International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Volume XXXIX-B8, 2012 
XXII ISPRS Congress, 25 August — 01 September 2012, Melbourne, Australia 
  
  
  
  
  
Figure 2. Demonstration of time series coastal erosion 
(1973-2010) in the eastern part of Sundarbans 
(Bangladesh part) 
Coastal erosion in the Sundarbans is also reported in Giri ef al. 
(2007) for 1973-2000. According to that investigation covering 
the whole of Sundarbans (both in India and Bangladesh). 
between 1970s and 1990s, mangrove forest expanded from land 
accretion (29 sq.km) nearly equals to the loss of mangrove 
forest by erosion (32 sq.km). However, from 1990s to 2000s, 
erosion (42 sq. km) was seven times greater than accretion (6 
sq. km). 
4. CONCLUSION 
It is concluded in the study that (1) Sundarbans forest is 
experiencing coastal erosion, which is widespread in many 
parts of the peripheral zone and (2) the total forest loss due to 
coastal erosion is 233 km? that is higher than the total 
aggradations of forest from sea, which is 104 km? in the 
Bangladesh part during the period of investigation (1973-2010) 
and (3) the rate of coastal is erosion is variable in different 
parts of Sundarbans. 
Sundarbans forest is shrinking due to the coastal erosion though 
it is not clear yet how much coastal erosion is linked to the 
global warming and sea-level rise. Further studies should 
explore how much coastal erosion is linked to the global 
warming or the result of geological or anthropogenic induced 
land subsidence, changes in the sediment supply from the 
eastern Himalayan catchments or because of any other local 
factors. 
  
  
  
Figure 3. Demonstration of time series coastal erosion 
(1973-2010) in the western part of Sundarbans 
(Bangladesh part) 
5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 
The author would like to thank Shaheen Khan, Chairman of 
SPARRSO to grant permission to publish the work. Landsat 
images were downloaded from United States Geological 
Survey (USGS). Bangladesh Forest Department is 
acknowledged for their assistance during field visits. Sultana 
Razia of SPARRSO helped to digitize some parts of the work. 
6. REFERENCES 
Bindoff, N., Willebrand, J., Artale, V., Cazenave, A., Gregory, 
J, Gulev, S. ef al. 2007. Observations: Oceanic climate change 
and sea level. In: Solomon, S. et al. (eds.), Climate Change 
2007: The Physical Science Basis. Fourth Assessment Report 
of IPCC, pp. 387-432. 
Church, J. A. and White, N. J, 2006. A 20" century 
acceleration in global sea-level rise. Geophysical Research 
Letter, 33: L01602, doi: 10.1029/2005GL024826. 
Church, J. A., White, N. J., Coleman, R., Lambeck, K. and 
Mitrovica, J. X., 2004. Estimates of the regional distribution of 
sea-level rise over the 1950-2000 period. Journal of Climate, 
17, pp. 2609-2625. 
  
  
  
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