Climate change impacts assessment on Bangladesh Mangrove Forest using high-resolution datasets and Google Earth Engine

Abstract

Mangrove forests protect the coastal environment and reduce shoreline shift, deforestation, and flood inundation. Global sea-level rise (SLR) and Bay of Bengal (BoB) cyclonic effects in the Bay of Bengal (BOB) is gradually trigger environmental degradation, flood inundation, and mangrove deforestation. Bangladesh Sundarbans are also affected by SLR and flood inundation every year. Sundarban Biosphere Reserve (SBR) is vulnerable because of extreme climatic conditions and anthropogenic activities. Those environmental effects are measurable through remote sensing (RS) and GIS approaches. Three types of satellite data, like Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS, Sentinel-1 GRD and Sentinel-2 MSI datasets, were applied with the Google Earth Engine (GEE) cloud computing platform. Around 11.57 km² of mangrove forest will be lost from 2017 to 2022. The cyclone effects are located twice, like Mora (2017) and Sitrang (2022), while affected landforms are 77.15 km² (1.38%) and 218.75 km² (3.93%), respectively. Vegetation monitoring indices are also good outcomes for forest land change assessment over the examined area. Forest degradation index (FDI) values were observed in 1950 (2017) and 2620 (2022), which mentioned that north, middle, and near-shore areas are affected lands. Some adaptation planning implemented by the local government includes future disaster management, early warning system, reduction of river bank erosion, restricted forest area, and mangrove plantation. Putney Island, Bangabandhu Island, and Dimer Island are the most deforested lands. These investigation outcomes are helpful for future disaster planning, coastal environment management, awareness, mangrove forest restoration, and novel approaches to protect the coastal environment with healthier improvement policies.