Assessment of Landuse and Land Degradation in Bangladesh - Tapa blanda

In recent years, the North-Western part of Bangladesh has been experiencing land degradation as well as changing landuse patterns due to huge population and their socio-economic activities. To perform this research, Landsat TM and ETM+ of 1989 and 2001 were used to identify land degradation and to assess landuse change over 12 years in the study area. According to the change detection report from 1989 to 2001, irrigated agriculture increased about 156 Km2 while winter agriculture is decreased about 49 Km2 over the areas. During this period, forest has decreased whereas settlements increased by 13 Km2. The overall accuracy and Kappa coefficient of the change detection were 80 % and 77%, respectively. The brightness image of a Tasseled Cap Transform (TCT) was used to extract dry soil in this study. Degraded soils have increased from 1989 (3% of total lands) to 2001 (6% of total lands) while forest and winter agriculture changed to irrigated agriculture and settlements. The resulting images show water bodies increased due to new excavation of ponds, lakes, and canals over 12 years in the study area.

Shareful Hassan specializes in GIS and Remote Sensing for Natural Resource Management,Water Supply and Sanitation and location based mapping. He has a Masters degree in Geography and Environmental Studies from the University of Rajshahi,Bangladesh,and another Masters degree in Geodesy and Geoinformatics,from the Royal Institute of Technology,Sweden