Assessment of Climate Change Induced Disaster Vulnerability and Adaptation Strategy in Coastal Region of Bangladesh

Abstract

Bangladesh is ranked among the countries that are most vulnerable to climate change. Its coastlines are vulnerable to disasters caused by climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) indicates that all SDGs will potentially be affected by the impacts of climate change, which is especially true in the Bangladesh context. Disaster impacts triggered by the aftermath of climate change induced disaster have spread through most social, economic and environmental areas, making it inherently related to the achievement of all other SDGs. The empirical study attempts to assess the climate change induced disaster vulnerability and adaptation strategy in coastal region of Bangladesh. The research primarily explores climate change induced disaster and its spatial variation, assesses social vulnerability and locational variations in comparison with current adaptation practices and regional variation in the study area, as well as formulates community based sustainable disaster management, acquiring scientific and indigenous knowledge together with adaptation strategy. The study is based on primary and secondary sources of data. Participant’s Observation, Key Informant Interview (KII), Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and Indepth Interview achieve qualitative data. The field study which consists of a questionnaire survey obtains quantitative data. A simple random sampling technique is adopted for successfully operating of 400 questionnaires from head of the household. The entire coastal area of Bangladesh is divided into three zones following the classification of Ali (1999), viz. western, central and eastern, to be convenient for study. Twenty community-level groups opinion through FGDs checklist, ten state actors thoughts through KII and 57 interviews have been conducted with non-state leaders, national climate experts, practitioners, policy makers, public representatives, journalists and public and private university academicians. The research strictly follows the duration of living and age structure of the respondents as well as ethical consideration of the study during surveyed of targeted participants. Data and maps are interpreted and presented by applying SPSS and GIS techniques applying IBM SPSS statistics V-2-64 and ArcGIS-9.1 respectively. Hypotheses have been tested by Chisquare ( 2  ) test. The research reveals that owing to using digital devices, people are aware about CCIDs and one quarter of coastal people do not have idea about the climate change induced disasters yet. Total eleven types of CCIDs are identified, for instance, cyclone, flood, sea level rise and salinity intrusion, thunderstorm, rising of temperature (extreme heat), tornado, various diseases, river bank erosion, irregular rainfall and drought, storm surge and land slide. Cyclone, sea level rise and flood are found as main CCIDs in western, central and eastern zone respectively. CCIDs in the coastal area varies from zone to zone and directly responds to seasonal variation. The study depicts that CCIDs are significantly correlated with livelihood patterns of the coastal people. The livelihood condition is found very worse in the eastern coastal zone than others two zones of the study area owing to high population density, locational variation, presence of canal, and uneven topography. Social safety net programs are the prime weapon to eradicate poverty and way forward to empower the marginalized coastal people in the study area though 55% coastal folks don’t access these benefits yet. Nearly 150 types of social safety net programs are installed by state actors across the entire Bangladesh among them 10 types of programs can easily accessed of coastal people, such as health facilities, adult allowance, VGD and VGF card, awareness building and free medicine as well. Almost 68% coastal people argued that local influential people interrupted the social safety net program. Social sectors infrastructure has been found as a high risk sectors in the study area. Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) mapping refers that general health considering on the health sector, school going students regarding on education, educational institute allowing for infrastructural sector, relocation and basic needs on the subject of government activities and occupation and fishing as regards on agricultural dependency are the subsectors those are highly vulnerable sectors (0-1 scale) in the study area. In these consequences, interruption of social network and disruption of communication and transportation are the main social implications of climate variability. Wage earners of the household became unemployed and damage of transport and communication are the main economic implications of climate variability in the study area. These processes rapidly accelerate the forced internal migration of coastal people from their origin. The mitigation strategies differ from zone to zone, community to community and disaster to disaster in the study area. Mitigation strategies that applicable to one zone may be or may not be applicable in another zone or community, but the learning from each strategy can introduce a new strategy that is adopted in the respective zone. Proper and appropriate strategies at pre disaster period can be able to reduce the negative impact of disasters during disaster period. Insufficient shelter centers, lack of collaboration or coordination among the state and non-state officials and lack of institutionalization of Indigenous Knowledge (IK) are the prime barriers to adaptation of coastal people. Besides, buildup high, wide, strong and sustainable embankment; tree plantation/ afforestation through the coastal area; short duration rice and others crops; sufficient shelter center and proper medical/ health service are the prime choices for adaptation with CCIDs in the study area. The research has recommended nearly fourteen types of strategies and also given particular adoption approaches under each strategy. These strategies and approaches appear that if state actors or key official as well as non-state actors effectively follows or applied these strategies, including adaptation approaches then the level of vulnerability would be reduced. SDGs are the blue print to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all while CCIDs are the main drawbacks of overall economic growth and development of Bangladesh. Therefore it would be easy to achieve SDGs if state and non-state actors spontaneously perform their actual duties, particularly following the ‘Delta Plan-2100’.