earticle

영어

Coastal plantation is one of the key natural defence against the tidal surge induced tropical cyclones. In Bangladesh, a total of 81 km long coastal belt was established from Potenga to Muhuri in Chittagong. This study explores the wind protection efficiency of the coastal plantations at 28 observation points along the 81 km long Potenga–Muhuri irrigation project of Chittagong coastal belt. We found that wind protection efficiency was lowest (1.40% and 7.00%) at 1st observation point of outside the embankment (OE) and inside of the embankment (IE) than Sea Shore (SS), respectively. On the other hand, the highest (82.89% and 95.72%) wind protection efficiency was observed at 22th observation for Outside of the Embankment (OE) and Inside of the Embankment (IE) than Sea Shore (SS), respectively. This study also highlighted on species specific wind protection efficiency. The result revealed that 6-year old Casuarina, 6-year old mixed plantation and 10-year old Sonneretia apetala with the width of 20.12 m, 30.48 m, and 15.24 m can reduce wind speed up to 30 H, 30 H and 25 H at windward side, respectively. Analysis also showed that percentage of wind reduction was significantly higher at plantation coast than barren, and ship breaking yard coast. The findings of this study have great potentiality to contribute substantially to take more coastal embankment afforestation programs by the Government of Bangladesh and to choose the more wind resistant plant species throughout the coastal areas of the country.