Assessment of Morpho-Dynamics through Geospatial Techniques within the Padma-Meghna and Ganges-Jamuna River Confluences, Bangladesh

Bangladesh is a low-lying riverine country with the mighty Ganges–Brahmaputra–Meghna (GBM) major river system including their abundant tributaries and distributaries. Land erosion–accretion is a very common phenomenon in this riverine country. This process extensively erodes huge productive landmasses at the river confluence zones every year. The main objective of this study was to understand the confluence morpho-dynamics and identify the vulnerable areas near the Padma–Meghna Confluence (PMC) and Ganges–Jamuna confluence (GJC) due to confluence shifting and erosion–accretion phenomenon of those rivers. The present study utilized multi-temporal Landsat satellite images from 1972 to 2019 approximately ten years of interval. Results showed that the PMC indicated frequent variation in migration trend towards NW from 1972 to 1980, SE from 1980 to 2010, and then reversed towards NW direction from 2010 to 2019. On the other hand, the GJC confluence point moved NW direction (2.37 km) from the year 1972 to 1980, but from 1980 to 2019, the confluence shifted towards the SE direction. Due to the migration dynamics, huge changes happened in width and sand bars area of both confluences. In PMC, confluence width increased remarkably indicating erosive flow during 1972–1980, then progressively shortened up to 2019, indicating accretion. In contrast, GJC shows a significant accretional trend over the 47 years. The sand bar area of the PMC increased about 147.09 km2 throughout the study period. But, GJC shows an opposite scenario where the total sand bar area decreased about 51.02 km2 in the same period. From the vulnerability study of erosion–accretion scenarios, it is predicted that Paturia Ferry Ghat area, Aricha Ferry Ghat area, Arua, Baruria, Dashkin Saljana, Bhadiakola, Masundia, Khanganj and Nyakandi areas near GJC and Chandpur sadar, Srimandi, Sakhua, Bilaspur and char Atra near PMC are highly vulnerable zones. The outputs of the study will enable policy makers to take necessary measures to reduce the erosional severity on both confluence zones and could also provide a basis for proper land management.