Detailing rural land use of Coastal Bangladesh: A micro-level study

Bangladesh is a small country of 147,570 km2 with a population of around 160 million. Using each parcel of land prudently is crucial for proper development. Information on existing land use is thus of utmost importance for better use of land. Present researches on land use are confined mainly to change detection or pattern analysis of mainly urban areas . As rural areas comprise more settlement areas than urban, this study attempts to depict the existing plot-to-plot use of land in rural areas of coastal Bangladesh. Two union parishad were selected randomly and base map of those areas were collected. For collection of detailed land use data, plot to plot survey was conducted by using fractional code method. Results show that agriculture is dominant in one union, and residential area is dominant in another area and like other parts of the country three seasonal variation of crop production occur here. Overall area proportions of the studied areas are also provided. The overall exercise provides a detailed and comprehensive scenario of the area which should help policy makers to plan accordingly, and fills a literature gap on Bangladesh land use

Powering and puzzling : climate change adaptation policies in Bangladesh and India

South Asia is a region uniquely vulnerable to climate-related impacts. Climate change adaptation in India and Bangladesh evolves using powering and puzzling approaches by policy actors. We seek to answer the question: how do powering and puzzling approaches influence the climate change adaptation policy design and implementation processes in Bangladesh and India? We adopted two strategies to collect and analyze data: semi-structured interviews and discourse analysis. We found that adaptation policymaking is largely top-down, amenable to techno-managerial solutions, and not inclusive of marginalized actors. In Bangladesh, power interplays among ministerial agencies impair the policy implementation process and undermine the success of puzzling. Local-scale agencies do not have enough authority or power to influence the overall implementation processes occurring at higher scales of governance. The powering of different actors in Bangladesh is visible through a duality of mandates and a lack of integration of climate adaptation strategies in different government ministries. The powering aspect of India’s various adaptation policies is the lack of collective puzzling around the question of differentiated vulnerability by axes of social difference. Paradoxically, India has a puzzling approach of hiding behind the poor in international negotiations. Moving forward, both countries should strive to have more inclusive and equitable adaptation policymaking processes that enable the participation of marginalized populations and represent their anxieties and aspirations. Identifying policy-relevant insights from South Asia using the powering and puzzling approaches can foster adaptation policy processes that facilitate empowerment, the missing piece of the adaptation policymaking puzzle.</p

The plight of the Bangladeshi silk industry: An empirical investigation

In spite of having a glorious history in the sericulture industry Bangladesh still is not a bright name in silk production and export. Although the agro-climatic situation in Bangladesh greatly favors the development of silk industry, Bangladesh produces very little amount of silk products every year, whereas India, situated beside Bangladesh, is the second largest producer of sericulture. To investigate the reason behind this, a questionnaire survey has been undertaken in which only the owners or managers have been considered as representatives of the industry. A total of 21 silk enterprises was randomly sampled. Data analyses show that almost 57% of the silk enterprises have less than 40 decimal of land while only 19% have more than 100 decimal of land. These enterprises provided very limited facilities for their workers and mostly depended on imported raw materials. Owners pointed out several constraints to the development of silk industry in Bangladesh including insufficient government patronization and recommended several remedial measures including that the Bangladesh Silk Board (BSB) gives out production credit without too much conditions, adoption of modern technology, and information dissemination . It is evident that government, through BSB and BSRTI (Bangladesh Silk Research and Training Institute) has to play a crucial role to pull this industry up from the brink of destruction

Spatial pattern and land surface features associated with cloud-to-ground lightning in Bangladesh : an exploratory study

