ENHANCING SCENARIOS OF LAND USE LAND COVER CHANGE OF MOHESHKHALI AND KUTUBDIA ISLAND, BANGLADESH

Abstract

Land Use / Land Cover (LULC) refers specifically to the categorization or designation within a particular time frame of human activities and natural elements on the landscape based on established scientific and statistical methods of analysis of suitable source materials. This study describes the Kutubdia Island and the Moheskhali Island Land use/Land cover analysis and the most likely causes of spatial land changes from 2001 to 2019. Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), Sentinel and Landsat8 OLI imageries were used for land cover change analysis. Using remote sensing, nine distinct land classes with their related physical characteristics were identified and quantitative analysis was summarized in this study in order to find out the changes of each land class over the last 19 years. The most troubling situation occurred in the field of land-class mangrove forest, which decreased about of 21.38 sq. km in Kutubdia and 61.65sq.km in Moheshkhali from 2001 to 2019. At the same time period, the dramatic rise in salt fields was found which are about 27.52sq.km in Kutubdia and 8.88sq.km in Moheshkhali. For proper planning and management of Kutubdia Island and Moheshkhali Island, the outcome of this particular analysis may be useful. Those LULC maps will play a significant and key role in planning, management and monitoring programmers at local, regional and national levels. For the safety of Moheshkhali Island, further mangrove planting is strongly recommended in newly developing tidal flats as it falls into a strong cyclonic zone in the Bay of Bengal.