Tidal River Management (TRM) and its implication in disaster management: A geospatial study on Hari-Teka river basin, Jessore, Bangladesh

The study area lies in the south-western coastal belt of Bangladesh under Jessore district, is a unique brackish water ecosystem comprising the districts of Satkhira, Khulna, Bagerhat and the southern part of Jessore. It introduced a compartmentalized polder or enclosure system in the south-west tidal areas in 1960 under coastal embankment project (CEP). As consequence of this continuing process of sedimentation over the years, many of the rivers/channels/canals in the area lost its conveyance causing severe drainage congestion. The study area became severe waterlogged in the 1980’s due to gradual siltation of rivers. From their own experience and observation, people identified the polders as the main cause of water-logging and began to present their reasoned arguments for breaching or cutting away polders to allow tidal flows. Their logic was that if tidal flows can be made free, the navigability of the rivers will be restored, the enclosed lands will be free from water-logging, alluvium will accumulate inside the polders, and as a result the level of land will rise. This concept is known as Tidal River Management (TRM) system. After the predication of IPCC, south-west coastal region is highly vulnerable to climate change induced disaster due to sea level rise. This study presents an empirical analysis of the TRM in disaster management of south-west coastal region. The study attempts to illustrate the effectiveness of TRM in disaster management by applying of Social survey, Global Positioning System (GPS) survey, Geographical Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing. The present research has revealed that, TRM is the most effective method to raise land and make it cultivable, mitigate the water-logging crisis, increase the navigability of rivers and protect the coastal region from the threat of sea level rise.