History Behind Rohingya Influx in Bangladesh and Application of Remote Sensing in Monitoring Land Use Change in Refugee Driven Area By Shakin Rahman Submitted in partial fulfilment of the degree of Masters of Sustainability School of life and Environmental Sciences Deakin University June, 2020 DEAKIN UNIVERSITY CANDIDATE DECLARATION I certify the following about the thesis entitled “History Behind Rohingya Influx in Bangladesh and Application of Remote Sensing in Monitoring Land Use Change in Refugee Driven Area” submitted for the degree of Master of Sustainability a. I am the creator of all or part of the whole work(s) (including content and layout) and that where reference is made to the work of others, due acknowledgment is given. b. The work(s) are not in any way a violation or infringement of any copyright, trademark, patent, or other rights whatsoever of any person. c. That if the work(s) have been commissioned, sponsored or supported by any organisation, I have fulfilled all of the obligations required by such contract or agreement. d. That any material in the thesis which has been accepted for a degree or diploma by any university or institution is identified in the text. e. All research integrity requirements have been complied with. Deakin University CRICOS Provider Code 00113B Acknowledgement All praise belongs to Allah (SWT). Lots of people around me deserve the acknowledgement in this journey. First of all, I am expressing my love and respect to my parents. No words are sufficient to express their contribution in my life. I am remembering my brother Shakib Rahman in this regard. He knows the most things of my Australia chapter. Moreover, one person whose presence plays most significant role in coming to Australia is my sister Khadiza Akther and without her support it would be truly difficult for me to be here. May Allah give her a peaceful life ahead. I am sincerely expressing my gratitude to my supervisor Dr Robert Faggian who has been so supportive from the very first meeting. I also acknowledge Dr Jim Rookes who is the unit chair of this course for his continuous help and response whenever I felt the need. They are one of the supportive supervisors I have ever met. I am expressing my love, respect and gratitude to Shah Mahbub Razi and Sadman Ferdous. The way they have supported us and still doing for instance I can say Alhamdulillah and I must say the way they have shown unconditional love and caring towards us, after our parents no one could do so. May Allah keep them happy with Iram & Meghdut. Two more persons I want show respect are Md Ahsan Ul Bari and Nusrat Jahan Mou for their continuous love and support. They are one of the pure souls I have met in Australia. May Allah keep them happy. I want to thank Ashik Rahman, my friend who is currently living in USA and doing masters. The way he helped and supported me in my research work Subhan Allah. Actually, the word thanks is not enough for him. In the future if he needs me I will be happy to do anything for him. May Allah keep him happy and give him a dindar wife. Last but not the least I am expressing my love for my country, my all relatives, friends, and Khulna University who are and will always be a part of my short life. Coming to the end, I am conveying my good wishes to every person in this world. Australia chapter will be remembered. Shakin Rahman Abstract Approximately one million Rohingya refugees are given shelter on the land of Bangladesh since they fled away from Myanmar on 25th August 2017 in order to save their lives from being persecuted by their government. These large number of stateless persons are currently living in refugee camps of Ukhia and Teknaf upazila Bangladesh which has made it worlds one of the largest refugee camps. Remote sensing technique is widely used for monitoring the land use in many parts of the refugee settlements and this study finds that their presence on the host country has created a huge negative impact on their land use. Using the images from Landsat 8 satellite for different three years and conducting supervised classification has shown the decrease of forest land and increasement of settlement area in the study area. Forest land decreased by 11,609.36 square meter in 2018 and camp settlement increased by 6648.83 square meter in 2018. Moreover, analyzing NDVI in the study shows the subsidence of vegetation level on the refugee driven area as well. However, image analysis of 2020 says about the development of forest land and vegetation and secondary data clarifies the result due to policies adopted by the government and aid agencies. Eventually it depends on the diplomacy between two countries Bangladesh and Myanmar how this large refuge population can be sent back to their normal life. Keywords: Rohingya refugees, remote