Assessing Biogeomorphological State of the Teesta River Flood Plain: A Study on Gangachara Upazila, Rangpur, Bangladesh

Abstract

Teesta river flood plain is one of the most significant landscapes in Bangladesh. The main theme of this research was to assess the present biogeomorphological state (biomass, herbaceous vegetation species, density of all vegetation species, flood plain extension mapping) of Teesta river flood plain under Gangachara upazila. The research work was conducted based on the objectives to prepare a map of Teesta river flood plain extension area, to estimate herbaceous vegetation (biomass, species types), and to find out the vegetation density to assess the present biogeomorphological state of study area. To present the flood plain area of Teesta river in the Gangachara upazila, base map has been used; herbaceous vegetation samples have been collected through quadrat method to estimate biomass (both in dry and before dry condition) using digital weight machine; vegetation density has been shown through NDVI of satellite image (Landsat-8) using red and NIR band in ArcGIS 10.1 software. From the results of this research, river flood plain area is found 68.5 sq. km; total 31 types of herbaceous species have been identified where Pouzolzia indica is the most dominated species covering 11.59% of the total area; maximum DNs value of NDVI is found +0.475242 which represents the highest vegetation density covering an area of 78 sq. km of the total area. The research may assist for the further study of river flood plain biogeomorphology throughout the country as well as in the world.