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IAPRS & SIS, Vol.34, Part 7, “Resource and Environmental Monitoring”, Hyderabad, India,2002 
A DSS FOR LANDUSE STRATEGIES IN THE SOUTH-WEST REGION 
OF BANGLADESH 
I. Huque, R. Rahman 
CEGIS, Center for Environmental and Geographic Information Services, Hs. 49, Rd. 27, Banani, Dhaka-1213, 
Bangladesh - (ihuque, rrahman)@cegisbd.com 
Commission VII, WG VII/3 
KEY WORDS: DSS, landuse strategies, Bangladesh, conceptual framework, computational framework 
ABSTRACT : 
A Decision Support System (DSS) has been developed as part of an integrated environmental management exercise for the 
southwest region of Bangladesh, where major changes in land use is taking place due to shrimp cultivation replacing traditional 
paddy cultivation. Such changes have considerable social and environmental consequences for the coastal areas of the country. The 
DSS presents a step by step approach to decision making within a conceptual framework supported by a computational framework. 
It allows the user to specify the decision objectives, and formulate management options in the form of land use strategies and 
evaluates the impacts of these strategies under different scenarios of salinity intrusion, in terms of economic, social and 
environmental criteria. The computational framework makes use of spatial models such as a land use allocation and salinity 
intrusion model and simple non-spatial models for assessing economic, social and environmental impacts. The starting point is a 
land use classification based on optical and radar satellite images of different cropping seasons. The land use classification helps 
identify and provides the spatial distribution of production regimes, i.e. different types of shrimp and agricultural cropping cycles, 
prevalent in the study area. It works as a basis for land use allocation strategies thus demonstrating the utility of remote sensing in 
the context of decision making for environmental management. 
1 INTRODUCTION 
As the concern for sustainable use of natural resources 
increases, their prudent management demands an integrated 
approach. Integrated management has to satisfy an ever 
increasing demand for development driven by population 
growth, ensure that the desired mix of outputs from the natural 
resource system is maintained over time, and also meet an 
increasing set of constraints and concerns of social and 
environmental impacts. The complex process of planning and 
management of the resources requires efficient tools for 
decision support. A Decision Support System (DSS) is able to 
provide an interactive instrument, which allows conducting 
"what-if games" with respect to alternative management 
actions, uncertain exogenous developments and preferences. It 
also provides a common platform and a common knowledge 
base for interaction among the different parties in their 
endeavor to arrive at the best possible management decisions. 
Historically in Bangladesh, the focus in the management of the 
water resources (for example) was on the interventions in water 
supply. A circle of problems, interventions, impacts, problems 
and new interventions were created. At present, the concern for 
a sustainable use of the resources is increasing. More 
importantly, in contrast to the reactive character of past 
management decisions (i.e., only after the identification of a 
serious problem, action is undertaken) a more pro-active 
attitude is being adopted. However, national resource planning 
still is virtually non-existent. (EGIS, 2001a). 
In this context, an Integrated Environmental Management 
(IEM) exercise has been carried out in the form of a case study 
on Shrimp-paddy Land Use Strategies in the Southwest of 
Bangladesh (EGIS, 2001a) A conceptual framework was 
devised for the management of land resources in relation to 
shrimp-paddy production. The aim of the study was to project 
the choices with regard to land use on the basis of economic, 
social and environmental considerations, to simulate their 
553 
effects under different scenarios to help in the evaluation of 
decisions. The Shrimp-Crop DSS for the South West Region 
has been developed as a part of this study (EGIS, 2001b). 
The DSS uses models and datasets, but *hides" them behind an 
interface that represents the decision-making context. It brings 
together data and information from a number of different 
sources and links them through models for analysis and 
evaluation of management strategies. In Bangladesh, the 
existing communications infrastructure is inadequate to support 
efficient collection of reliable data. Accurate and up-to-date 
geospatial information is not available from the current set-up. 
Hence remotely sensed satellite images form the basis for 
assessment of the current landuse and cropping pattern, support 
landuse allocation and the analysis as a whole. 
1.1 The Study Area 
The study area (Figure 1) consists of three coastal districts of 
southwestern Bangladesh, viz. Bagerhat, Khulna and Satkhira 
with a total area of 10,660 sq. km. The Gorai River is one of the 
biggest right bank distributaries of the Ganges River and is the 
main source of fresh water into the study area. The reduced 
freshwater flow through the Gorai River is augmenting salinity 
intrusion. À lower than average cropping intensity in the study 
area is caused by surface water salinity, poor aquifer 
conditions, drainage congestion and large areas being devoted 
to shrimp farming. The Sunderbans mangrove forest, a World 
Heritage and Ramsar Site, with its rich bio-diversity takes up 
about 38% of the study area. 
Alternating crops between shrimp and paddy is widely 
practiced. In the northern part, the Boro rice crop (irrigated) is 
grown in the dry season. On the same field, Giant Prawn 
(Golda, or M Rosenbergii) is grown during the monsoon in 
fresh or near-fresh water condition. In the middle part of the 
study area, farmers grow Aman rice crop (rain-fed) in the 
monsoon and the Tiger Shrimp, (Bagda, or P. Monodon) in the 
dry season, under saline condition. In the southern part, where 
salinity is higher, Bagda shrimp can be grown as a double crop.