Spatial assessment of climate stressors driving migration in coastal Bangladesh using AHP and GIS

The tendency of climate migration is an important factor at the present time worldwide. The main objective of this study is to investigate and prioritize the main causes of climate migration of Khulna District, Bangladesh utilizing the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and to generate a geographical hotspot map using Geographic Information System (GIS) that categorizes different possible migration destinations of the climate migrants. The study analyzed eight important contributing factors of migration. Data was derived from various sources, including publicly available maps, USGS elevation data, and Sentinel-2 visual images. Result from the study found that, storm exposure and impact was the most important migration factor bearing weight of 0.231, while the lowest factor slope was 0.046. Final migration hotspot map generated from GIS reveals four migration probability zones: low, moderate, high, and very high. By spatially linking environmental stress exposure with migration vulnerability, this study contributes to geopsychiatry by illustrating how geographic climate stressors shape displacement risk and psychosocial stress landscapes, supporting climate sensitive adaptation and policy planning.