ANALYSIS OF RURAL SETTLEMNTS EXPANSION PATTERN: A Case Study of Sachibunia Village Under Batiaghata Upazila in Khulna District

Usually, settlements grow with the increase of population. The word ‘settlements’ denotes a village where a group of people have come to live and make their homes, usually where few or no people lived before. It is conspicuous that settlements are not only the built-up part made by man but all the space–natural or man-made, used by man. Expansion of rural settlement means human behaviours that are created as a physical environment in an area. The physical environment can be treated as settlement form and pattern or chronological area coverage. Bangladesh, with an agrarian socio-economic base, is dominated by a rural settlement structure. About 76.61% populations live in rural Bangladesh. Land pressures and land-use conflicts are seen in rural Bangladesh. Because Horizontal expansion is very common than vertical expansion. Land resource is limited. The Land-man ratio is only 26 decimal in Bangladesh. Expansion of the rural settlements make more pressure on agriculture and the agricultural land is decreasing. The settlements expansion guidelines are necessary for the optimum utilisation of limited land resources in rural areas of Bangladesh. In Sachibunia village the settlement has been expanding rapidly for the last fifteen years. Here the settlement area is increasing rapidly due to some responsible factors. The present study has analysed the responsible factors of settlement expansion under the following categories: a) Demographic, b) Physical, c) Economic, d) Socio-political and e) Environmental. The development of Rupsha bypass road plays a great impact on the expansion of settlement. The establishment of Khulna University and other institutions lead the growing trend of Khulna city towards southwest direction have also some influence on the expansion of settlement in Sachibunia village. Rapid settlements expansion make more pressure on agricultural land. So it is necessary to manage the expansion of settlements in a planned way.A part of this work has been published in: https://www.amazon.com/RURAL-SETTLEMNTS-EXPANSION-PATTERN-BANGLADESH/dp/3639163559 Publisher: VDM Verlag (2010)ISBN: ISBN 10: 3639163559 / ISBN 13: 9783639163551 Edition: 201