Dhaka City

Osman living in a rooftop room dreams of his father’s death but finds himself in a distorted fact no less horrible. All he witnesses sometime seem hallucination sometime real. It’s a time when receiving news of someone’s being shot dead appear normal to Osman. The environs reflect situation of mass suffocation pressed under hideous images of late sixties Bangladesh, the then East Pakistan. Osman’s personal life reveals as abnormal, so does the public life. Even lamenting upon a dear one’s odd death is as if restricted. “It’s risky to answer” of any normal query! The first chapter of Elias’ Rooftop Soldier engulfs the readers with inner happenings of atypical socio-political state of pre-liberation Bengali life depicted with the unique language and style. The following translated piece from one of the best classic fiction of Bangla literature will surely be an astounding experience for world’s literature lovers.

Historically, the Government of Bangladesh has faced serious challenges in urban sanitation while
public policy continuously bypasses questions related to the overall condition of the urban slums and
their complex and filthy neighbourhood environment. Considering the diverse local settings of the
urban slums, this paper attempts to explore the varied dynamics of ‘social-technologicalgovernance’
(STG) systems from different categories of government (GO) and non-governmental
organisation-managed slums where sanitation projects have been implemented. The analysis of STG
systems not only uncovers different factors that affect sanitation projects but also offers a guideline
that could address the overwhelming slum sanitation agenda in the context of metropolitan cities.
The paper adopts a qualitative stance to explore the STG system and compare dynamics across the
study areas. As is widely understood, local contextual issues are important in implementing
sanitation projects and first-hand qualitative information has therefore been gathered and analysed
to make sense of on-the-ground realities.

Summary :

The City of Dhaka occupies a unique geological location in terms of the geological set up and ground condition. Geologically the city landmass is a part of an old terrace that is raised considerably up than the surrounding floodplains. The general elevation in the axial part of the city reaches up to about 6 to 7m above mean sea level (AMSL) whereas the surrounding floodplains are at about 4m AMSL.  The ground of the terrace is composed of Madhupur Clay (Pleistocene), consisting of very stiff to hard, reddish brown, highly ferruginous, plastic Clay-Silt with some minor contents of fine quartz-sand and iron concretions. The shear strength properties are considerably high and the average value of un-drained shear strength is ≈ 2 kg/cm2. The settlement characteristics indicate that the red clay to be an over-consolidated stratum. The geological history indicates that due long run erosion about 20m of materials have been removed from the top of the city ground. This indicates that an amount of ≈ 1 kg/cm2 of vertical stress has removed from the top of the existing ground surface. At present the average thickness of Madhupur Clay in the main urban area is about 7 meters.  The upper clay-silt stratum overlies a firm sand bed, geologically known as Dupitila Formation (Upper Tertiary). The geological and geotechnical properties of Dupitila  Sand (Upper Dupitila  Sandstone) tends to behave as soft rock. This soft sedimentary rock acts as  dense bedrock to hold most of the pile tips of all deep foundation which is uniformly distributed throughout the axial part of the city.

In terms of hydro-geological environment the Madhupur Clay Formation acts a wonderful cap over the Dhaka terrain. The top material is low in permeability and no ground water recharge occurs in the city area at ambient condition. The surface materials and natural topography with unique natural drainage system the flash-flood water has excellent run-off characteristics. The permanent and confined ground water level is located below 70m from the surface. The existing geo-hydrological environment provides better options for underground excavation. 

The existence of Madhupur Clay and Dupitila Sand below the urban feet turns the ground condition of Dhaka city to the best comparing the ground condition of many other cities of the world. Though Bangladesh is located at edge of most seismically active global zone, in terms of the ground condition the apparent seismic hazard* is relatively low in Dhaka city than most of other parts of the country (expected maximum Peak Ground Acceleration is 0.5g). A correlation on Shear Wave Velocity (Vs) of the geological materials underneath Dhaka city indicates that the value of Vs would be > 350 m/sec. Considering the geological and geotechnical aspects, the city of Dhaka has advantageous ground condition for construction of underground engineering structures including underground rapid transportation system.

