Quantifying River Bank Erosion and Accretion Patterns along the Gorai River in Kushtia, Bangladesh: A Geospatial Analysis Utilizing GIS and Remote Sensing Techniques

Abstract

River bank erosion is a natural process that occurs when the water flow of a river exceeds the bank’s ability to withstand it. It is a common phenomenon that causes extensive land damage, displacement of people, loss of crops, and infrastructure damage. The Gorai River, situated on the right bank of the Ganges, is a significant branch of the river that flows into the Bay of Bengal via the Mathumati and Baleswar rivers. The erosion of the banks of the Gorai River in Kushtia district is not a recent occurrence. Local residents have been dealing with this issue for the past hundred years, and according to the elderly members of the community, the erosion has become more severe activities. Therefore, the main objective of this research is to quantify river bank erosion and accretion and bankline shifting from 2003 to 2022 using multi-temporal Landsat images data with GIS and remote sensing technique. Bank-line migration occurs as a result of the interplay and interconnectedness of various factors such as the degree of river-related processes such as erosion, transportation, and deposition, the amount of water in the river during the high season, the geological and soil makeup, and human intervention in the river. The results show that the highest eroded area was 4.6 square kilometers during the period of 2016 to 2019, while the highest accreted area was 7.12 square kilometers during the period of 2013 to 2016. However, the erosion and accretion values fluctuated from year to year.