DETECTING THE CAUSES OF WATER LOGGING PROBLEM IN DHAKA CITY BY APPLYING CONTINGENT VALUATION METHOD AND REMOTE SENSING TECHNIQUE

Although flood is a very common natural disaster in Bangladesh, recently Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh got flooded even in moderate rainfall. Accordingly, on January 2002 the sale and use of polythene bags were banned, by identifying it as one of the main causes for such flooding. Now the question arises, whether only polythene shopping bags are alone responsible for causing water logging problem. Accordingly, the objective of this study is to detect the reason(s) for the recent prolonged water logging problem in Dhaka City, even by small amount of rainfall. Both contingent valuation method and remote sensing technique were used for comparison of the results. The results of the study indicated that, not only polythene bags, but also unplanned land filling is also liable for creating water logging problem in Dhaka City. Finally, the study suggested that, the value of wetlands lost, which is directly related to the recent water logging problem, is more higher than what actually thought by the citizens of Dhaka City.