Abstract
The low-lying coastal areas of Sundarbans mostly covered by mangrove forests is threatened by erosion. This study attempts to address the issues of erosion and sea level rise in the mangrove forested islands of entire Sundarbans covering India and Bangladesh. From the multi-temporal satellite imageries (LANDSAT year TM1990 and OLI 2017) the total erosion of these island system has been estimated using a combined rule-based and object-oriented classification system. Near about 325 km2 of land area has been eroded during this period over nearly three decades (1990–2017). The total Sundarbans (India and Bangladesh) has been divided into three zones – eastern, middle and western – to understand the spatial pattern and dynamics. The erosion dominates mainly in western and middle zones of the Sundarbans and decreases towards eastern zone. The rate of sea level rise has been estimated using tide gauge data and satellite altimetry data (Topex Poseidon Jason). The tide gauge data show a steady relative sea level rise in this region, which might be an important factor for the erosion. The scenario is seriously seeking bilateral management initiatives across the border to protect the pristine ecosystem and its services for futuristic benefits.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Ali SS (1994) Sundarbans: its resources and ecosystem. In: Proceedings of the national seminar on integrated management of Ganges flood plains and Sundarbans ecosystem, vol 1618. Khulna University, Khulna, pp 38–49
Banerjee LK (2002) In: Singh NP, Mudgal V (eds) Floristic diversity and conservation strategies in India, vol V. Botanical Survey of India, Ministry of Environment and Forests, Calcutta, pp 2801–2829
Blasco F, Aizpuru M (1997) Classification and evolution of the mangroves of India. Trop Ecol 38(2):357–374
Chander G, Markham BL, Barsi JA (2007) Revised Landsat-5 thematic mapper radiometric calibration. IEEE Geosci Remote Sens Lett 4(3):490–494
Chavez PS (1996) Image-based atmospheric corrections-revisited and improved. Photogramm Eng Remote Sens 62(9):1025–1035
Cruz RV, Harasawa H, Lal M et al (2007) In: Parry ML, Canziani OF, Palutikof JP et al (eds) Climate change 2007: impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. Contribution of working group II to the fourth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 469–506
Duggin MJ, Robinove CJ (1990) Assumptions implicit in remote sensing data acquisition and analysis. Remote Sens 11(10):1669–1694
Duke NC, Meynecke JO, Dittmann S et al (2007) A world without mangroves? Science 317(5834):41–42
Ericson JP, Vörösmarty CJ, Dingman SL et al (2006) Effective sea-level rise and deltas: causes of change and human dimension implications. Glob Planet Chang 50(1):63–82
Field CD (1995) Impact of expected climate change on mangroves. Hydrobiologia 295(1):75–81
França MC, Francisquini MI, Cohen MC et al (2012) The last mangroves of Marajó Island – eastern Amazon: impact of climate and/or relative sea-level changes. Rev Palaeobot Palynol 187:50–65
Galbraith H, Jones R, Park R et al (2002) Global climate change and sea level rise: potential losses of intertidal habitat for shorebirds. Waterbirds 25(2):173–183
Gilman EL, Ellison J, Duke NC et al (2008) Threats to mangroves from climate change and adaptation options: a review. Aquat Bot 89(2):237–250
Hazra S, Mukhopadhyay A, Chanda A et al (2016) Characterizing the 2D shape complexity dynamics of the islands of Sundarbans, Bangladesh: a fractal dimension approach. Environ Earth Sci 75(20):1367
Karim MF, Mimura N (2008) Impacts of climate change and sea-level rise on cyclonic storm surge floods in Bangladesh. Glob Environ Chang 18(3):490–500
Katebi MNA, Habib G (1989) Sundarbans and forestry. In: Coastal area resource development and management, Part II. Coastal Area Resource Management and Development Association, Dhaka, pp 79–100
Kuhn M, Tuladhar D, Corner R (2011) Visualising the spatial extent of predicted coastal zone inundation due to sea level rise in south-west Western Australia. Ocean Coast Manag 54(11):796–806
Mandal RN, Das CS, Naskar KR (2010) Dwindling Indian Sundarbans mangrove: the way out. Sci Cult 76(7–8):275–282
