Land use in Bangladesh and its classification based on remote sensing data

Abstract

Land and land use patterns in Bangladesh are very complex in nature. This is primarily due to irregular distribution of land types of high and low lands and their related hydrological condition and difference of profile characteristics of soils thereon. The country is criss-crossed by several large river systems namely the Ganges, the Brahmaputra-Jamuna and the Meghna. These rivers and their distributaries and tributaries have created a very complex network of water ways. Except in the eastern and northern border areas along the Assam-Tripura and Burma hills, and some areas in the central and north-western region of Pleistocene deposit, the country has been built up of fluvial deposit which have resulted in the formation and irregular distribution of levees and basins. In the floodplain land use practices have been adapted according to topographical position of ridges and basins where a specific crop or a set of crops are cultivated during summer and winter seasons which are followed by monsoon and dry seasons respectively. But there are natural constraints which restrict optimum production of crops. During monsoon crop production and utilization of land suffer due to limitation of excess water whereas during dry season crops suffer from soil moisture stress. As a result a large area in the ridges and other non-flooded high lands, remain uncropped during dry season, thereby contributing to the food deficit in the country.