Padma Multipurpose Bridge Project

Silt (%) 81 70 77 17Clay (%) 17 3 10 0.5Texture Silty loam Silty clay loam Silty loam Loamy sandD50 (mm) 0.016 0.050 0.028 0.110Source: Consultant Soil Investigation Results, 20093.1.3 Landuse17. The Project area comprises of agricultural land, homestead land, homestead vegetation andwater bodies. Agriculture is major landuse on both sides of the Padma River due to the presence ofalluvial fertile lands. Landuse classification of the Project area has been derived from the satelliteimageries of November 1999, February 2005, April 2005, and February 2009 as listed in Table 3-3.Table 3-3: Landuse classification of the Project AreaArea (Hectares)Landuse ClassificationFeb-05 Feb-09 Apr-05 Nov-99Rabi Rabi Kharif I Kharif IIRiver 6,547 6,286 7,363 8,089Other Water Bodies (includes water-bodies, 148 290 376 1689beels with and without aquatic weeds, etc.)Agricultural crops 9,019 7,230 7,780 8,244Fallow land / Reed Land 3,953 5,354 5,182 1,901Sand 1,124 1,552 92 712Settlement and Homestead Vegetations 3,279 3,358 3,277 3,463Total 24,070 24,070 24,070 24,093Note: The difference between April 2005 and November 1999 total landuse is in the coverage of thesatellite image.Source: Consultant Estimate, 2009.18. The satellite images are presented in Figure 3-6. For gross visual interpretation of theimages, it is helpful to note that with this image band combination, the reddish areas normallyrepresent green vegetation cover, and may include agricultural crops, trees and grass. Dark grey andblack areas usually represent water. Light grey areas represent moist soils. Very light grey to almostwhite areas represents fallow lands. White areas represent sand. The visual interpretation showsdifferences in the land cover among the four images. Images from November 1999 to February 2009show considerable changes of the black to dark grey areas to reddish to red color mostly in the leftbank of the River which indicates changes of the water areas into agricultural crop.19. The numerous different color shades seen in the images have been lumped together anddigitally classified into following five broad classes in order to quantify and locate the changes in landcover. The classification has been done based on statistical classification techniques, and field visitsby the Consultant to collect field specific data.Water – This is a broad class and covers all water areas in the study area. It includes any openwater bodies, like Rivers, beels and ponds. It also includes those areas within the Charland, beelsor Riverbanks which have very shallow water. It covers water with and without aquatic weeds andgrasses. Wet sand is also included in water class.Sand – This is a broad class and covers dry sands mostly in chars and Riverbanks and very littlein main lands.Agricultural crop land – covers Boro (rice seedlings), Rabi and Kharif crops. The image of April2005, depicts the Boro plantation (with some teel and other Kharif-I crops) which is a major cropgrown at this time of the year. Boro is dominated mostly in the left bank of the Padma River.Images of February 2005 and February 2009 depict Rabi crops that include mainly onion,coriander, cumin seeds, wheat, coriander, garlic, mustard, etc. This class also has some Boroseedbed and Boro in low and moist lands. In image of November 1999, clear fallow areas were3-7