Severe weather events such as lightning appear to be a significant threat to humans and property in South Asia, an area known for intense convective activity directly related to the tropical climate of these areas. The current study was conducted in Bangladesh and examined the association between cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning and ground surface properties, with the aim of improving existing knowledge regarding this phenomenon. GLD360 data from 2015 to 2020 were used to describe the seasonal lightning climatology. Elevation, land use and land cover, vegetation and surface heat flux data were used to examine all land surface features possibly associated with CG lightning occurrence. Hot and cold spot spatial patterning was calculated using local indicators of spatial association. Results indicated a strong CG lightning seasonality. CG stroke density varied considerably across seasons with the pre-monsoon exhibiting the highest density. This was followed by occurrences in the monsoon season. The March–June period experienced 73% of the total observed. Elevation appeared to influence the post-monsoon CG stroke, however, its role in the other seasons was more difficult to define. The land cover/lightning index indicated that waterbodies and herbaceous wetlands had more influence than other land cover types, both during the day and at night, and it appeared that latent heat flux played a major role. The CG stroke hot and cold spot locations varied diurnally. The findings suggest that large-scale irrigation practices, especially during the pre-monsoon months, can influence the observed spatiotemporal pattern. The production of hotspot maps could be an initial step in the development of a reliable lightning monitoring system and play a part in increasing public awareness of this issue

Migration objectives and their fulfillment: A micro study of the rural-urban migrants of the slums of Dhaka city

Rural-Urban migration plays an important role in poverty reduction and economic development. In Bangladesh rural-urban migration is the most important factor for rapid urbanization with urban slums being a popular destination for poor rural-urban migrants. More than 15 million people live in the slums of six divisional cities of Bangladesh. Capital Dhaka alone contains about 3.4 million people in 4966 slums. Focusing on the two largest slums of Dhaka, the study reveals that predominantly migrants came from the northern and southern parts of the country and carried with them dreams of prosperity. This study evaluates the migration objectives, status and the fulfillment of their migration objectives based on a survey of 373 randomly selected temporary and permanent migrants. It was found that 82% of the migrants perceived that their migration objectives as had been either totally fulfilled or on the way of fulfillment. It was also discovered that although 68.10% of the migrants were satisfied with the socio- economic attainment of their migration objectives and wanted to come back to their place of origin after saving enough money, so that they could live the rest of their life out of poverty, they could not do so. The rural lack of earning opportunities did not permit them to reverse the rural-urban migration trend

US farmers’ adaptations to climate change: a systematic review of adaptation-focused studies in the US agriculture context

Farmers in the US are adopting a range of strategies to deal with climate change impacts, from changing planting dates to using advanced technologies. Studies on farmers’ adaptation in US agriculture focus on a variety of topics and provide an understanding of how farmers adapt to climate change impacts, which adaptation strategies offer better outcomes, and what challenges need to be addressed for effective adaptations. Nevertheless, we lack a comprehensive view of adaptation studies focusing on US farmers’ adaptations. A review of adaptation studies in US agriculture context will help us to understand current adaptation research trends and realize future research potential. To fulfill this gap, this study systematically reviewed peer-reviewed studies on adaptation to climate change in US agriculture. A systematic search on the Web of Science and Google Scholar platforms generated 95 articles for final review. These studies were categorized under five themes based on their topical relevance: (i) reporting on-farm adaptations, (ii) exploring potential adaptations, (iii) evaluating specific adaptations, (iv) challenges of adaptations, and (v) perceptions toward adaptations. A skewed distribution of studies under these themes has been observed; a majority of the studies focused on evaluating specific adaptations (47%) followed by exploring potential adaptations (22%), while reporting on-farm adaptations (17%), challenges of adaptations (6%), and perception towards adaptations (8%) received less attention. In this article, key findings under each theme are presented and some areas for future research focus are discussed. These findings indicate the need for more attention to documenting on-farm adaptation strategies and the associated challenges while emphasizing other themes

The influence of factors of migration on the migration status of rural-urban migrants in Dhaka, Bangladesh

There are several factors, responsible for rural-urban migration, influence the migrant’s migration status. The main objective of this paper to discuss the influence of migration factors on the determination of migration status of the rural-urban migrants’. As a case study, this study purposively selected the largest slum of Bangladesh according to single criterion- high concentration of rural-urban migrants. A total of 263 face to face interviews and 5 FGDs were conducted. Respondents, who are household heads of the migrant families, were chosen randomly and interviewed using both open ended and close ended questionnaires and for data analyses, respondents were categorized into two divisions- temporary and permanent migrants. Multivariate analyses show that both push and pull factors influence the migration status of migrants’, however, social factors, except occupation at rural origin, do not have any considerable influences

