Quantifying the spatiotemporal patterns of forest degradation in a fragmented, rapidly urbanizing landscape: A case study of Gazipur, Bangladesh

The rapidly growing population of Bangladesh is significantly influencing forest degradation. Recent economic development and industrialization in Gazipur, a district adjacent to the capital, Dhaka, has further aggravated this situation. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to understand the causes of forest degradation in Bangladesh using Gazipur as a case study. The forest land conversion was evaluated in this district using supervised classification with the Random Forest algorithm based on Landsat images from 2002, 2007, and 2015. This data was used to conduct a land conversion analysis to study the relative changes in the defined classes. In the study, built-up areas, trees outside forest, and cropland areas increased by 654.38%, 87.44%, and 40.71%, respectively, while forest, waterbody, and fallow…