Rapid urban expansion due to large scale land use/cover change, particularly in developing countries becomes a matter of concern
since urbanization drives environmental change at multiple scales. Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, has been experienced
break-neck urban growth in the last few decades that resulted many adverse impacts on the environment. This paper was an attempt
to document
... [Show full abstract] spatio-temporal pattern of land use/cover changes, and to quantify the landscape structures in Dhaka Metropolitan
of Bangladesh. Using multi-temporal remotely sensed data with GIS, dynamics of land use/cover changes was evaluated and a
transition matrix was computed to understand the rate and pattern of land use/cover change. Derived land use statistics subsequently
integrated with landscape metrics to determine the impact of land use change on landscape fragmentation. Significant changes
in land use/cover were noticed in Dhaka over the study period, 1975–2005. Rapid urbanization was manifested by a large reduction
of agricultural land since urban built-up area increased from 5,500ha in 1975 to 20,549ha in 2005. At the same time, cultivated
land decreased from 12,040 to 6,236ha in the same period. Likewise, wetland and vegetation cover reduced to about 6,027 and
2,812ha, respectively. Consequently, sharp changes in landscape pattern and composition were observed. The landscape became
highly fragmented as a result of rapid increase in the built-up areas. The analysis revealed that mean patch size decreased
while the number of patches increased. Landscape diversity declined, urban dominance amplified, and the overall landscape
mosaics became more continuous, homogenous and clumped. In order to devise sustainable land use planning and to determine
future landscape changes for sound resource management strategies, the present study is expected to have significant implications
in rapidly urbanizing cities of the world in delivering baseline information about long term land use change and its impact
on landscape structure.
KeywordsDhaka Metropolitan-Land use/cover-Landscape fragmentation-Remote sensing-GIS