The novel Chilekothar Sepai (1987), written by Akhtaruzzaman Elias is a noteworthy literary piece in Bangla language based on pre-liberation political history of Bangladesh, that is, the context of mass revolt in 1969. Crossing the boundary of Bangladesh and West Bengal, the novel has been included in the academic curriculum of Bangla Language and Literature under the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations in the University of Chicago in America. Matthew D. Rich, a PhD researcher of Anthropology in the same university analyzed the Text of this novel for American students and consequently became felt strong urge of translating this great piece. His translation work is in fact going on. His translation of 20th Chapter of Chilekothar Sepai (Rooftop Soldier) along with the Preamble of this translation work in both Bangla and English has been randomly chosen for publishing here.

Seasonal crime patterns have been a topic of criminological research for more than a century with results often conflicting. This descriptive qualitative study examines the nature of property crimes in Dhaka city and whether crime patterns fluctuate periodically throughout the seasons in between 2013 to 2016 using specific property crime data of Dhaka metropolitan area by following content analysis. This study found winter season is more likely to peak in property crime (26.54%). Among the property crimes dacoity peaks at monsoon (31.13% of total dacoity), robbery peaks at summer (26.62%) and vehicle theft touches the top (27.13%) at winter season. This result data has resemblance with many of researches before those worked with spatial-temporal relationships.

“Knowledge: The Collective Writings of Obaidur Rahman” is an anthology of the published writings of Bangladeshi author Obaidur Rahman. These selected essays, which cover various popular themes and diverse scholarly subject-matters, were published in various national and international publications. The 222 articles of this book talk about topics from politics to physics, arts to astronomy, Environment to Extra-Terrestrials, Psychology to Paranormal, History to Health, and Satire to Strategic Issues…and MUCH, MUCH MORE.

Slums living people are very poor and their socioeconomic condition does not allow them to live a healthy life. They do not have access to sanitation and they cannot get safe water supply. They have to live in adverse conditions due to poor social, economic and health facilities. The main purpose of this study was to find out socioeconomic condition of slum dwellers of Dhaka city, the capital of Bangladesh, a South Asian country. Data was collected from 315 respondents by survey research method where respondents were selected by statistical simple random sampling method. There were found that people living in slums had sad tales in living conditions. Owing to bad hygienic condition and health statuses of households were also not in satisfactory level. The morbidity rate was very high among the studied population and it was concluded that people living with low socioeconomic conditions were to face different health and hygiene problems.

The Eastern fringe of Dhaka city is a low lying area along the bank of Balu River. According to DMDP, 32% of the total population of Dhaka city will be living there by 2020. This area is now facing scattered private housing development projects and rapid urbanization. So this paper aims at preparing a conceptual planning proposal for a planned sustainable urban environment. Objective of this study is planning a sustainable city environment for eastern fringe for projected population (2.6 million) of 2020 and conservation of retention pond areas. Before preparing the plan various town development plans were studied (Delhi Master Plan 2021, Navi Mumbai plan, Putrajaya town development plan etc). Then population for the year 2020 in the study area is projected. Afterwards land use distribution, road network design, zoning, detailed neighborhood design for different income groups etc is done.  The study area is divided into four zones. A transit based transportation network is planned. Residential land use is the major land use in the study area. This site is planned as a poly-centric urban form with hierarchy of CBDs, adapted from Delhi Master Plan 2021. 15% area is conserved for retention ponds. A regional scale hospital, university, light industrial zone and waste treatment plant is planned. Agricultural lands and land for future expansion is also planned. Thus all the planning processes are applied to design a sustainable urban environment.

Bengali Abstract: এই বইটিতে ঢাকা শহরের অতীত, বর্তমান এবং ভবিষ্যৎ পর্যালোচনামূলক পঞ্চান্নটি প্রবন্ধ উপস্থাপন করা হয়েছে। ১৯৮৯ সালের ৭ থেকে ১৩ নভেম্বর বাংলাদেশ জাতীয় জাদুঘরে অনুষ্ঠিত এক সপ্তাহব্যাপী সিম্পোসিয়ামে এই প্রবন্ধগুলো উপস্থাপন করা হয়। বাংলাদেশের স্বনামধন্য শিক্ষক, গবেষক, লেখক এবং শিল্পীরা তাদের লিখিত এই প্রবন্ধগুলো উপস্থাপন করেন। পরবর্তীতে ২০০৩ সালে বাংলাদেশ জাতীয় জাদুঘরের মহাপরিচালক (২০০২-২০০৪) প্রফেসর ডঃ ইফতিখার-উল-আউয়াল এর সম্পাদনায় প্রবন্ধগুলো একত্রিত করে বই আকারে প্রকাশ করা হয়।

