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Analysing the vulnerability of mangrove forest by vegetation health assessment: a study of Indian sundarbans deltaic region

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Abstract

Sundarbans region is an assemblage several delta formed in Bay of Bengal with largest concentration of mangrove which plays a crucial role in mitigating the impact of climate change with large ecosystem. The mangrove ecosystem demands further investigations to assess the vulnerability of vegetation. In context of present environmental change, the existing vegetation of Sundarbans is threatened by natural and human induced factors. This study incorporated these issues by analysing the vulnerability of mangrove forest in Indian Sundarbans deltaic region. To assess the vegetation condition, various vegetation indices are used including Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Transformed Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (TNDVI), Green Chlorophyll Index (GCI), Chlorophyll Vegetation Index (CVI), Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI), and Atmospherically Resistant Vegetation Index (ARVI) etc. These indices are calculated using remote sensing satellite data of 2010 and 2020. Vulnerability has been assessed through vegetation health assessment by spatial modelling with the data from aforesaid vegetation indices. The result shows that specific regions have experienced an increase in stressed vegetation condition accompanied by the problems such as waterlogging and expanding areas under aquaculture. Furthermore the area under healthy vegetation has significantly decreased between 2010 and 2020.

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Data availability

Remote Sensing Satellite data has been used in this study for the year 2010 and 2020. The data for different bands (Blue, Green, Red and NIR) of Landsat 5 TM and Landsat 8 OLI have been collected from USGS (https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/) for the month of December for both the years with 30 m spatial resolution (Table 1). The satellite imageries of different bands have been analyzed with QGIS Software. The data further has been modified by different vegetation indices and vegetation health assessment with spatial modeling. For the validation of the results from the analysis of satellite imageries, this study has also incorporated Google Earth historical images of specific locations along with some field visits.

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Funding

For this research no funding has been received from any agencies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Swami Vivekananda Institution for Teachers Training, Affiliated to Baba Saheb Ambedkar EducationUniversity, Kurmun, West Bengal, 713102, India

    Amlan Ghosh

  2. Department of Geography, Dr. Gour Mohan Roy College, Purba Bardhaman, West Bengal, 713145, India

    Padmaja Mondal

Authors

  1. Amlan Ghosh
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  2. Padmaja Mondal
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Contributions

AG contributed to data collection, statistical analysis, and interpretation of the results. PM contributed to the design of experiments, development of the methodology, and validation of results.

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Correspondence to
Amlan Ghosh or Padmaja Mondal.

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Ghosh, A., Mondal, P. Analysing the vulnerability of mangrove forest by vegetation health assessment: a study of Indian sundarbans deltaic region.
Sci Rep (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-26905-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-26905-1

Keywords

  • Mangrove vulnerability
  • Vegetation indices
  • Vegetation health condition

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