Assessing the dynamics of land cover and shoreline changes of Nijhum Dwip (Island) of Bangladesh using remote sensing and GIS techniques

Land cover alteration is an important driver of ongoing global environmental change. Developing countries with a fast-growing population have not been able to control a sustainable land-use transition that simultaneously increases both forest cover and agricultural production Coastal regions of these countries are vulnerable to natural hazards. The present study aims to detect the land cover changes with shoreline shifting in Nijhum Dwip of Bangladesh. A supervised classification method is used for the Landsat images of 1998, 2008 and 2018 based on eight significant land covers. A field survey also facilitates the locational accuracy of the classification. According to the study, about 285 hectares of mangrove forest has disappeared between 1998 to 2018. Agricultural lands reduce to 14.89% from 23.13%,…