Naskar K (2004) Manual of Indian mangroves. Daya Pub House, New Delhi
Nicholls RJ, Wong PP, Burkett VR et al (2007) Coastal systems and lowlying areas. In: Parry ML, Canziani OF, Palutikof JP, van der Linden PJ, Hanson CE (eds) Climate change 2007: impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. Contribution of working group II to the fourth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 315–356
Payo A, Mukhopadhyay A, Hazra S et al (2016) Projected changes in area of the Sundarbans mangrove forest in Bangladesh due to SLR by 2100. Clim Chang 139(2):279–291
Sanders CJ, Smoak JM, Waters MN et al (2012) Organic matter content and particle size modifications in mangrove sediments as responses to sea level rise. Mar Environ Res 77:150–155
Sarwar GM, Khan MH (2007) Sea level rise: a threat to the coast of Bangladesh. In: Internationales Asian Forum. International Quarterly for Asian Studies 38, No. 3/4, Arnold Bergsträsser Institut, p 375, November
Sarwar MGM, Woodroffe CD (2013) Rates of shoreline change along the coast of Bangladesh. J Coast Conserv 17(3):515–526
Smoak JM, Breithaupt JL, Smith TJ et al (2013) Sediment accretion and organic carbon burial relative to sea-level rise and storm events in two mangrove forests in Everglades National Park. Catena 104:58–66
Snoussi M, Ouchani T, Khouakhi A et al (2009) Impacts of sea-level rise on the Moroccan coastal zone: quantifying coastal erosion and flooding in the Tangier Bay. Geomorphology 107(1):32–40
Sobrino JA, Jiménez-Muñoz JC, Paolini L (2004) Land surface temperature retrieval from LANDSAT TM 5. Remote Sens Environ 90(4):434–440
Solomon S, Qin D, Manning M et al (2007) Technical summary. In: Solomon S, Qin D, Manning M et al (eds) Climate change 2007: the physical science basis. Contribution of working group I to the fourth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge/New York
Song C, Woodcock CE, Seto KC et al (2001) Classification and change detection using Landsat TM data: when and how to correct atmospheric effects? Remote Sens Environ 75(2):230–244
Upadhyay VP, Ranjan R, Singh JS (2002) Human-mangrove conflicts: the way out. Curr Sci 83(11):1328–1336
Urrego LE, Correa-Metrio A, González C et al (2013) Contrasting responses of two Caribbean mangroves to sea-level rise in the Guajira Peninsula (Colombian Caribbean). Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol 370:92–102
Valiela I, Bowen JL, York JK (2001) Mangrove forests: one of the world’s threatened major tropical environments: at least 35% of the area of mangrove forests has been lost in the past two decades, losses that exceed those for tropical rain forests and coral reefs, two other well-known threatened environments. Bioscience 51(10):807–815
Warrick RA, Ahmad QK (eds) (1996) The implications of climate and sea level change for Bangladesh. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht
Wilkie ML, Fortuna S (2003) Status and trends in mangrove area extent worldwide. Forest Resources Assessment Programme working paper (FAO)
Acknowledgement
This work is carried out under the Deltas, vulnerability and Climate Change: Migration and Adaptation (DECCMA) project (IDRC 107642) under the Collaborative Adaptation Research Initiative in Africa and Asia (CARIAA) programme with financial support from the UK Government’s Department for international Development (DFID) and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada. The views expressed in this work are those of the creators and do not necessarily represent those of DFID and IDRC or its Boards of Governors.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Mukhopadhyay, A., Ghosh, T. (2019). Dynamics of the Sundarbans Forested Islands in the Context of Erosion-Accretion and Sea Level Rise. In: Sen, H. (eds) The Sundarbans: A Disaster-Prone Eco-Region. Coastal Research Library, vol 30. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00680-8_17
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00680-8_17
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-00679-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-00680-8
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)