South-eastern Coastal Environment of Bangladesh
A webinar titled “South-eastern Coastal Environment of Bangladesh” was organized by Coastal Research Unit (CRU) on 21 March 2021. The webinar was enlightened by a good number of participants and esteemed guests. The webinar was chaired by Professor Dr. M. Shahidul Islam.
Three papers were presented in the webinar and the gist of the presentations are as follows :
Paper 1: “Geomorphological Evolution of Sonadia Island in the Context of Late-Holocene Sea Level Changes of Bangladesh” By Taslima Akter, M.S in Physical Geography & Environment, Dept of Geography & Environment, DU.
Sonadia Island, possessing a complex and unique geomorphological system on the eastern coast of Bangladesh, has very different Holocene evolution than those of other estuarine islands. The research aims to study the history of Late-Holocene sea-level evolution and to understand the responses of the Island corresponding to the sea-level and climatic changes.
Paper 2: “Microbeads in Ocean Sediment: A case study of Maheshkhali channel estuary in the eastern coastal belt of Bangladesh” By Md. Juwel Rana, M.S. in Physical Geography and Environment, Dept of Geography and Environment, Dhaka University.
Microbeads, extremely small particles of broken plastics, are very harmful for aquatic life due to damaging digestive tracts and causing chemical leaching during digestion. Even though Maheshkhali channel estuary has become a hotspot of microplastics, no significant investigation has yet been carried out regarding the harmful impacts of concentration of microbeads in ocean sediment. However, this research aims to resonate the field-based results of concentration and spatial variation of microbeads in sediments of the ocean floor so that necessary measures can be taken to prevent microbeads manufacturing products.
Paper 3: “Coastal Sand Dunes Dynamics in Bangladesh: A Case of Sonadia Island” by Bithika Malo, M.S. in Physical Geography and Environment, Department of Geography and Environment, University of Dhaka
Sonadia Island has unique and beautiful sand dunes in Bangladesh. The research is a very intriguing as well as challenging task. There are many technological obstacles and it has been recommended to overcome these hindrances and point out the probable limitations in this research. To get the overall picture of the island’s sand dunes, it has been suggested to analyze satellite images and show the temporal change in the geomorphological characteristics of the dune system.
Professor Dr. Serajul Islam, Dr. Asib Ahmed, Md. Tariqul Islam and many other participants joined the discussions and made their valuable comments.
