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Study on Interaction Between Haor and River Ecosystem Including Development of Wetland Inventory and Sustainable Wetland Management Framework

Directorate
Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Ministry of Water Resources, Department of Bangladesh Haor & Wetlands Development

Abstract/ Executive Summary:

Department of Bangladesh Haor and Wetland Development (DBHWD) is mandated by the government for overall coordination and monitoring for integrated development in the haor and wetland areas in the country to holistically address the problems related to water resources, agriculture, socio-economic and environmental concerns in the haor and wetlands of the country. For fulfillment of the study objectives, the major activities those have been carried out include * Collection of currently available remotely sensed images of recent years, georeferenced the images and ground-truthing by field survey and classification of the satellite images to identify the exact locations and boundaries of wetlands. * LiDAR survey of Tanguar haor for an area of approximately 152 sq. km. for empirical data collection. * Classification of wetlands of Bangladesh according to their hydrological functions, important ecosystem, ecosystem services, physiographic characteristics and demography. * Identification of connectivity of haors and wetlands with adjacent river system. * Development of an inventory of wetlands along with different categorical contour maps. * Comprehensive stakeholder consultations to find out gap(s), and incorporating their suggestions for successful completion of the wetland inventory; * Monitoring and evaluation of piloting sites to find out gap in selected best management practices. * Finalization of wetland management framework based on their (wetlands) cluster-wise best management practices and piloting results. The vulnerability assessment has been done based on four major issues and descriptions of those issues are given below: a. Value Assessment: A total of four types of values have been considered to assess the vulnerability; these are (i) Ecological value, (ii) Economical value, (iii) Hydrological value and (iv) Social value. b. Threats Assessment: As with the values, a list of pre-defined threats is given. Two scores, one for the severity of threat and one for the likelihood of threat, are given to each threat and a simple matrix is used to give a single score. c. Links between Values & Threats: The matrix table determines how the threats are likely to impact on the values. d. Vulnerability Assessment: Once all of the input’s values are entered in the matrix table, then the vulnerability assessment has been completed.

Keywords: Haor, River, Ecosystem, Wetlands, Hydrological regions, Vegetation, Physiographic characteristics

Location: In Bangladesh

Start Date:

End Date:

Program Area: Comparative study

Commodity: Wetland, River, Haor

Objectives:

The specific objectives of the project are:
• Study on interaction between haor and river ecosystem
• Prepare a structured framework for planning and designing a wetland inventory following the Ramsar guidelines.
• Identify the different types of wetlands in the different hydrological regions of Bangladesh on detail map.
• Cluster wetlands based on their hydrological functions, vegetation, ecosystem services, physiographic characteristics and demography on detail map.
• Make a comprehensive inventory, baseline with ecological characteristics of wetlands including bio-diversity and historical background information on wetlands.
• Assess of the existing management practices to find out the cluster-wise best practices of wetland management for a specific region/cluster.
• Develop region/cluster-wise wetland management framework for Bangladesh emphasizing the interaction between haor and river ecosystem.

Methodology:

The main objectives of the study are to prepare an inventory of the wetlands through classification of satellite images, delineations of wetlands and LiDAR survey of Tanguar haor for an area of approximately 120 sq. km. for empirical data collection. This chapter deals with the approach and methodology that has been adopted to address the objectives of the study. To achieve the study objectives, the following major scope of works have been conducted: * Establishment of the structured framework. * Clustering of wetlands. * Collection of detail information on wetlands. * Identification of connectivity of wetlands. * Finalization of wetland inventory. * Evaluation of the value of wetlands. * Identification of best wetland management practice. * Selection of sites for piloting. * Implementation, evaluation and monitoring of piloting. * Development of cluster-wise wetland management framework. * Dissemination of knowledge to stakeholder. * LiDAR survey for Comprehensive assessment of Tanguar haor area. The major scope of works will establish a comprehensive national wetland inventory which is the vital basis for many activities necessary for achieving the wise use of resources of wetlands, including policy development, new identification and designation of Ramsar sites, documentation of wetland mapping & losses and identification & categorization of wetlands with potential for restoration. Therefore, a comprehensive wetland management framework is needed based on established wetland inventory and to ensure its implementation in future through a co-management approach to protect and conserve the wetlands from degradation. Interaction between haor and river ecosystem will also be assessed and designed in such a way so that it can play an important role for future protections of wetlands.