English Abstract: The book consists of 55 essays that eruditely analyses the past, present and future of Dhaka city. These essays were presented on a symposium that took place from 7th November to 13th November, 1989 at the Bangladesh National Museum. The essays were written and presented by renowned academics, researchers, authors and artists from Bangladesh. Professor Dr. Iftikhar-ul-Awwal, who was the Director General (2002-2004) of Bangladesh National Museum, edited these scholarly essays to bring it under one cover in 2003.

Note: The book is written in Bengali.

In modern urban areas, housing delivery has become a huge industry. Professionals are largely involved in design, management, construction, and maintenance stages. However, in many parts of urban areas in the world, owners still exercise considerable control over these stages. This is more applicable in self-built houses, especially in developing countries, where housing supply by public and private developers lag substantially than the demand. In self-built houses, owners who generally belong to low or low-medium income groups, manage their own time and resources, and exercise their own skill in all of these stages. Many studies have highlighted this as a natural phenomenon. However, in current changing dense
urban situations, professional help might be a key to build up a healthy urban development. Considering the design stage, a twofold question can be asked; whether the owners are ready for professional help, or the professionals are ready to help them. Focusing on the first perspective, with the help of a combination of 5-point Likert-scale questionnaire survey and open-ended interviews with owners in self-built houses in Dhaka, the study tries to answer that. It finds that there still exists significant communication gap between the two parties when it comes to making a decision to hire professional architects.

Public space is an essential social infrastructure for the continuous negotiation of city life and democracy because it offers (ideally) an interactive platform for people from diverse social and cultural backgrounds and the forms of public life they cherish. This contribution inquires how public space’s design and materiality play a fundamental role in popular struggles for social justice. By focusing on the differentiated access of women to public space, the role of gender in its design, and appropriation through a feminist intersectionality lens, this article aims to understand better the complex interplay between urban space and its non‐human material agency vis‐à‐vis citizen mobilizations, movements, and socially engaged art interventions. Drawing from extensive participant observation and spatial analysis, the exemplary public space of Shahbag Chattwar (a public square/plaza) will shed light on the “gendered spatiality” of pivotal popular mobilizations and reclamations from th...

A brief on the Armenians of Dhaka: Regardless of the absence of any definitive chronicle on the advent of the Armenians in Bengal, particularly to Dhaka, historians today unanimously agree that the Armenians started to arrive in Bengal, from the late 17th century onwards. It was the lure of trade and commerce which attracted them to come here during the Mughal, Nawabi and the colonial periods – Company and the British Raj. Towards the end of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb's reign, Job Charnok of the East India Company, the founder of Calcutta, is said to have enlisted the services of the hardy and industrious Armenians, then newly arrived migrants to Bengal.
The provenance of the early presence of Armenians in Dhaka is borne by the fact that there are two known existing old graves of Armenians dated between 1714 and 1795, within the premises of the historic Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Rosary at Tejgaon, built in 1677. The earliest Armenians in Dhaka settled in Tejgaon. There was once a small ruined wooden Armenian chapel in Armanitola over which the Armenian Apostolic Church of the Holy Resurrection, was built later in 1781. The site on which the Church stands today, was once part of an old cemetery. This property was owned by an Armenian called Agha Catachik Minassian (Minas), who donated the land for building of the church. The mortal remains of his wife Sophie, who died in Dhaka in 1764, lie interred inside the church.
The Armenians initially traded in rawhides, salt, spices, precious stones, saltpetre, calico and indigo. Later they prospered in the 19th century as the foremost pioneers of the lucrative jute industry in Dhaka and Narayanganj, setting up mechanised factories dealing in jute and cotton textiles, thereby, becoming manufactures and retailers, initiated steam navigation businesses, dealt in wholesale trading in essential commodities, were the first to establish and operate super-shops which sold  luxury European goods, and set up small shops including thrift stores, confectionaries and boarding houses (hotels). By the early 19th century quite a few had speculated wisely and invested capital in land, becoming wealthy zamindars (landholders), and notable philanthropists.
They once wielded great influence in Dhaka society, especially in the 19th and early 20th centuries as notable zamindars, merchants, financiers, philanthropists, institution builders (Pogose school and Dhaka Bank) and  as community leaders of the civil society in local politics (municipal bodies), art and culture (horse racing, club). In Dhaka, many of them lived in the Armenian quarters in Armanitola or elsewhere in Old Dhaka, in beautiful garden houses in Ramna, Fulbaria, Motijheel and in palatial mansions along the banks of the river Buriganga in Dhaka, as can be seen from the alluringly picturesque booklet, "Panorama of Dacca", 1840.
The Harneys are a notable Armenian family of 19th to mid-20th century Dhaka. My friend Macquir Harney, a successful hotelier in Dhaka, is a fourth generation direct descendant from his great-grandfather. This compelling story thus begins with the great-grandfather of Macquir, named William Harney (1830-1901), who was born in Belfast, Ireland, and came to Dhaka probably in the late 1840s. What actually impelled the young man to come to India (Bengal) is not clear, except to assume that he had travelled all the way to try his luck.

