Environmental Impact Assessment for Rapid Urbanization in the Coastal Area of Bangladesh: A Case Study on Cox’s Bazar Sadar Upazila

Abstract

Increasing a significant amount of urban area is a common phenomenon in developing countries like Bangladesh. Many pulling factors drive people to the urban area, such as better living conditions, work opportunities, citizen services. Cox's Bazar sea beach, located in Cox's Bazar Sadar Upazila, Cox's Bazar District, Chattagram division, is the world's longest sea beach and an attractive tourist spot. Over the years, urbanization has spread rapidly in this area, and this research aims to discover the significance of rapid urbanization over the climate of Cox's Bazar Sadar Upazila. The study attempts to identify the land use and land cover changes (LULC) of the Upazila over several years and evaluate the environmental impact of the rapid urbanization of the coastal area of Cox's Bazar Sadar Upazila. In this study, the overlay map method refers to the identification of land use and land cover (LULC) changes, and the method of the checklist is used to explain the local people's perception. The satellite images of the years 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2020 were got from USGS (United States Geographical Survey) and categorized by Geographic Information System (GIS) software to measure variations in land use and land cover (LULC) into five foremost land-use groups. A field survey was conducted using a questionnaire survey to collect local citizen's sentiments using the checklist methodology and analyze all the information through the Social Sciences Statistical Package program (SPSS). The urban area and the rural settlement increased by 36.79 km2 and 23.39 km2 between 2005 and 2020, but Salt & Shrimp farming, the bare land, the hill forest area decreased significantly by 11.12 km2, 41.43 km2, and 6.96 km2. Besides, 66% of people in the marine drive zone, 80% of the main beach area individuals, thought that urbanization had affected this coastal area. People's views on the tariff system, energy demand, poor solid waste management, and poor drainage system are shown. An increasing number of hotels, resorts, and structures near the beach region affect the coastal ecosystem.