lands to erosion according to five susceptibility classes. The overall results demonstrate that out of the entire coastal area about 0.59 % (266.32 km²) and 0.02 % (10.01 km²) of the coastal lands exhibit high and very high susceptibility to erosion, respectively. These make 276.33 km² in total as being highly susceptible to erosion, which is noteworthy for the densely populated coastal area of the country. The remaining 5.49 %, 20.56 % and 73.34 % of lands were identified as having moderate, low and very low susceptibility to erosion, respectively. The developed model is highly suitable for addressing the impacts of hydro-climatic parameters on susceptibility to coastal erosion. Hence, this study identified and mapped the influence of hydro-climatic parameters on the coast by assessing seasonal variations of susceptibility to erosion. The outputs were then validated by developing an inventory map and analysing the independent historical observations by using 'degree of fit' curves. The LSCE model could be useful for coastal researchers in assessing erosion susceptibility of dynamic coastal lands around the world.

Future Impact of Land Use/Land Cover Changes on Ecosystem Services in the Lower Meghna River Estuary, Bangladesh

“…Secondly, the CA-Markov model administered in simulating LULC prediction might not have considered all potential driving factors during the creation of a suitability map or simulations of land use patterns [5]. Although the geomorphology of the study area is very dynamic because of continuous erosion and accretion processes [21,22,27], appropriate indicators to control these factors were not considered. Future studies should consider these driving factors while creating suitability maps and simulations of land use.…”

“…Hence, as a result of rapid economic activity along with high population pressure and environmental degradation, LULC in Bangladesh has changed very rapidly [15,16]. Empirical investigations [8,14,15,[19][20][21][22][23] have shown that along with factors like rapid population growth and economic development, land degradation, and sea-level rise are some of the other driving forces in the coastal region of Bangladesh that have led to rapid LULC transformations over different periods, and that these have been arguably more widespread and intense than in any other areas of the globe, and that these conditions continue to worsen, leading to ongoing degradation and damages in the ecological value of these vulnerable environments [8,20,23].…”

“…Over the decades, rapid LULC alterations have threatened the land management sustainability and imbalances the socio-environmental systems of this region [19,20,23]. However, insufficient work has been done in detecting future LULC changes in this vulnerable zone [8,14,15,19,21,22,24,25] and evaluating their impacts on the ESs [23]. Therefore, it is imperative to examine the dynamics of LULC transformation for various future land management scenarios and their effects on ESs in order for ecological restoration of the landscape [23].…”

Influence of hydro-climatic factors on future coastal land susceptibility to erosion in Bangladesh: a geospatial modelling approach

“…The variations in tidal movements are visible during different seasons. Considering the settings, this research used spectral signatures obtained from multi-temporal satellite images as a common boundary between land and water (Ahmed et al 2018a).…”

“…This study considered the probable changes in future hydro-climatic conditions a key reason in choosing the highly dynamic coastal area of Bangladesh (Ahmed et al 2018a) as a case to generate future land susceptibility to erosion by applying the LSCE model. The coastal area is likely to be affected severely by the future changes in hydro-climatic conditions (Centre for Environmental and Geographic Information Services (CEGIS) 2014; BMD 2016; Climate Change Knowledge Portal (CCKP) 2016).…”