Assessing Risks from Cyclones for Human Lives and Livelihoods in the Coastal Region of Bangladesh

Abstract

As a disaster prone country, Bangladesh is regularly hit by natural hazards, including devastating cyclones, such as in 1970, 1991 and 2007. Although the number of cyclones’ fatalities reduced from 0.3 million in 1970 to a few thousand or fewer in recent events, loss of lives and impact on livelihoods remains a concern. It depends on the meteorological characteristics of cyclone and the general vulnerability and capacity of the exposed population. In that perspective, a spatially explicit risk assessment is an essential step towards targeted disaster risk reduction. This study aims at analyzing the spatial variation of the different factors contributing to the risk for coastal communities at regional scale, including the distribution of the hazards, exposure, vulnerability and capacity. An exploratory factor analysis method is used to map vulnerability contrasts between local administrative units. Indexing and ranking using geospatial techniques are used to produce maps of exposure, hazard, vulnerability, capacities and risk. Results show that vulnerable populations and exposed areas are distributed along the land sea boundary, islands and major inland rivers. The hazard, assessed from the density of historical cyclone paths, is highest in the southwestern part of the coast. Whereas cyclones shelters are shown to properly serve the most vulnerable populations as priority evacuation centers, the overall pattern of capacity accounting for building quality and road network shows a more complex pattern. Resultant risk maps also provide a reasonable basis from which to take further structural measures to minimize loss of lives in the upcoming cyclones.

Beyond the risks to food availability – linking climatic hazard vulnerability with the food access of delta-dwelling households

“…Low education can have the opposite effects. Empirical evidence have been found in Bangladesh (Collins 2014;Quader et al 2017), Vietnam (Tran et al 2017), Ethiopia (Demeke et al 2011), Peru (Sietz et al 2012), Nepal (Piya et al (2016), and Sri Lanka (Thathsarania and Gunaratneb 2018). Dependency ratio (more children and elderly people compared to working age adults) can reduce households' ability to overcome climatic shocks, e.g.…”

Vulnerability Factors and Effectiveness of Disaster Mitigation Measures in the Bangladesh Coast

“…It is the initial grounds of disaster, which is the function of susceptibility to exposure and coping capacity of the people to reduce the risk at a certain time (Blaikie et al 2014). Few studies have investigated thoroughly the background factors of vulnerability to cyclones (Mohiuddin and Latif 2015;Saha 2015); causes, consequences and mitigation of cyclone induced disaster (Ali 1996;Paul 2009;Mallick and Vogt 2013) and cyclone shelters' suitability (Mallick 2014) and coastal settlements, livelihood and migration pattern (Mallick et al 2017;Quader et al 2017). Besides, Webster et al (2005), Bengtsson et al (2007), Elsner et al (2008) and Knutson et al (2010) justify the increasing propensity of frequency and intensity of tropical cyclone in warming climatic environment.…”

“…People also grumbled about not having veterinary doctors in the neighborhood to provide treatment to ailing livestock. Apart from these, hazard disrupts people's usual sources of livelihood (Quader et al 2017). The aftermath of disaster period victims needs to recover their livelihood to earn daily bread.…”

Urban Resources Selection and Allocation for Emergency Shelters: In a Multi-Hazard Environment

“…To some extent, human cognition of disasters and adaptation of the environment have been greatly improved. Strengthening disaster preparedness, risk analysis, emergency response, and management have become practical solutions in disaster relief works [ 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 ]. With lessons learned from disasters, it is of great significance to make a systematic planning program for disaster prevention, which should be continuously optimized as an important public policy [ 9 , 10 ].…”