Salinity Intrusion in Southwest Coastal Bangladesh: An Insight from Land Use Change

Coastal areas are considered as one of the important hubs of natural properties and people, where different forms of natural and man-made calamities alter the standard of resources. Salinity is an emerging issue in coastal areas for which land use changes appear to have impacts on livelihood in coastal areas of Bangladesh. Following the statement, this research was conducted to understand the relationship between salinity intrusion and land use changes in the perspective of different forms of land use pattern. This study was done in Bagerhat district through image classification from 1980 to 2018 and 27 Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) were done to understand the land use dynamic. This research stated that agricultural land was decreased around 303 km2 (7.97 km2/year) from 1980 to 2018 in Bagerhat district while aquaculture is increasing dramatically at the rate of 486 km2 (12.78 km2/year). Along with natural event induced salinity intrusion, people’s perception identified poor water management and upstream intervention as reasons behind the consequence of saline water intrusion induced land use change. This study will help the government, non-government authorities and local representatives to initiate necessary steps regarding sustainable land use management in coastal areas of Bangladesh.