Evaluating Urban Expansion and Population Growth Efficiency Using Sustainable Development Goal Indicators in the Lower Turag River Basin, Bangladesh

Maria Binta Malek

Graduate student, Department of Geography and Environment, Faculty of Social Sciences, Jahangirnagar University, Savar, Dhaka-1342, Bangladesh.

Md. Mahmudul Hasan Shahed

Graduate student, Department of Geography and Environment, Faculty of Social Sciences, Jahangirnagar University, Savar, Dhaka-1342, Bangladesh.

Khaled Jubair Shabab

Graduate student, Department of Geography and Environment, Faculty of Social Sciences, Jahangirnagar University, Savar, Dhaka-1342, Bangladesh.

Rezaul Roni

Department of Geography and Environment, Faculty of Social Sciences, Jahangirnagar University, Savar, Dhaka-1342, Bangladesh.

Md Shahedur Rashid

Department of Geography and Environment, Faculty of Social Sciences, Jahangirnagar University, Savar, Dhaka-1342, Bangladesh.

Corresponding author: maria.ju.aldc@gmail.com (Maria Binta Malek)

Keywords: Land Use Land Cover, Urban Expansion, Land Consumption Rate, Population Growth Rate, Urban Sustainability.

PDF: Full Article

DOI: https://doi.org/10.66268/jrse.2026.05.442627

Published: 31 March 2026

Abstract

Understanding the spatiotemporal dynamics of Land Use and Land Cover (LULC), caused by rapid urbanization, is crucial to mitigating the negative impacts of urban growth, threatening agricultural sustainability and ecological balance. This research was conducted on the Lower Turag River Basin in the northwestern region of Dhaka, Bangladesh and aims to quantify the built-up area changes along with population changes from 2001 to 2021, evaluating the nature of urban expansion by calculating the ratio between Land Consumption Rate and Population Growth Rate (LCRPGR) following the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) metadata used for the indicator 11.3.1. Here, satellite imagery, including Landsat 5, Landsat 8, and Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) data, was used in the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform, where the Random Forest algorithm was incorporated to classify LULC into five distinct categories. The high kappa values (>0.87) ensured the accuracy and the reliability of the classification. The results show that built-up areas increased by 139.39%, while the total population grew by 163.71% between 2001 and 2021, largely replacing agricultural land and natural vegetation. The urban expansion outpaced population growth, with a land consumption to population growth ratio of 1.775 for the period of 2001 to 2011 and 0.513 for the period of 2011 to 2021, indicating critical urban expansion. Besides, the LULC patterns found that the expansion occurred towards the north of the Turag basin with high growth of population, which increased the land consumption. Furthermore, the findings of this study will help policymakers and researchers to understand the spatio-temporal changes of urban expansion, population growth, and land consumption with a sustainable policy framework. 

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How to cite: 

Malek, M. B., Shahed, M. M. H., Shabab, K. J., Roni, R., Rashid, M. S. (2026). Evaluating Urban Expansion and Population Growth Efficiency Using Sustainable Development Goal Indicators in the Lower Turag River Basin, Bangladesh. Journal of Remote Sensing and Environment, 5, 20250510. https://doi.org/10.66268/jrse.2026.05.442627

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