Assessment of Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) Changes and Urban Growth Dynamics Using Remote Sensing in Dhaka City, Bangladesh

Abstract

AbstractDhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh is considered one of the main economic drivers of the country that contributes a significant amount to the nation’s economy. Consequently, the city failed to cope with the increasing demand for accommodation, industrial and infrastructure development, which caused rapid and haphazard development in and around the city. As land is considered a finite resource, the proper use of it should not be underestimated. As a result, understanding the growth pattern of urban areas is of immense importance in urban planning. By applying remote sensing techniques, a series of spatiotemporal changes can be observed to identify possible ecologically sensitive areas. The study identified the spatiotemporal LULC pattern and measured the built-up dynamics and the growth intensity index of Dhaka and its nearby areas within 5 km using remote sensing techniques. The supervised classification technique was applied to classify the images into six different classes namely built-up, sandfill/barren land, water-body, vegetation, wetland and agricultural land. The study suggests that over the study period the built-up and sandfill/barren land have increased by 67% and 679%. As a result of vast demand for accommodation, primarily lowlands and agricultural land around the city are sand-filled to facilitate building new satellite towns like Purbachal, Uttara 3rd phase, Jhilmil and Jalshiri. In terms of the degree of dynamism and annual intensity index, peripheral cities like Kaliganj and Bandar showed the highest degree of change in the study period, which signifies faster urbanization in those areas. This study, therefore, will help us understand the built-up dynamics especially in the peripheral regions of Dhaka city and will also help planners to make better decisions.KeywordsRemote sensingLand use/land cover (LULC) changeDhakaUrbanization