No abstract

Soil erosion due to anthropogenic interventions is an emerging threat to the south-eastern coastal districts of Bangladesh. In the recent decade, land degradation intensified this process in this region due to the settlement of the Forcibly Displaced Myanmar Nationals (FDMNs) popularly known as ‘Rohingya’, who fled from Myanmar in 2017. The present study has attempted to quantify the regional soil loss (from 2015 to 2020) using the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) model. Results showed that the year 2015 and 2020 witnessed the mean soil erosion at a rate of around 58.2 and 59 t ha-1 yr-1, respectively in the Cox’s Bazar district in which 20 - 21% of the study area was highly subjected to soil erosion. But in the Rohingya camps mean soil erosion for these periods is 59 and 78 t ha-1 yr-1, respectively with a cumulative increase of 32%. The sub-districts adjacent to the Rohingya refugee camps (Ramu, Ukhia, and Teknaf) have experienced intense erosion compared to the others. From 2015 to 2020, a large increase of about 4.54 (6%) t ha-1 yr-1 is observed in the Palongkhali union whereas a maximum decrease of about - 8.08 (23%) t ha-1 yr-1 is observed in the Pokkhali union. In Rohingya camps, the worst soil erosion-affected areas are the camps 8E, 10, 14, 15, 16, and 17 having more than 100 t ha-1 yr-1 mean soil loss. Landuse change is the major contributing factor for soil erosion increase from 2015 to 2020 identified from the geographic detector method. The spatial variations are significantly controlled by slope and elevation factors. This work can help to understand the dynamics of soil erosion and the knowledge can be used for conservation planning in the Cox’s Bazar and Rohingya camp areas.