Flooding and Salinity

Soil Salinity

The map to the left highlights the critical issue of soil salinity during the Dry Season (April 2023) in the Jessore, Satkhira, Khulna, and Bagerhat districts of Southwest Bangladesh. The distribution of soil salinity is defined as the concentration of salt in the soil water, and is expressed as deciSiemens per meter (dS/m).

Areas of lowest soil salinity are shown in blue, and the highest soil salinity areas are shown in red. Maps like these can help decision makers understand where to focus resources to mitigate the effects of soil salinity on agriculture and ecosystems.

This map was produced by the MIT Eltahir Research Group. The data used to generate this map was collected by the Soil Resource Development Institute (SRDI).

Groundwater Salinity

Groundwater salinity poses significant threats to drinking water security and human health, crop irrigation, industrial use, and sensitive ecosystems.

Groundwater salinity is described as the concentration of dissolved salts in groundwater. We measure its electric conductivity (expressed in microSiemens per centimeter, µS/cm) in aquifers deeper than 150m, and model how these likely levels could exceed safe thresholds. The safe threshold for drinking water is 1500 µS/cm.

The map to the left shows a modeled output which highlights areas with significant probability that deep aquifer salinity will exceed safe thresholds during the April dry season in 2021 in Southwest Bangladesh

This map was produced by the MIT Eltahir Research Group. The data used to generate this map map was collected by the Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB).