POTENTIALITY OF LAND RECLAMATION NEAR THE MOUTH OF MEGHNA ESTUARY OFF BANGLADESH THROUGH SATELLITE IMAGERY AND MATHEMATICAL MODELLING

Land reclamation is the process to create new land from sea or riverbeds. Land accretion and erosion in the Meghna Estuary is a continuous and gradual natural process. The net average annual natural accretion is quite significant in the estuary mouth ranging 1200 ha/yr to 1900 ha/yr. In Bangladesh, land reclamation by closure or crossdamconstruction in order to accelerate the natural accretion process started in mid-nineties. Physical intervention is required to accelerate the rate and area recovered. Regularly received satellite images and other tangible supporting evidences suggest that Bangladesh is about to receive of huge land areas from its adjoining coastal areas particularly near the mouth of Meghna Estuary. Last 40~50 years, several char islands (ie, Sandwip, Urir Char, Jahaizzer Char etc) has been formed by accretion of sediment carrying through the River Meghna. Aim of this study is to check the potentiality of gaining land areas through analysis of recent satellite images and numerical model development.