Rapid Urban Growth in the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal: Monitoring Land Use Land Cover Dynamics of a Himalayan City with Landsat Imageries

The Kathmandu Valley of Nepal epitomizes the growing urbanization trend spreading across the Himalayan foothills. This metropolitan valley has experienced a significant transformation of its landscapes in the last four decades resulting in substantial land use and land cover (LULC) change; however, no major systematic analysis of the urbanization trend and LULC has been conducted on this valley since 2000. When considering the importance of using LULC change as a window to study the broader changes in socio-ecological systems of this valley, our study first detected LULC change trajectories of this valley using four Landsat images of the year 1989, 1999, 2009, and 2016, and then analyzed the detected change in the light of a set of proximate causes and factors driving those changes. A pixel-based hybrid classification (unsupervised followed by supervised) approach was employed to classify these images into five LULC categories and analyze the LULC trajectories detected from them. Our results show that urban area expanded up to 412% in last three decades and the most of this expansion occurred with the conversions of 31% agricultural land. The majority of the urban expansion happened during 1989–2009, and it is still growing along the major roads in a concentric pattern, significantly altering the cityscape of the valley. The centrality feature of Kathmandu valley and the massive surge in rural-to-urban migration are identified as the primary proximate causes of the fast expansion of built-up areas and rapid conversions of agricultural areas

Robust-yet-fragile nature of partly engineered social-ecological systems: a case study of coastal Bangladesh

Modern social-ecological systems are often partly engineered to enhance the robustness (or reduce the variance) of human welfare to environmental fluctuations over a foreseeable time horizon. Recent studies show, however, that subtle trade-offs are usually inherent in such efforts of enhancing short-term robustness. Managing variance on short time scales is likely to be associated with the buildup of hidden fragilities on longer time scales. Using a flood-prone social-ecological system (SES) of coastal Bangladesh as an example, this paper investigates some of the ways in which such robustness-fragility trade-offs can manifest. This SES has been extensively modified in the last few decades through the construction of large-scale flood protection structures (polders) and the introduction of commercial shrimp farming to enhance the robustness of food production to hydrological variability. Our case study analysis of the long-term changes in the SES shows that, although the modifications helped with stability in short time scales, the resulting changes also induced unforeseen problems such as infrastructure maintenance issues, land degradation and sinking, and exposure to market volatility. With this paper therefore we contribute to better understanding of the notion of robustness-fragility trade-offs by illustrating an exemplary case of the phenomenon in the engineered coastal environment context

Beyond the barriers : An overview of mechanisms driving barriers to adaptation in Bangladesh

Climate change adaptation governance involves multiple actors, operating from local to national level, and during their interactions, several challenges may surface and act as barriers to adaptation. While existing studies attempted to create an exhaustive list of barriers by focusing on “what” is occurring, we continue to have a meager understanding of “how” or “why” barriers emerge in the governance process. Selecting Bangladesh as a case study area, we identify the mechanisms that cause the emergence of barriers in the climate change adaptation governance process. We particularly focus on the barriers that emerge through interactions among actors. We base our research on data from key-informant interviews and a systematic literature review. Our analysis reveals that there are at least five mechanisms that are involved in the emergence of barriers: enclosure and exclusion, boundary control, organizational inertia, belief formation, and frame polarization. Our identification of common mechanisms provides insights on actors' roles and activities in adaptation governance and elucidates the processes through which actors' interactions lead to barriers. This mechanism-based analysis of barriers will help to address and navigate through the barriers more effectively to ensure successful adaptation. As climate change is becoming mainstreamed in development plans and policies in our study area, identifying the mechanisms of adaptation barriers can elucidate how development and climate adaptation strategies are affected by identified barriers.</p