Abstract:
Planting mangrove forests in the southern islands of Bangladesh is crucial for the environment because these islands, such as Hatiya, Nijhum Dwip, and Monpura, are ecologically sensitive and highly vulnerable to climate change impacts, including coastal erosion, cyclones, tidal surges, and salinity intrusion. Planting mangrove forests in these islands is a vital step toward enhancing coastal resilience. In the 1970s and 1980s, most of the islands were planted with mangroves. Since then, some of it has been cut down. The objective of this study is to identify and measure the changes in the mangrove forests. The study used Landsat data from 1994, 2004, 2014, and 2024. Supervised categorization has been used to categories and show three main types of land cover: Mangrove forest, Water body, and other land. The loss of mangrove forests in the Hatiya, Nijhum Dwip, and Monpura islands is estimated at 916 ha, 445 ha, and 310 ha, which represent 24.20%, 22.72%, and 17.10%, respectively, during 1994–2024. In the
change analysis, it was found that the net forest cover change was higher in 2004 in Hatiya Island and higher in 2014 and 2024 for Nijhum Dwip and Monpura Islands compared to the other two decades. The study is helpful to understand the extent and trends of forest conversion on the islands and to prevent further forest loss and conserve the remaining forest.
