Impact of unseasonable flooding on women's food security and mental health in rural Sylhet, Bangladesh: a longitudinal observational study

Background Climate change will lead to more frequent and intensive flooding. In April, 2017, unseasonably early flooding led to the inundation of low-lying cropland before the rice harvest in northeastern Bangladesh. We describe coping strategies and quantify short-term and medium-term effects of flooding events on food security and depressive symptoms of women. Methods This observational study is part of the cluster-randomised Food and Agricultural Approaches to Reducing Malnutrition trial (FAARM; NCT02505711). Women self-reported flooding exposure on behalf of their households when surveyed (approximately 6 months after the event). Remote sensing analysis was used to detect the extent of the flooding. We collected data on household food security at baseline, depressive symptoms 4–5 months before the flooding, and coping strategies immediately after the event. We followed up on these outcome measurements for depressive symptoms and food security for up to 2·5 years after the flooding event. We used multilevel regression adjusting for intervention allocation and pre-flooding measures to quantify the flood's effect on household food security and women's mental health. Findings The FAARM trial included 2700 young women in 96 settlements in rural Sylhet, Bangladesh. 1335 (56%) of 2405 women reported that their household being greatly affected, with many losing a large part of their rice harvest. Borrowing money with interest was the most common coping strategy, with households paying back on average 1·5 times the borrowed amount. Greatly affected households had higher odds of food insecurity, with a decreasing effect with increasing time after the flood (odds ratio: 2·4 [p<0·0001] 0·5 years after; 1·6 [p<0·0001] 2·0 years after]; and 1·3 [p=0·012] 2·5 years after). Women in such households also had 1·45 times higher odds of depression (p=0·0001) 2·5 years after the flooding event. Interpretation The 2017 flooding event negatively affected food security and the mental health of women in rural Sylhet, Bangladesh, and few affected women received formal government support. To reduce the impact of future floods, livelihood adaptations and expansion of financial protection programmes are essential measures to pursue. Funding German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (Berlin, Germany) and UK Department for International Development (London, UK)

On Capturing Human Agency and Methodological Interdisciplinarity in socio-hydrology Research

Socio-hydrology has expanded and been effective in exposing the hydrological community to ideas and approaches from other scientific disciplines, and social sciences in particular. Yet it still has much to explore regarding how to capture human agency and how to combine different methods and disciplinary views from both the hydrological and the social sciences to develop knowledge. A useful starting ground is noting that the complexity of human–water relations is due to interactions not only across spatial and temporal scales but also across different organizational levels of social systems. This calls for consideration of another analytical scale, the human organizational scale, and interdisciplinarity in study methods. Based on the papers published in this journal’s Special Issue Advancing Socio-hydrology over 2019–2022, this paper illuminates how the understanding of coupled human–water systems can be strengthened by capturing the multi-level nature of human decision making and by applying an interdisciplinary multi-method approach

Food Security and Translocal Livelihoods in High Mountains: Evidence from Ladakh, India

Reducing food insecurity is crucial to sustainable development in mountain regions. Case studies on complex food systems in these areas facilitate depiction of current trends and challenges and provide detailed information to policymakers. Based on empirical research in Ladakh in the Indian Trans-Himalaya, this study assesses livelihood dynamics in the context of rapid socioeconomic changes and aims to show how diverse spatial and temporal patterns of mobility shape strategies of the mountain population. The results exhibit translocal livelihood diversification as an emerging reality. The consequences are a reduction in land-based food production and an increased reliance on markets and government food subsidies. This shift to a supply-oriented food system implies gender- and intergenerational-biased challenges, such as growing socioeconomic disparities, new dependencies, and an erosion of social institutions in the rural communities. Moving beyond the focus on land-based food production, this article sheds light on the interaction between agriculture, mobility, markets, and supplies, and highlights the need for cross-sectoral policy approaches to meet the challenge of food insecurity in mountains

Cryosphere hazards in Ladakh: the 2014 Gya glacial lake outburst flood and its implications for risk assessment

This article attempts to reconstruct the causes and consequences of the 2014 glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) event in Gya, Ladakh. We analyse the evolution of the Gya glacial lake using a high temporal and high spatial resolution remote sensing approach. In order to frame the case study in a larger picture, we produce a comprehensive inventory of glacial lakes for the entire Trans-Himalayan region of Ladakh. Changes in the extent and number of glacial lakes have been detected for the years 1969, 1993, 2000/02 and 2018 in order to assess the potential risk of future GLOFs in the region. The remote sensing approach was supported by field surveys between 2014 and 2019. The case study of the Gya GLOF illustrates the problem of potentially hazardous lakes being overlooked in inventories. The broader analysis of the Ladakh region and in-depth analysis of one GLOF lead us to propose an integrated approach for detecting undocumented GLOFs. This article demonstrates the necessity for using multiple methods to ensure robustness of risk assessment. The improved understanding can lead to a more accurate evaluation of exposure to cryosphere hazards and identification of alternative mechanisms and spatial patterns of GLOFs in the Himalaya.Universität Heidelberg http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/50110000166

