Meghna Basin Land Use Land Cover (LULC) Atlas
Meghna Basin Atlas presents 2019 dry season land-use data across the Meghna River Basin, and land-use change analysis from 2005 to 2019.
Explore Meghna LULC Atlas (2005-2019)
Focus area for LULC analysis
For the land-use data collection, the study focused on the area of the Meghna basin before its confluence with old Brahmaputra (a distributary of Brahmaputra) and Padma rivers (formed after the confluence of Brahmaputra and Ganges), in Bangladesh. Therefore, the Meghna basin land use data and maps presented in this land use atlas covers a smaller area, approximately 64,947 km2, of which 43,107 km2 (66%) is located in India, and 21,077 km2 (32%) is in Bangladesh, and only 763 km2 (less than 1%) is in Myanmar.
Steps to the development of atlas
May 2019: A common methodology for the land use data collection and change analysis was developed at the Meghna Research Collaborators Meeting, hosted by North Eastern Space Application Centre (NESAC), Shillong.
October 2019: IUCN engaged Centre for Environmental and Geographic Information Services (CEGIS) Dhaka, Bangladesh; and North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU) Shillong, India to consolidate land use data and identify hot-spot of changes in the basin during 2005 to 2019.
February 2020: 2nd MAG meeting (Dhaka, Bangladesh), facilitated agreement on the use of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Guidelines for land use classification. The geographical scope for Meghna LULC analysis also revised to include only the part of the basin before its mixing with old Brahmaputra and Padma rivers.
September 2020: Land use data for the Meghna basin consolidated for Bangladesh and India, and hotspot of land use changes across the basin identified (see hotspot maps) and disseminated to relevant stakeholders The Meghna conversation series webinar.
September 2021: IUCN engaged IORA Ecological Solutions Pvt. Ltd to consolidate the land use data from Bangladesh and India, delineate sub-basin boundaries and develop maps of Meghna basin and sub-basins.
January 2022: 2019 Meghna basin and sub-basin maps published online and disseminated to stakeholders.
October 2022: LULC maps and data consolidate to develop online land use atlas of the Meghna basin.
Meghna River Basin
The Meghna is a transboundary river shared by India and Bangladesh. The total area covered by the Meghna river basin is 82,000 sq. km, of which 47,000 sq. km (57% of the total area) is located in India and 35,000 sq. km (43% of the total area) is in Bangladesh. The Meghna basin is notable for the number of transboundary tributaries it contains. At least 21 rivers are flowing into the Bangladesh part of the watershed from India. The Indian part of the basin includes six different North-eastern states of India: Meghalaya; Manipur; Mizoram; Nagaland; Tripura; and the Barak valley in Assam.
The Meghna River has been identified as one of the last remaining long free-flowing rivers in South Asia. More than 50 million people depend on the ecosystem services provided by Meghna River Basin.
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The Meghna Basin Land Use Atlas is produced by IUCN's project Building River Dialogue and Governance for Civil Society Organisations in the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna River Basins (BRIDGE GBM), and supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) through Oxfam TROSA programme, and the US Department of State though IUCN's Shared Waters Cooperation Facility.