Md. Nazir Hossain

The objectives of this study are to explore the impacts of climatic variability on agriculture and to find out the viable options for adaptation to the changing climate. The primary data are collected through a questionnaire survey, key informant interviews and field observations in two agriculture-based villages of the Surma River basin. A household-level structured questionnaire survey was conducted on 260 households selected from 746 through simple random sampling. The study first explored the impacts of climatic variability on agriculture and fishery. Then, the existing adaptation measures undertaken by the farmer to combat the adverse impacts of climatic variability were identified. It was found that climatic variability adversely affects the crop production, crop diversity and cropping pattern in the study area. It hampers production rate, cultivation area, soil productivity and the mode of irrigation of an agricultural system of an area. Similarly, inauspicious climatic events also destroy the fishery and livestock sectors. In addition, the socioeconomic circumstances of farmers are also being influenced by climatic change. Hence, farmers are adopting feasible adaptation measures to cope with and adapt to the adverse and changing climatic events. The present study explored a number of indigenous and modern adaptation measures undertaken by the farmers.

People repeatedly confronted by natural catastrophe in almost every year such as drought and flood in the lower Teesta Basin area. After the construction of two barrages in Gozaldoba and Dalia on Teesta River drought and flood occurs almost every year. Intensity and frequency of these calamities are also increasing in an alarming rate, which caused serious damage to livelihoods and economy of this area. The objective of this paper is to find out the drought and flood induced vulnerability in the study area through Strength Weakness Opportunities Threat (SWOT) analysis. By this we can summarize the current state of a space and helping to devise a plan for the future, one that employs the existing strengths, redresses existing weaknesses, exploits opportunities and defends against threats. The study is conducted in Charkharibari village of Tepakharibari union of Dimla upazilla in Nilphamary district and Jigabari village of Tepamadhupur union of Kaunia upazilla in Rangpur district, tak...

The objectives of this paper are to examine the factors influencing the human vulnerability to cyclones and storm surges experiencing from the impacts of Cyclone Aila, which made landfall in Bangladesh coast on May 25, 2009. Relevant data are collected from two cyclone prone coastal villages of south-western Bangladesh, through structured questionnaire survey, key informant interviews and field observations. The questionnaire survey was conducted on 292 out of 1086 households through simple random sampling procedure, and study villages are selected purposively considering the severity of impacts of Cyclone Aila. Both descriptive and inferential statistics are used to examine the factors responsible for human vulnerability to cyclones and storm surges. The present study finds that physical, socio-economic and disaster management factors have significant role to determine the household level human vulnerability to the disaster induced by cyclones and storm surges. The households havin...

The north-western part of Bangladesh especially the Barind region is considered as a drought-prone area. The objective of this paper is to find out the adaptation measures practised by farmers to cope with climate change and agricultural drought in two droughtprone villages of the north-western Bangladesh. The primary data for this study were collected from a structured questionnaire survey conducted on 130 households selected from 192 through simple random sampling. The present study finds that agriculture of this area is recurrently disrupted by frequent drought events. Moreover, the climate change will increase both frequency and magnitude of extreme drought events in this region. This paper identifies that the impacts of drought on agriculture are difficulties in irrigation, disruption in cropping pattern, depletion of ground water table, problem in fish cultivation and so on. On the other hand, analyses unveil that respondents practised a range of adjustment strategies to combat adverse impacts of drought such as adoptions of droughttolerant crop varieties, rainwater harvesting, mango and jujube intercropping with rice, kitchen gardening, weed control and reducing water loss, constructing water control structures, irrigation and cultivation of fast-growing fish species. Therefore, the present study recommends proper drought early warning system, reserving surface water, managing supplemental irrigation, tree plantation, re-excavation of canals and traditional ponds, credit support to the farmers, preparedness and awareness rising to ensure the future sustainable agricultural development in the study areas.

Abstract: The objective of this paper is to explore people’s perception about flood disaster management and mitigation measures undertaken by the Government and non-government organisations in the Chalan Beel area of Bangladesh on the basis of questionnaire survey over 181 households considering the pre, during and post flood activities. The present study finds that, the Government has given more attention on structural flood management measures in the study area, whereas non-structural and long-term sustainable flood management strategies have received a little attention. Most of the respondents found the warning system not effective (30.2%), while 43% thought it as rarely effective a system with high dissatisfaction (32.6%) and dissatisfaction (40.9%). The Government’s relief, rescue and rehabilitation operations are insufficient considering people’s needs. Most of the respondents (63.5%) mentioned that they had not received search and rescue operation in their locality, about one-fourth of respondents (23.2%) are highly dissatisfied, 40.3% are dissatisfied, and 24.9% are moderately satisfied on relief assistances. A large portion of the respondents (76.8%) mentioned that they did not receive any help or financial assistance to rebuild their livelihood. More than half of the respondents (50.3%) are dissatisfied, one quarter of the respondents are highly dissatisfied, only 10.5% are satisfied with the livelihood rehabilitation undertaken by Government and NGOs. About 62.4% of respondents find that the flood management activities undertaken by Government are not effective because of improper implementation, corruption and inefficiency. On the other hand, about two-third of the respondents (67.4%) are dissatisfied, 22.1% are highly dissatisfied on the role of Government organisations in flood disaster management activities. Therefore, the present study suggests that it is important to develop people’s awareness and suitable coping strategies which may be employed to enhance long-term resiliency of people of the flood prone areas of Bangladesh. Key Words: Flood, disaster, flood management, mitigation.

