10. Dhaka Metropolitan Area

This chapter traces the origin of Dhaka Metropolis, one of the megacities of Asia, and the capital city of Bangladesh. Urban primacy, urban land use/cover changes as well as the driving forces that influence urbanization were analysed. In addition, the potential implications of urban land use/cover changes on future sustainable urban development were discussed. The urban land use/cover change results revealed that built-up land increased over 10 times (from about 11.6 to 118 km²) between 1989 and 2014. Rapid urbanization was driven by accessibility (by land, air, and water), the status of Dhaka as the country’s capital city, various key legislations, and population and economic growth. The simulated urban land use/cover changes indicated that built-up areas would increase to approximately 169.7 km² by 2030. The observed and simulated urban land use/cover changes provide a broad spatial overview, which can be used to understand current and future built-up expansion in Dhaka Metropolis. The results in this chapter can be used to gain useful insights, which can potentially address a number of key urban issues such as high population density, insufficient land for building, the increase in urban poor, traffic congestion, etc. Taking into consideration the current urban growth scenario, both the local and national government need to focus on the sustainable urban development of Dhaka Metropolis.