Escribe una PREreview

The north-eastern hilly region of Bangladesh is characterized by subtropical evergreen hilly forests, haors, tea estates, and nationally designated protected areas, and is undergoing rapid land-use transformation. This study analyzes spatiotemporal changes in land use and land cover (LULC) in Moulvibazar and Habiganj districts of Bangladesh over three decades (1994-2024) using Landsat imagery and supervised Maximum Likelihood Classification in QGIS and predicts future LULC for 2054 using the Cellular Automata-Artificial Neural Network (CA-ANN) model in the MOLUSCE (Modules for Land Use Change Evaluation) plugin. Five major land cover classes were examined: croplands, water bodies, forests, tea gardens, and settlements. Croplands declined substantially from 379,716.66 ha (72.07%) in 1994 to 303,873.97 ha (57.68%) in 2024, a net loss of 14.40%. Tea gardens nearly doubled, expanding from 28,523.84 ha (5.41%) in 1994 to 69,600.19 ha (13.21%) in 2024. Forests initially declined by 1.33% between 1994 and 2004; however, then subsequently recovered, with a net gain of 4.46% by 2024. Settlement areas expanded from 17,103.54 ha (3.25%) to 26,795.58 ha (5.09%), indicating ongoing urbanization. NDVI indicates improved vegetation health, while the NDWI indicates surface water fluctuation. The projections indicate continued tea garden and settlement expansion alongside further cropland and forest cover decline, emphasizing the need for sustainable cropland management and long-term forest management to ensure ecological sustainability in this region.