The major objective of this paper is to identify the vulnerability factors and examine the effectiveness of disaster mitigation measures undertaken by individuals, government and non-government organisations to mitigate the impacts of cyclones in the Bangladesh coast experiencing from Cyclone Aila. The primary data were collected from two villages of southwestern coastal areas of Bangladesh using questionnaire survey and interviews of the key informants. The data were analysed using the descriptive and inferential statistics. This paper reveals that the disaster management measures have a significant role to lessen the impacts of the cyclonic event, especially in pre-disaster preparedness, cyclone warning message dissemination, evacuation and post-disaster rehabilitation. The households, who have access to shelter, find weather forecast regularly and adopted pre-disaster awareness measures are relatively less susceptible to hazard’s impacts. The disaster management measures undertaken by individuals and GOs and NGOs help coastal people to save their lives and property from the negative impacts of cyclones. The analysis shows that the NGOs’ role is more effective and efficient than the GOs in cyclone disaster management. This paper identifies distance to shelter, participation in disaster training, efficient warning, etc. as the influential factors of vulnerability cyclones. The analysis finds the households as less affected who have adopted disaster preparedness measures. However, this paper concludes that the effective and proper disaster management and mitigation measures are very crucial to shield the lives and properties of the Bangladeshi coastal people.

This study was undertaken to explore the impacts of Monga, people's perception about government and non-government Monga mitigation activities and assessing victim's needs during Monga in two Monga-prone villages of northern Bangladesh. The present study finds that Monga has various impacts on people's socioeconomic conditions that results in starvation, poor calorie intake, malnutrition, social negligence, forced migration, and loss of assets, crops and livestock, etc. All such impacts depend not only on the duration of Monga but also the severity together with poor socioeconomic condition and lack of preparedness. The present study also finds that the most vulnerable groups in the Monga-prone areas are agricultural wage labourers, landless and marginal farmers, female-headed households, children, pregnant women and aged people. The government's relief, rehabilitation and employment generation activities are insufficient considering victim's needs during Monga p...

The objective of the present study is to simulate the physical and socioeconomic factors of human vulnerability to tropical cyclones and storm surges at the household level in existing and changing status of households. The primary data were collected from a cyclone prone coastal area in Bangladesh, through structured questionnaire and GPS survey, key informants interviews and field observations. In order to simulate the physical and socioeconomic factors geographical information systems based Structured Query Language (SQL) query has been used. The study simulated the physical and socioeconomic factors of human vulnerability to tropical cyclones and storm surges on the basis of collected data through pre-designed SQL query. The study found the number of most vulnerable households under existing conditions and how much it will be afterward of a favourable or adverse change of the factors of vulnerability associated with households. The major findings of the study unveil that the socioeconomic and physical factors of human vulnerability have important function to determine the household’s level of vulnerability to the cyclone induced disaster. It has been demonstrated that the degree of vulnerability of households is changed with its physical and socioeconomic status. This study provides a conceptual model for assessing and simulating vulnerability to other natural hazards like floods, droughts, riverbank erosions and so forth. This study highlights that the households’ intrinsic vulnerable conditions are responsible for its defencelessness to the hazards and the reduction of vulnerability is the first measure of integrated and sustainable disaster management in the coastal Bangladesh.

The north-western part of Bangladesh especially the Barind region is considered
as a drought-prone area. The objective of this paper is to find out the adaptation measures
practised by farmers to cope with climate change and agricultural drought in two droughtprone
villages of the north-western Bangladesh. The primary data for this study were
collected from a structured questionnaire survey conducted on 130 households selected
from 192 through simple random sampling. The present study finds that agriculture of this
area is recurrently disrupted by frequent drought events. Moreover, the climate change will
increase both frequency and magnitude of extreme drought events in this region. This
paper identifies that the impacts of drought on agriculture are difficulties in irrigation,
disruption in cropping pattern, depletion of ground water table, problem in fish cultivation
and so on. On the other hand, analyses unveil that respondents practised a range of
adjustment strategies to combat adverse impacts of drought such as adoptions of droughttolerant
crop varieties, rainwater harvesting, mango and jujube intercropping with rice,
kitchen gardening, weed control and reducing water loss, constructing water control
structures, irrigation and cultivation of fast-growing fish species. Therefore, the present
study recommends proper drought early warning system, reserving surface water,
managing supplemental irrigation, tree plantation, re-excavation of canals and traditional
ponds, credit support to the farmers, preparedness and awareness rising to ensure the future
sustainable agricultural development in the study areas.