Urban Mountain Waterscapes: The Transformation of Hydro-Social Relations in the Trans-Himalayan Town Leh, Ladakh, India

Socio-economic processes and climate change impact the socio-hydrology of many small towns in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH), such as Leh in Ladakh. The rapidly urbanising town experienced a shift from agricultural livelihoods towards incomes mainly relying on the tourism sector. As results of this research show, the limited water resources essential to the everyday life of urban citizens have become increasingly important for the tourism sector and the urbanisation process. This study aims to understand the transformation of the urban mountain waterscape and the role of different actors involved. The waterscape approach frames hydro-social relations in a specific spatial context and additionally captures diverging hydromentalities within local actor constellations. Related discourses are materialised as water governance impacting the everyday life of urban citizens. A combination of quantitative, qualitative and participatory methods allows for a differentiated picture of current developments. Based on 312 household questionnaires, 96 semi-structured interviews, and a participatory photography workshop, this study provides evidence that urban restructuring induced by development imaginaries produces uneven water citizenships in Leh. Along with socio-economic shifts, the community-managed water regulation system is replaced by a technocratic scheme, centralising water supply and sanitation. While some of Leh&rsquo;s citizens benefit from urban restructurings, others are confronted with environmental and social costs, such as a deteriorating water quality and a further reduction in quantity

Sozio-Hydrologie des Trans-Himalaya – Schmelzwasserverfügbarkeit und Bewässerungslandwirtschaft

Im trockenen Hochgebirge des Trans-Himalaya wird die Bewässerungslandwirtschaft durch Schmelzwasser aus Gletschern, Schneedecken und Permafrost gespeist. Da sich der Schmelzwasserabfluss aus den einzelnen Komponenten der Kryosphäre im Zuge des Klimawandels hinsichtlich der Menge und saisonalen Variabilität verändert, sind in den Hochgebirgsregionen entsprechende Anpassungsmaßnahmen im Bereich der Landnutzung erforderlich. Mit dem integrativen Analyserahmen der Sozio-Hydrologie lassen sich sowohl die hydrologischen Prozesse in diesem Raum als auch die sozioökonomischen Entwicklungen und Veränderungen in der Landnutzung untersuchen. An zwei regionalen Fallbeispielen aus dem Trans-Himalaya in Indien und Nepal werden generelle Zusammenhänge und spezifische Aspekte aufgezeigt und mit aktuellen Satellitenbildern illustriert. Socio-Hydrology of the Trans-Himalaya – Meltwater availability and irrigated agriculture: Meltwater from glaciers, snow cover and permafrost are crucial for irrigated agriculture in the semi-arid mountain regions of the Trans-Himalaya. As quantity of meltwater runoff from the different cryosphere components is expected to decrease in the context of climate change, adaptation measures in land use systems are necessary in these high mountain regions. The integrated approach of socio-hydrology allows to analyze hydrological processes together with socio-economic developments and land use dynamics. Two regional case studies from the Trans-Himalaya in India and Nepal are presented to illustrate the general context and specific characteristics using recent satellite imager

Cryosphere hazards in Ladakh: the 2014 Gya glacial lake outburst flood and its implications for risk assessment

&lt;jats:title&gt;Abstract&lt;/jats:title&gt;&lt;jats:p&gt;This article attempts to reconstruct the causes and consequences of the 2014 glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) event in Gya, Ladakh. We analyse the evolution of the Gya glacial lake using a high temporal and high spatial resolution remote sensing approach. In order to frame the case study in a larger picture, we produce a comprehensive inventory of glacial lakes for the entire Trans-Himalayan region of Ladakh. Changes in the extent and number of glacial lakes have been detected for the years 1969, 1993, 2000/02 and 2018 in order to assess the potential risk of future GLOFs in the region. The remote sensing approach was supported by field surveys between 2014 and 2019. The case study of the Gya GLOF illustrates the problem of potentially hazardous lakes being overlooked in inventories. The broader analysis of the Ladakh region and in-depth analysis of one GLOF lead us to propose an integrated approach for detecting undocumented GLOFs. This article demonstrates the necessity for using multiple methods to ensure robustness of risk assessment. The improved understanding can lead to a more accurate evaluation of exposure to cryosphere hazards and identification of alternative mechanisms and spatial patterns of GLOFs in the Himalaya.&lt;/jats:p&gt

Heidelberg Center for the Environment (HCE) - HCE-Nachwuchsgruppe "Umwelt und Gesundheit"

Unter dem Thema "Umwelt und Gesundheit in ariden Regionen: Neue Herausforderungen im Kontext von Urbanisierung" befasst sich die interdisziplinäre Nachwuchsgruppe mit den Dynamiken von gekoppelten sozial-ökologischen Systemen. Das Projekt wird in Kooperation zwischen dem Südasien-Institut, dem Geographischen Institut und dem Institut für Public Health innerhalb des HCE umgesetzt