However, not long after his arrival in Dhaka, he volunteered and fought on behalf of the East India Company in the short-lived, abortive rebellion of the native sepoys of the Company at the historic Lalbagh fort in Dhaka in November 1857, following the failed Indian Rebellion of May 1857, in upper India starting in Meerut and ending with the fall of Mughal Delhi in September 1857. There is also a dearth of information on his life and times spent in Dhaka, besides that he married a lady named Heripsima (1843-1893) and raised a family. The older generation of the Harneys have all passed away. Sadly, they have not left behind any family chronicle. However, William along with his son Thomas William are credited for introducing the hackney-carriage – a four-wheel, horse-drawn covered carriage driven by a coachman (garwan) – to the streets of Dhaka, as an efficient mode of public transport. William died in Dhaka in 1901, and lies buried in the Armenian Churchyard along with his wife and eldest son. He and his wife had two sons: William Harney Jr (1863-1891) and Thomas William Harney (1872-1952), who was Macquir's grandfather.
Thomas William Harney seemed to have done well in life, and became wealthy enough to eventually acquire a sizeable zamindari estate in Dhaka and Bhola. He was liked by Nawab Sir Salimullah of Dhaka, for his social refinement. He charmed the Nawab with his fluency in Farsi and Urdu. Thomas built two large houses in old Dhaka. The first one still stands today in a dilapidated condition at Harney Street, Armanitola. The second house, also an old one, can be visited at 64, Sarat Chandra Chakravarti road, in Mahuthtolly. This house was once known locally as the "Saab Kuthi" (Saheb Bari).
Thomas had also built a garden-house in Padma Pukur, some 122 miles south-west of Dhaka. He established The Dacca Cotton Mills in Postagola, Old Dhaka, nearby the river Buriganga. The land of the factory was leased from a Hindu family.
The abolition of the zamindari in 1950 in East Bengal (Bangladesh), saw a steady decline in the fortunes of the Harneys. The zamindari estate in Bhola was lost and so was the property at Padma Pukur. After the Indo-Pak war of 1965, the Harneys' cotton mill at Postagola, which was originally leased from a Hindu family, was acquired by the then Pakistan government as enemy property, since the Hindu owner of the land suddenly decided to leave for India permanently. On their deaths, Charles and Irene were buried at the Narinda cemetery in Wari.
Over the years, almost all the Harneys have emigrated overseas, having left Dhaka and Chittagong for good. They now live in Kolkata, Australia, USA and Canada.