sensing, land use change, vegetation, NDVI. Table of content Chapter 1: Introduction………………………………………………………………………………….1 1.1 Background……………………………………………………………………………………………….2 1.2 Statement of problem………………………………………………………………………………..5 1.3 Objective of the study………………………………………………………………………………..6 1.4 Expected Outcome……………………………………………………………………………………..7 Chapter 2: Study Area………………………………………………………………………………………8 Chapter 3: Literature Review……………………………………………………………………………11 3. Definitions of relevant terms and concepts…………………………………………………11 3.1 Who are the refugees? ………………………………………………………………………………11 3.2 Difference between Refugees and Migrants……………………………………………………………………………………………………………12 3.3 Host Community………………………………………………………………………………………….13 3.4 History of Rohingya community………………………………………………………………….14 3.5 Origin of confliction between Buddhist and Muslims……………………………………………………………………………………………………………16 3.6 Rohingya community…………………………………………………………………………………18 3.7 Martial Coup in Burma………………………………………………………………………………19 3.8 Beginning of discrimination against Rohingya………………………………………………………………………………………………………….20 3.9 Second Massacre on Rohingya………………………………………………………………….21 3.10 What is international human security? ……………………………………………………22 3.11 Persecution against Rohingya from 2000-present time………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..23 3.11.1 Economic discrimination……………………………………………………………………………23 3.11.2 Food discrimination………………………………………………………………………………….24 3.11.3 Health discrimination……………………………………………………………………………..24 3.12 Genocide on Rohingya in Myanmar……………………………………………………………26 3.13 Fleeing to Bangladesh………………………………………………………………………………30 3.14 Vegetation change observation using Remote sensing………………………………..31 3.15 Application of remote sensing in environmental studies………………………………..31 3.16 Application of remote sensing in assessing refugee shelters areas…………………32 3.17 Assessing Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) ………………………………36 Chapter 4: Research Methodology………………………………………………………………………………..39 4.1 Research Plan…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….40 4.2 Design of the humanitarian operation……………………………………………………………..41 4.3 Satellite image downloading…………………………………………………………………………….41 4.4 Image processing……………………………………………………………………………………………43 4.5 Area calculation…………………………………………………………………………………..…………44 4.6 Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) processing………………………………..44 Chapter 5: Research Findings and Discussion………………………………………………………..46 5.1 Population distribution……………………………………………………………………………..46 5.2 Refugee number according to age………………………………………………………..47 5.3 Land use pattern of 2016…………………………………………………………………….48 5.4 Land use pattern of 2018…………………………………………………………………….49 5.4.1 Area Calculation of 2018…………………………………………………………………….50 5.5 Land Use pattern of 2020…………………………………………………………………….50 5.5.1 Area Calculation for the year 2020……………………………………………………51 5.6 Area comparison for the year 2016, 2018 and 2020………………………………53 5.7 Difference in NDVI map between 2016 and 2018……………………………………54 5.8 Difference in NDVI map of 2018 and 2020…………………………………………………54 Chapter 6: Conclusion…………………………………………………………………….55 References…………………………………………………………………….57 List of tables: Table 1: Commonly used satellite images and their resolutions……………………………….34 Table 2: Landsat 8 Bands information…………………………………………………………………. 42 Table 3: Acquired images details for the study area………………………………………………43 Table 4: Area Calculation of the study area for 2016………………………………………………48 Table 5: Area Calculation of the study area for 2018………………………………………………50 Table 6: Area Calculation of the study area for 2020………………………………………………52 Table 7: Change in selected classes………………………………………………………………53 List of Figures: Figure 1: Map of Cox’s Bazar District……………………………………………………………..9 Figure 2: Research Design of the study………………………………………………………39 Figure 3: Humanitarian Operational Design…………………………………………………41 Figure 4: Age wise number of Rohingya refugees…………………………………………47 Figure 5: Land Use Map of 2016……………………………………………………………48 Figure 6: Land Use Map of 2018…………………………………………………………….49 Figure 7: Land Use map of 2020…………………………………………………………….51 Figure 8: Difference in NDVI maps of 2016 and 2018……………………………………52 Figure 9: Difference in NDVI maps of 2018 and 2020……………………………………………54 List of Abbreviations AOI Area of Interest DEM Digital Elevation Model FAO Food and Agricultural Organization of UN OLI Operational Land Imager IOM International Organization of Migration IUCN International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources ISCG Inter Sector Coordination Group IDP Internally Displaced Person NGO Non-Governmental Organization NIR Near Infrared band NDVI Normalized Difference Vegetation Index PCA Principal Component Analysis TIRS Thermal Infrared Sensor UN United Nations UNHCR United