Abstract

The bowl-shaped depressions between the natural levees of rivers, mostly found in the wetland of the north-eastern part of Bangladesh are locally known as Haor. This study has tried to find out the dynamics of land use/land cover (LULC) change of Tanguar Haor, a Ramsar Site of Bangladesh between 1989 and 2017. Satellite data from Landsat archive have been used to determine the LULC change and collected primary data through a questionnaire survey used to identify the factors and impacts of LULC change. Post-classification change detection techniques have been applied to evaluate the LULC change, and descriptive statistics are applied for qualitative analysis of primary data as well as other secondary data. The result summarizes that major LULC changes of Tanguar haor characterized by the alteration of the deep-water body to shallow water body. The expansion of shallow water bodies would not change the scenario alone as one-third of the shallow water parts are influenced by either vegetation or settlement within the time frame. Among the vegetation classes, agricultural land shows the maximum ascending trend. About one-third of every vegetation cover (reed Land, forested vegetation) of Tanguar Haor converted into agricultural land within the 28 years’ time frame. However, results also reveal that the wave of LULC changes has shifted its impact buffer from west to east throughout the observed years. More than 96% of people around Tanguar Haor are directly dependent on haor resources for their livelihood. Several important crops and vital natural vegetation of the haor basin like Bon Lobon, Hijol, Koroch, Nol, Gunji Kata, Dholkalmi, etc. are found seriously threatened because of imbalanced LULC change. The main reasons behind resource depletion and imbalanced LULC change are the overexploitation of haor resources driven by accelerated population growth, extreme poverty, and lack of proper education.

Keywords:Ramsar Site; Tanguar Haor, LULC Change, Dynamics, Factors, Impacts