In the current flood and drought situation of Dhaka City, rainwater harvesting (RWH) may provide a sustainable solution, for city water management. Reports show, that residential land use occupies 36.47% of the city, and residences consume 88.59% of the total city water supply, which is severely constrained. Therefore, given the high amount of rain incident in the city annually, introducing RWH systems in residential plots of Dhaka city, might bring about noteworthy changes. According to Bangladesh Building Construction Rules 2008, Maximum Ground Coverage of the residential building can vary between 50% and 67%, depending on the plot sizes. For that reason, demand vs supply ratio and RWH potentials might vary, due to the sizes of the plots. This paper reports on an investigation, which studied the scope of RWH in different sized residential plots of the city. The paper reports on two of the case–studies selected for the above-mentioned study; one in the smallest sized plot allowable, and the other in a large-scale plot. For both the case studies, the RWH potential has been estimated, and demand vs supply scenario has been determined, to analyses for the best option for RWH. The research found that, for small scale plots, though rainwater storage might be the suitable option, for the large-scale plot, underground water table recharge seems the best option

Contemporary cities are a complex organism; it is a space of heterogeneous relationships competing claims. Dhaka-the ninth largest city in terms of population and the capital of Bangladesh is not only has a complex organism in terms of morphology but also has a unique phenomenon and pattern in its own life style and culture. Millions of individual pursuits constantly church together into a frenzy of collective activity – it is an urban melting pot bubbling over and like a city which is forever changing and never finished. Though it has a rational and institutional urban plan, but still temporal, informal and non-designer's design have a big role in its urban context. This paper tried to focus on this temporal, mobile and non designer's discourse –which can be termed as " Urban-Vernacular ". Till now this term is mostly overlooked by the planners theorists and urban designers but has a proclaimed appearance; seen and felt in the city of Dhaka.

পাবলিক বিশ্ববিদ্যালয় নিয়ে কথা বলার ক্ষেত্রে আমি আসলে কেমন ঢাকা বিশ্ববিদ্যালয় চাই তা নিয়ে একটু কথা বলতে চাই। এই প্রতিষ্ঠানটাকেই আমি যা হোক খানিকটা চিনি। ঢাকা বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ের সাথে আমার সম্পর্ক পঁচিশ বছর হলো এবার; ছাত্র ও শিক্ষক হিসাবে। ভাবতে আশ্চর্য লাগছে। 

পাবলিক বিশ্ববিদ্যালয় তথা ঢাকা বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ের এমন কতগুলো সমস্যা আছে যেগুলো বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ের একার পক্ষে সমাধান সম্ভব নয়। এগুলো রাষ্ট্রীয় পর্যায়ে ফয়সালার বিষয়। এগুলো সহসাই সমাধান হবে বলে মনে হয় না। যাতে কোনো অস্পষ্টতা না থাকে তাই আমি আরেকবার বলছি যে ম্যাক্রো লেভেলের সমস্যাগুলোর সমাধান আসতে হবে রাষ্ট্রের দিক থেকে।  এটা লম্বা সময়ের সংগ্রামের বিষয়। এই সংগ্রাম জারি থাকবে, নাকি এই সংগ্রাম আগামী কয়েক বছরের মধ্যে শেষ হয়ে যাবে তা জানিনা। এসব ব্যাপারে রাষ্ট্রকে শেষ পর্যন্ত কোন দিকে রাখা যাবে তা এখনো স্পষ্ট নয়। উদাহরণ হিসাবে শিক্ষার্থীদের বেতন বাড়িয়ে পাবলিক বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ের টাকা-পয়সা সমাধানের সবকের কথা বলতে পারি। আমরা দেখতে পাই যে এ ধরণের বড়-বড় সমস্যাগুলোর ব্যাপারে উপাচার্যবৃন্দ ও ইউজিসি চেয়ারম্যানেরা বিশ্বব্যাংকের মত করে কথা বলেন। তফাৎ শুধু এই যে বিশ্বব্যাংক ইংরেজিতে বলে; এঁরা বাংলায় বলেন! এটা বিশেষ কোন ভিসি বা ইউজিসি চেয়ারম্যানের ব্যাপার নয়। গোটা প্রক্রিয়াটাই এমনভাবে সেট হয়ে আছে যে এমন একটি পদে বসলে এমন করেই যেন কথা বলাটা নিয়ম।
কিন্তু আমি বলতে চাইছি যে এরপরেও যে কিছু কিছু বিষয় কিন্তু আমাদের হাতের নাগালের মধ্যে আছে যেগুলোর ব্যাপারে একটা চেষ্টা দেয়া যেতে পারে।

