A geospatial assessment of growth pattern of aquaculture in the Indian Sundarbans Biosphere Reserve

Indian Sundarbans Biosphere Reserve (SBR) comprising over 100 estuarine islands and shared by human habitation and mangrove forests is considered to be a potential area for coastal aquaculture. This study, using LANDSAT imageries of the last two decades (1999–2019), delineated the spatiotemporal exp...

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Published inEnvironment, development and sustainability Vol. 24; no. 3; pp. 4203 - 4225
Main Authors Giri, Sandip, Samanta, Sourav, Mondal, Partho Protim, Basu, Oindrila, Khorat, Samiran, Chanda, Abhra, Hazra, Sugata
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.03.2022
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Agricultural land
Aquaculture
Biosphere
Cellular automata
Cyclones
Earth and Environmental Science
Ecology
Economic Geology
Economic Growth
Environment
Environmental Economics
Environmental Management
Estuaries
Forests
Growth patterns
Islands
Landsat
Mangrove swamps
Mangroves
Markov chains
Mathematical models
Mud flats
Prediction models
Remote sensing
Spatial analysis
Sustainable Development
Transformation
Sundarbans
Indian Sundarbans Biosphere Reserve
Cyclone Aila
Land use transformation
CA-Markov
Aquaculture
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Summary:Indian Sundarbans Biosphere Reserve (SBR) comprising over 100 estuarine islands and shared by human habitation and mangrove forests is considered to be a potential area for coastal aquaculture. This study, using LANDSAT imageries of the last two decades (1999–2019), delineated the spatiotemporal expansion of aquaculture at the expense of agricultural land, mudflats, and some mangroves. It also estimated a futuristic land transformation to aquaculture using the Cellular Automata-Markov Chain model. From the geospatial analysis, it is observed that (1) the aquacultures are mostly located around 22° 30′N, i.e., far away from the saline seafront, (2) total aquaculture area has increased to nearly 5.82% of the entire SBR in 2019 from 3.59% in 1999 and, (3) cyclone Aila and its surge inundation have influenced in their expansion. This growth of aquaculture took place with the loss of 3.71% (10,536.67 ha) agricultural land, 3.87% (730.40 ha) mudflat, and 0.28% (623.23 ha) mangrove from 1999 to 2009, and 6.02% (13,471.50 ha) agricultural land, 9.98% (1583.64 ha) mudflat, and 0.18% (382.35 ha) mangrove during 2009–2019. According to the predictive modeling, ~ 6% of the present agriculture area is prognosticated to be converted to aquaculture by the next decade under a business-as-usual scenario.
ISSN:1387-585X
1573-2975
DOI:10.1007/s10668-021-01612-9