Remote Sensing and GIS Integration for Assessing Soil Erosion and Landslide Hazards in Rohingya Refugee Camp Areas of Bangladesh: A Comprehensive Study Using RUSLE and MCA-AHP Methods
摘要
Bangladesh hosts more than 1.1 millions registered Rohingya refugees at this moment of which 745,000 people came in 2017. Economic burden of the Bangladesh Government, rising criminalities, host vs. Rohingya grievances, and effects on environment are the observed consequences of the influx. Among these, environmental impacts are difficult to quantify and losses are irreparable. The present study was designed to assess two significant environmental impacts, which are soil erosion and landslide susceptibility. Remote sensing and GIS techniques were applied for this purpose. Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) were used for landslide susceptibility and Soil Erosion Calculation, respectively. In addition, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) calculation and land use land cover change were assessed to understand the factors behind the two hazards. Pairwise Comparison Matrix (PCM) and consistency check of the factors were performed for the AHP application. Results show that major portion of the vegetative area is already demolished and forested areas are replaced by built-up areas. The whole area is occupied by make-shift camps and infrastructures. No significant change was observed regarding the soil erosion but most of the areas are experiencing 0–100 mth−1 yr−1 of soil loss in the area. However, landslide susceptibility has increased substantially in the entire area. Major portion of the area has shifted from low to high susceptible category (11.59%) for landslide and some areas have converted to (1.11%) very high-risk category. NDVI, Land Use Land Cover (LULC) change, soil erosion prone area, and landslide susceptibility maps were produced to visualize the findings. It is expected that the produced maps and generated data through the study will be helpful to recover the damaged environment, to protect the lives from landslide events in the area, and to formulate policy to manage these refugees without destroying the natural environment.