Shopping is an important and essential routine of urban life. Day by day the need for organized shopping centre is gaining importance in our society. The current trend in Dhaka is to accommodate various functions such as office, hotels, apartments etc. along with the shopping facilities within the same structure. These have increased the potential danger of fire hazard in these mixed uses, multi-storied and usually introvert building type. At present a lot of high-rise Shopping Centers have sprung up all over the city. Among them a big numbers of high-rise Shopping Centers have a doubtful facility to fight with fire. The present study intends to examine the deplorable conditions regarding fire safety and high risk environment that exists in the high-rise shopping centers of Dhaka city. This study is based on the literature review focusing on basic concept about fire. Some shopping centers have been taken as a sample for survey to enquiry whether they meet the requirements and regulations for fire safety or not and what extent they are risky in question of fire.

বাংলাদেশের রাজধানী শহর ঢাকায় বর্তমানে প্রায় ১ কোটির অধিক জনসংখ্যা বসবাস করে। বিপুল জনসংখ্যাবিশিষ্ট এ শহরটিতে বহুবিদ পরিবেশিক সমস্যার পাশাপাশি জলবায়ু পরিবর্তন ঢাকা শহরের জন্য একটি আলোচিত সমস্যা হতে চলেছে। দিনের দীর্ঘ সময়ব্যাপী প্রচণ্ড গরম ও রাতের বেলায় খুব কম সময়ব্যাপী ঠাণ্ডা অনুভূত হওয়া, শীতকালের স্থায়িত্ব কমে যাওয়া, উষ্ণতম মাসের ব্যাপ্তি দিন দিন বৃদ্ধি পাওয়া, অনিয়মিত বৃষ্টিপাত (অতিবৃষ্টি ও অনাবৃষ্টি), জলাবদ্ধতা প্রভৃতি এ শহরের জলবায়ু পরিবর্তনজনিত সমস্যার প্রকৃষ্ট উদারণ হতে পারে। বর্তমানে বিশ্বব্যাপী জলবায়ু পরিবর্তনের জন্য বৈশ্বিক তাপমাত্রা বৃদ্ধিকে দায়ী করা হয়। এরই ধারাবাহিকতায় এ প্রবন্ধের মূল প্রচেষ্টা হল জলবায়ু পরিবর্তনের নিয়ামক হিসেবে তাপমাত্রা পরির্তনের ধারা মূল্যায়ন করে ঢাকা শহরের জানুয়ারী মাসের তাপমাত্রার পরিবর্তনের প্রবণতা তুলে ধরা। ১৯৮৯ থেকে ২০১৬ খ্রিস্টাব্দ পর্যন্ত সর্বমোট ২৮ বছরে জানুয়ারী মাসগুলোতে ঢাকা শহরের সর্বোচ্চ তাপমাত্রার গড় ২৮.৪৪  ডিগ্রি  সেলসিয়াস এরং সর্বনিম্ন তাপমাত্রার গড় ১১.৪৯ ডিগ্রি সেলসিয়াস। যা পূর্বের বিভিন্ন প্রবন্ধে উল্লেখিত তাপমাত্রার গড়ের চেয়ে তুলনামূলক বেশি। এ ২৮ বছরের তাপমাত্রা বিশ্লেষণ করলে দেখা যায় যে, সর্বোচ্চ তাপমাত্রার বৃদ্ধির প্রবণতা প্রতি বছর ০.০২৭  ডিগ্রি  সেলসিয়াস এবং সর্বনিম্ন তাপমাত্রার বৃদ্ধির প্রবণতা প্রতি বছর ০.৩৭২  ডিগ্রি  সেলসিয়াস। ১৯৮৯ থেকে ২০০০ খ্রিস্টাব্দ পর্যন্ত সর্বোচ্চ তাপমাত্রার বৃদ্ধির প্রবণতা প্রতি বছর ০.০৬  ডিগ্রি  সেলসিয়াস এবং সর্বনিম্ন তাপমাত্রার হৃাসের প্রবণতা প্রতি বছর ০.০১৪  ডিগ্রি  সেলসিয়াস। অপরদিকে ২০০১ থেকে ২০১৬ খ্রিস্টাব্দ পর্যন্ত সর্বোচ্চ তাপমাত্রার বৃদ্ধির প্রবণতা প্রতি বছর ০.০৯৩  ডিগ্রি  সেলসিয়াস এবং সর্বনিম্ন তাপমাত্রার বৃদ্ধির প্রবণতা প্রতি বছর ০.৬৫২  ডিগ্রি  সেলসিয়াস। আবার ১৯৯১ থেকে ১৯৯৬ খ্রিস্টাব্দ পর্যন্ত তাপমাত্রা বিশ্লেষণ করলে দেখা যায় যে, সর্বোচ্চ তাপমাত্রার বৃদ্ধির প্রবণতা প্রতি বছর ০.৩৪  ডিগ্রি সেলসিয়াস এবং সর্বনিম্ন তাপমাত্রার হৃাসের প্রবণতা প্রতি বছর ০.৪৬  ডিগ্রি সেলসিয়াস, ২০০১ থেকে ২০০৬ খ্রিস্টাব্দ পর্যন্ত সর্বোচ্চ তাপমাত্রার বৃদ্ধির প্রবণতা প্রতি বছর ০.০৫৪  ডিগ্রি সেলসিয়াস এবং সর্বনিম্ন তাপমাত্রার বৃদ্ধির প্রবণতা প্রতি বছর ০.১৭৭  ডিগ্রি সেলসিয়াস এবং ২০১১ থেকে ২০১৬ খ্রিস্টাব্দ পর্যন্ত সর্বোচ্চ তাপমাত্রার বৃদ্ধির প্রবণতা প্রতি বছর ০.৮২৮  ডিগ্রি সেলসিয়াস এবং সর্বনিম্ন তাপমাত্রার বৃদ্ধির প্রবণতা প্রতি বছর ০.৪৮৫  ডিগ্রি সেলসিয়াস। আরো লক্ষ্য করা যায় যে, ১৯৮৯ থেকে ২০০০ খ্রিস্টাব্দ পর্যন্ত মোট ১২ বছরে এবং ১৯৯১ থেকে ১৯৯৬ খ্রিস্টাব্দ পর্যন্ত মোট ৬ বছরে সর্বনিম্ন  তাপমাত্রার হৃাসের প্রবণতা ছাড়া বিশ্লেষণের প্রতিটি চিত্রেই ঢাকা শহরের জানুয়ারী মাসের সর্বোচ্চ ও সর্বনিম্ন তাপমাত্রার বৃদ্ধির প্রবণতা ফুটে উঠেছে। এতে প্রতীয়মান হয় যে, জলবায়ু পরিবর্তন ঢাকা শহরের আবহাওয়া ও জলবায়ুর উপর মুখ্য প্রভাব ফেলেছে। ফলে ঢাকা শহরের তাপমাত্রার ধারাবাহিক বৃদ্ধির প্রবণতার চিত্র ফুটে উঠেছে।

