Coastal river deltas are vulnerable to flooding from rivers and rising seas, strengthening storms, and degradation of biodiverse ecosystems. Deltas are particularly sensitive to the balance between sea-level rise, increasing tides, land subsidence, and sedimentation that determine how the surface elevation will change. Bangladesh has been highlighted as an area at risk. We have determined land subsidence, elevation change and sedimentation rates from a suite of different surface and satellite methods in coastal Bangladesh. We found that the rates varied across each type of measurement, such that each type of measurement is like the fable of the blind men examining an elephant where each system measures only part of the story. Modeling the ensemble, we can assign the spatial differences to sediment type, soil and biologic effects, and the thickness of young sediments. Thus, rice fields and mangrove forests sink faster than buildings and structures with deep foundations, but natural areas are maintaining elevation, in contrast to human modified regions.