Spatiotemporal landuse dynamics driven by socioeconomic context in the southwestern coastal districts of Bangladesh

Socio-economic aspects and the increasing saltwater intrusion toward the southwestern coastal districts of Bangladesh are the main driving force for the alteration of landuse landcover (LULC) pattern. The present study employed a supervised classification approach using the maximum likelihood algorithm method in the geospatial environment to quantify the spatiotemporal LULC changes in the southwestern coastal districts of Bangladesh. The study used multi-temporal Landsat satellite images and identified the influencing socio-economic factors to find the relation with LULC changes. The study has seen a significant relationship between socioeconomic factors and landuse dynamics. Nearly 1500 km2 area has been converted to shrimp farming in almost all districts previously used for rice cultivation or uncultivated. It is actually due to the profitable shrimp production and saline water ingress toward the inland area that induced people to alter the landuse pattern. From 2010 to 2019, shrimp production increased significantly in the study area. The output of the study could be beneficial to policymakers for implementing the landuse policy and sustainable landuse management focusing on the aquaculture industry in this area. •The study measured landuse dynamics in the southwestern part of Bangladesh.•Strong ties were found between landuse change and the socio-economic context.•Around 1500 Km2 of land has been converted to Shrimp Gher from 1900 to 2020.•This huge land conversion has been accelerated due to profitable shrimp farming.•The study will play a significant role in coastal land management in Bangladesh.