This study explores the potential of public participatory GIS mapping in community based disaster management. Using P-GIS method, earthquake vulnerability map of a community in Ward-13 of Dhaka city has been prepared. The major focus of this research was to ensure community participation to increase their resilience to earthquake, find safe place within the community in account of disaster events. The research showed the use of community based mapping, in contrast to traditional GIS mapping, can explore local information, can find intrinsic threats, as well as can reduce community risk through formation of community based disaster management mechanisms.

Prostitution is a worldwide popular and valid occupation. The sex-buyers are available across the globe in order to meet their sexual need, the basic biological need in various countries and so there are found brothels in galore amount at different topographic sites in the earth. This profession induced men and women are in sad socioeconomic and health and nutritional condition varying in different countries. The study aim was to access these states in South Asian developing countries (i.e., the demographic subdivision Bangladesh). The study was conducted to assess the causes and consequence of child sex in South Asia as a sex trade at local brothels in Bangladesh. The quantitative and qualitative research methods were used to analyze and interpret the data applying snowball sampling method. About 36.67% family conflicts and divorce, 20% unemployment and 16.67% peers' pressure were the big forces to turn the child into child sex worker. The respondents were abused physically (16.66%), sexually (16.66%) and psychologically (36.67%). The study was recommended to take a collaborative action to all the stakeholders to create awareness to the family and society to eclipse these sorry tales.

