The project area has fallen in one Agro-ecological zone, namely: Sylhet Basin (AEZ-21). Noncalcareous grey floodplain soil (non-saline) is the dominant soil. The top soil texture are clay and loam; where clay texture is dominant. The soils are slow permeable and have a medium moisture holding capacity. The land type characteristics are not uniform within the project area. About 87% of cultivable areas are low to very low land where minimum flooding depth is above 1.8 meter during the monsoon period. The recession of surface water from most of the agriculture land starts at middle of December and become free of flood water in late January.

Two indicators (Land use and Sand carpeting area) have been selected for assessing the impact on land resources due to structural interventions in Haor ecosystem. The land use and sand carpeting information under pre-project and existing situations were identified through analysis of the available archived satellite images of CEGIS and it was verified through Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and Key Informant Interview (KII).

Though the project has been completed during 1974-1978, assessment of land use change has been performed on the basis of available LandSAT image of 1989 and 2015 keeping in consideration that land use of 1989 represents the equivalent land use of earlier of project implementation.