Household Questionnaire Survey: The present study has been accomplished mainly based on primary data. In addition, secondary level data have also been consulted. Primary data were collected in various ways (household questionnaire survey, focus group discussions and laboratory experiments of water and soil in the laboratories). First of all, the villages dominated with shrimp farming practices within Debhata Upazila have been identified and Chandipur, the present study village has been randomly selected out of these villages. A total of 108 households out of 290 from the study village were randomly selected for interviews with semi-structured questionnaire. For household level interviews, the household heads were mostly considered who had attained experiences of shrimp cultivation. Focus Group Discussion: A significant number of people in the study has recently left shrimp cultivation as they do not make satisfactory profit out of shrimp production. Therefore, in order to find out difficulties of shrimp cultivation, their present occupational status, informal group discussions and focus group discussions were also conducted. In the study area, 2 focus group discussions were carried out with more than 10 people each who were earlier engaged in shrimp farming but have recently left these practices. Laboratory Experiments: In order to assess the magnitude of declining soil and water quality in the study area, the present research has emphasized on laboratory experiments of soil and water collected from shrimp ghers in two different time periods (February and May in 2012). Salinity is assumed to be higher in the drier most months, and therefore water samples were collected in May. In addition, water samples were also collected from local freshwater ponds in order to compare with the quality of gher water. The characteristics of water in both ghers and freshwater ponds which have been considered for measurement are salinity, pH, total dissolve solid (TDS), total suspended solid (TSS), total solid (TS) and electrical conductivity (EC). The first water samples were collected in 15 February, 2012 both from pond and gher, and later on 10 May 2012 the second sample collection was carried out for salinity, pH, total dissolve solid (TDS), total suspended solid (TSS), total solid (TS) and Electrical conductivity (EC). The characteristics of gher soil in three different layers that have been measured are soil salinity, pH, heavy metal pollutants, particle size analysis, EC, percentage of organic carbon and organic matter. Soil samples were collected from three (3) different layers at 5 May 2012 (top soil- upto 15 cm from the surface, 15-30 cm depth and then at 30-45 cm depth). Water and soil samples were experimented in the environmental laboratories of the Department of Geography and Environment, University of Dhaka and Bangladesh Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR), Dhaka. Secondary Data: Secondary data have been collected in two steps. In first step, relevant literatures (e.g., peer-referred journals), documents, websites, books, local journals, etc. were consulted. In the second step: relevant local and national level institutions were consulted. Among them, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock, Community Report of Satkhira 2012, District Agricultural Office & District Fisheries Office of Satkhira, Upazila Statistics Office, Upazila Agricultural Office, Upazila Fisheries Office of Debhata & Satkhira. Information collected from these offices mainly include total area under cultivation, production of annual fish and other agricultural crops etc. Map Processing: Maps have been prepared using ArcGIS 9.3. Temporal (1990-2010) change detection has been done through satellite images. Land Sat 1 & 2 images are used to show the shrimp cultivated area in1979, Land Sat 4 & 5 to show the increase of the area for shrimp in 1989, Land Sat image 7 is for the increase of shrimp farming area in 1999 and Land Sat 7 & 5 images are for present land use pattern of shrimp cultivation. Most of these images are captured in November (relatively dry season) and therefore some water bodies’ are missing. All these images are over-laid to one another to identify the expansion of shrimp farms (gher) over time.