Dhaka has experienced high economic growth escorted by rapid urbanization. Physical infrastructures of Dhaka city are growing day by day with the swiftness of rapid urbanization. It revealed that most of the physical infrastructures such as buildings of Dhaka city did not follow the characteristics of sustainability thereby resulting in significant threats to the well-being of the people. In this perspective, ensuring sustainability in buildings is a time-worthy issue in Bangladesh. In this article, we have tried to address the issues of sustainable building and propose a sustainable and smart design which will swathe the criteria of environment, social and economic sustainability of Dhaka city. If the majority of the objectives of proposed design are met, the building will be more probable to meet the changing requirements of the settlers and make it a more sustainable, protected, secure, efficient and environmentally friendly place to stay.

Public space is an essential social infrastructure for the continuous negotiation of city life and democracy because it offers (ideally) an interactive platform for people from diverse social and cultural backgrounds and the forms of public life they cherish. This contribution inquires how public space’s design and materiality play a fundamental role in popular struggles for social justice. By focusing on the differentiated access of women to public space, the role of gender in its design, and appropriation through a feminist intersectionality lens, this article aims to understand better the complex interplay between urban space and its non‐human material agency vis‐à‐vis citizen mobilizations, movements, and socially engaged art interventions. Drawing from extensive participant observation and spatial analysis, the exemplary public space of Shahbag Chattwar (a public square/plaza) will shed light on the “gendered spatiality” of pivotal popular mobilizations and reclamations from th...

Partition of India (1947), Indo-Pak War (1965), creation of Bangladesh (1971) and nationalisation (1972-1977) have all shaped the history of Pakistan. Over the course of nearly eighty-five years, Saleem Thariani’s (born 1931, Bombay) life has been affected by these and other historical events. His life story gives selected events a personal perspective beyond the usually discussed political effects. As an architect and civil engineer, he has actively contributed to the architectural and urban histories of various places in Pakistan and Bangladesh including  Karachi, Quetta, Dhaka and Chittagong. Going beyond the life story, this paper looks at the historical veracity of events mentioned, the soundness of his memory and the velocity of the narration and its orality. An analysis using content and grounded theories is also presented.

The neoliberal society is witnessing a radically unequal and explosively unstable urban world where urbanization is hardly connected with industrialization. The present society portrays a vast humanity warehoused in shantytowns that is also exiled from the formal world economy but the victory of informality where the process of capital accumulation is dispossession. ‘Dhaka’ the capital of Bangladesh is regarded as the highest densely populated city in the world with 47,400 people living in sq km thus became the focus of my study area as thousands of people are involved and involved in the informal economy. In this research paper, the area of interest falls on ‘Street vending’, the most common urban informal sector of the city. The literature reviewed from global, Asian, and regional perspectives to have a greater view about informality with the solid theoretical framework of Davis, Castells, Sassen, Harvey, Humphrey, Bayat, and Soto. After the engagement of the street vending activities, they face a series of problems such as harassment, eviction, confiscation, and sometimes being forced to provide goods at undervalued prices and so on. The State mechanism in most cases is responsible to create all of these problems and in this regard police and municipal authority play the key role. Without finding any other sources of subsistence as well as their livelihood they are going through the process of vulnerabilities and sometimes with negotiation. This is the politics of informality. Being the right claim citizen, their rights are constantly violated by the state and associates which make them urban marginal groups. Without starting the rehabilitation project for these large segment people it’s not possible to stop informality. It’s the duty of the government to fulfill their demand and include them in the mainstream of society to save them from the marginal conditions of living.

This article picturises how a city is murdered and how a city is consumed by flames of greed. It also shows how development devoid of scientific understanding and sustainable measures gradually kill a city. It picks some significant civilisations as examples whose accomplishments still remaining amazing to this modern day have been rendered extinct due to environmental or climatological degradation.