The Study of Urban Energy Balance and Water Balance in Bashundhara Residential Area, Dhaka

Abstract

Dhaka is a densely populated megacity. Many parts of this city are overcrowded. The city is now expanding on all sides, but on the eastern front, there are some major developments by public and private organizations. Bashundhara residential area is one of them which is being developed by the Bashundhara group on eastern the side of Dhaka city since the 1980s. There are some urban microclimatic challenges in this area, such as poor water drainage system, waterlogging, natural canals are blocked by the new development, no parks, playfield within the studied area, set back rule violation by landowners, little vegetation contributed to an imbalance in Energy and Water cycle. This study focused on the study of the current situation and possible development through altering and adding surface pavement, vegetation, and trees, reducing building footprint, enlarging water surface by remote sensing technology using qGIS software. Though there are some limitations of this study, the results show strong scope for the development of the existing microclimatic situation in Bashundhara residential area as well as knowledge from this exercise can be applied to other parts of Dhaka.