Bangladesh: Land Degradation in the Refugee Camps of Middle Part of Cox’s Bazar South Forest Division (October 2018)

Different levels of land degradation were identified throughout Cox's Bazar South Forest Division between February 2017 and February 2018. Sentinel 2 multispectral 10 m images with maximum cloud cover of 10 percent were used to determine normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) for each time period. Based on the NDVI values, five broad land cover classes were delineated - water, settlement, bare land, sparse vegetation, and dense vegetation. The two periods were then overlaid to observe land cover changes over the one year period. Finally, the resulting land cover changes were assigned to the following land degradation categories: High - dense vegetation to bare land, settlement, or water; Medium - sparse vegetation to bare land, settlement, or water; Low - dense vegetation to sparse vegetation.