The following Policies, strategies and Regulations will be reviewed under this study: • Environment Policy 92 • Environmental Conservation Act 1995 (Revision up to 2012) • Environmental Conservation Rules 1997 • The Environment Court Act, 2000 • National Conservation Strategy (NCS) • National Environment Management Action Plan (NEMAP) • Sustainable Environment Management Plan (SEMP) • National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan for Bangladesh (NBSAP) • Draft Roadmap for National Adaptation Plan (NAP) • Perspective Plan 2010-2021 • National Forest Policy (1994) • Wetland Policy, 1998 • National Fisheries Policy • Land Use Policy • National Water Policy (2012) • Coastal Zone Policy • National Agricultural Policy, 1999 Tanguar haor also called Tangua haor is located at 250009’ N latitude and 910004’ E longitude in the floodplain of the Surma river in Sunamganj District extending over 10 mauzas of Dharmapasha and Tahirpur Upazilas. The mauzas covering the Tanguar haor are (1) Jagadishpur, (2) Bhabanipur, (3) Lamagaon, (4) Ramsinhapur, (5) Mahajampur, (6) Maindag, (7) Mayajuri, (8) Bhangachara Purba, (9) Noagaon and (10) Tanguar Haor. The haor consists of 120 beels of various sizes. The area of Tanguar haor including 46 villages within the haor is about 100 km2 of which 2802.36 ha is wetland (Alam and Hosain, 2015). It is the source of livelihood for more than 40,000 people. It is Bangladesh's most important freshwater wetland, one of the main tributaries of the Brahmaputra at the base of the Meghalaya Hills in adjacent India. Tanguar haor provides habitat for at least 135 fish and 208 bird species, including 92 water birds and 98 migratory bird species. Tanguar haor also supports a rich fishery and is regarded as one of the country's richest breeding grounds for freshwater fish. In 2000, the hoar basin was declared a Ramsar site number 1031 - wetland of international importance.

Source of Information: JV of Megatech-IWM, Draft Final Report- May 2020, Volume-I

Article Link (Online Journal):

Funding Source:

1.

Budget:

Total Budget (Tk.) :

Achievement/Findings:

The major findings from the study can be summarized as follows: ? The total number of wetlands during wet season is about 61,150 with an area of about 1,687,312 ha whereas in dry season the number of wetlands is about 30,942 with an area of about 284,835 ha. ? The inventory has been prepared based on the hydrological region of Bangladesh and the map-based output is in 1:10000 scale. A total 4443 nos. of maps have been produced to cover the whole country. The inventory is developed tabular format including the location (districts, Upazila, union and mouza), area and other physical features such as geology, agro-ecological zone and bio-ecological zone and others. ? The study reveals that in average year hydrological condition, the North West (NW) region loses about 64% area of the rivers and canals in dry season with respect to the wet season water area. In terms of length the reduction of the extent of the rivers and canals in dry season is 46.69% (5,721 km) with respect to the wet season extent. In wet season the rivers and canals are connected to the closed water bodies in 725 locations whereas in dry season the connecting points reduced to 30 locations. ? The North Central (NC) region loses about 65% area of the rivers and canals in dry season with respect to the wet season water area for average year hydrological condition. In terms of length, the reduction of the extent of the rivers and canals in dry season is 49.5% (3,003 km) with respect to the wet season extent. In wet season the rivers and canals are connected to the closed water bodies in 485 locations whereas in dry season the connecting points reduced to 47 locations. ? The statistic on dry and wet season extents of the rivers and canals reveals that the North East (NE) region loses about 47% area of the rivers and canals in dry season with respect to the wet season water area and in terms of length the reduction of the extent of the rivers and canals in dry season is 55% (5,916 km) with respect to the wet season extent. The rivers and canals are connected to the closed water bodies in 1315 and 56 points in wet and dry season respectively. ? The South East (SE), South Central (SC) and South West (SW) regions loses about 52.71%, 11.36% and 7.44% area of the rivers and canals in dry season with respect to the wet season water area respectively. In terms of length, the reduction of the extent of the rivers and canals in dry season is 62% (2,880 km), 18.47% (1,356 km) and 20.65% (3,720 km) with respect to the wet season extent for SE, SC and SW region respectively. ? The Eastern Hill (EH) region loses about 17.33% area of the rivers and canals in dry season with respect to the wet season water area for average year hydrological condition. In terms of length, the reduction of the extent of the rivers and canals in dry season is 36.21% (2,882 km) with respect to the wet season extent. In wet season the rivers and canals are connected to the closed water bodies in 778 locations whereas in dry season the connecting points reduced to 79 locations. ? The number of ponds having an area greater than 0.17 ha has been digitized for capturing the complete picture of the closed water body in the country. The number of ponds found to be 184346 for Northwestern hydrological region whereas 102196 nos. of ponds belongs to Northcentral region. The Northeastern region has 72657 nos. of ponds whereas Southeastern, Eastern hill, Southcentral and Southwestern has 6886, 38087, 61412 and 89197 nos. of ponds respectively. ? Most of the area of wetlands in Bangladesh falls under the category of Ganges tidal floodplain (41.37%) which is followed by high Ganges river floodplain (12.87%) and then Northern and Eastern hills (10.86%). The minimum area of wetland covers Akhaura terrace (0,01% of the total wetland area). It can also be concluded that about 65.45% area of wetlands is under three dominant agro-ecological zones namely Ganges tidal floodplain, Ganges river floodplain and Northern and Eastern hills. ? The study reveals that Saline Tidal Floodplain covers about 38% of the total wetland area in Bangladesh. The Chittagong Hills and CHTs is the 2nd highest bio-ecological zone which covers about 37322 ha (13%) of total wetland area which is followed by the Ganges Floodplain (10%). The study also indicates that Chakaria Sundarban zone contains the minimum wetland area (only 17 ha).

Knowledge Management: Report/Proceedings