Collective Management of Water Resources in Coastal Bangladesh: Formal and Substantive Approaches

Afroz, Sharmin; Cramb, Rob; Grünbühel, Clemens M.

doi:10.1007/s10745-016-9809-x

Cited by 33 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Additionally, the local people should be made aware of the physical deficiencies of the embankments, and thus not to be complacent to flood or cyclone risks. Active involvement of local people is also required along with governmental efforts in the maintenance of embankments (Afroz et al 2016). Taken together, these alternative strategies will help to create more adaptive yet robust human-flood systems.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the literature, numerous studies have investigated various social or ecological aspects of coastal Bangladesh in a different light. For example, several studies investigated some aspects of livelihood issues, such as collective management of shared water resources (Afroz et al 2016), flood protection and rural-urban migration (Choudhury et al 2004, Di Baldassarre et al 2015, climate change impacts on agriculture (Huq et al 2015, Lázár et al 2015, and the rise of more intensive forms of aquaculture (Swapan and Gavin 2011). These studies tend to center on household-level vulnerabilities and responses to cope with emerging challenges.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Farmers usually use groundwater or capture and store rainwater to irrigate their fields. In addition, during the monsoon season when the river water is less saline, farmers use river water and captured rainwater to flush out salts in the soil to reduce soil salinity (Afroz et al 2016). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Ishtiaque¹,

Sangwan²,

Yu³

2017

E&S

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ABSTRACT. 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.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

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

Ishtiaque¹,

Sangwan²,

Yu³

2017

E&S

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…They maintained their status in the samaj through patron-client ties, providing charity and emergency assistance, and participating in the social institutions of the union, including the bazaar committee and the salish (the traditional meeting for dispute settlement). While the samaj system did not prevent exploitation and in fact helped reinforce the inequalities in rural society, it did provide a moral context to govern everyday social interactions between the various socio-economic groups, thus adding to the stability of villagers' expectations about each other's behaviour (Adnan 1988;Golub 2003;Afroz et al 2016). …”

Section: Breakdown Of Social Institutionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They set up informal rules regarding how the water would be controlled and thus excluded small and medium farmers from using their land according to their own preferences. Subsequently, after closing down large-scale shrimp farming, the rice farmers introduced new rules for water management that effectively excluded the large landowners from further shrimp farming (Afroz et al 2016). …”

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confidence: 99%

Collective management of natural resources in a vulnerable environment: case studies from coastal Bangladesh

Afroz¹

Self Cite

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Three-quarters of the poorest households in the world live in rural areas and are dependent on shared access to natural resources for their food security and livelihoods.However, certain features of these natural resources make their management problematic, especially the high degree of interdependence among resource users, creating incentives to overuse resources and underinvest in their sustainability. Hence, much research has focused on the role of collective management of natural resources in supporting sustainable rural livelihoods. This focus has also influenced the design of rural development and conservation programs, assuming that local people who use and rely on natural resources are in the best position to manage them. Yet interventions to promote collective management of natural resources have often failed due to excessively top-down, prescriptive approaches that ignore local institutional contexts. Hence there is a need to understand better the processes of local collective action.These issues are especially relevant in Bangladesh's coastal zone, where pressure on land, water, and other natural resources is intense and increasing. The coastal zone plays an important economic role through crop production and aquaculture, and supports the environmentally-significant Sundarban mangrove forest. Yet it is also highly vulnerable, facing problems of salinization, waterlogging, flooding, riverine erosion, erratic rainfall, sealevel rise, and cyclone-related disasters. Development interventions in this zone have also had mixed consequences. The complex, interrelated nature of land, water, fisheries, forests, and infrastructure, the high degree of interdependence between resource users, and the shared exposure to natural hazards and climate trends mean that local processes of collective action play a crucial role in sustaining lives and livelihoods.The aim of this research was to explore the nature and role of local collective action in managing natural resources and enhancing the livelihood security of rural households and communities in coastal Bangladesh. A version of the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) Framework was used. This provides a general set of interrelated variables to systematically examine a diversity of cases, while allowing for different theoretical explanations in each case. The elements of the Framework are: (1) contextual factors (attributes of resources, attributes of resource users, and governance arrangements); (2) the action arena or "action situation", in which various actors, using their assets and governed by "rules in use", engage in patterns of interaction to pursue their goals; (3) the outcomes of this interaction for (a) resource status and trends, (b) ii livelihood assets and adaptive capacity, and (c) institutional arrangements and governance. The Framework can be applied to different scales and time-frames, encompassing both one-off local episodes of collective action and repeated, long-term interactions leading to institutional change.A qualitative, c...

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Incorporating institutions and collective action into a sociohydrological model of flood resilience

Sangwan

Sung

et al. 2017

Water Resources Research

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Stylized sociohydrological models have mainly used social memory aspects such as community awareness or sensitivity to connect hydrologic change and social response. However, social memory alone does not satisfactorily capture the details of how human behavior is translated into collective action for water resources governance. Nor is it the only social mechanism by which the two‐way feedbacks of sociohydrology can be operationalized. This study contributes toward bridging of this gap by developing a sociohydrological model of a flood resilience that includes two additional components: (1) institutions for collective action, and (2) connections to an external economic system. Motivated by the case of community‐managed flood protection systems (polders) in coastal Bangladesh, we use the model to understand critical general features that affect long‐term resilience of human‐flood systems. Our findings suggest that occasional adversity can enhance long‐term resilience. Allowing some hydrological variability to enter into the polder can increase its adaptive capacity for resilience through the preservation of social norm for collective action. Further, there are potential trade‐offs associated with optimization of flood resistance through structural measures. By reducing sensitivity to floods, the system may become more fragile under the double impact of floods and economic change.

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Collective Management of Water Resources in Coastal Bangladesh: Formal and Substantive Approaches

Cited by 33 publications

References 30 publications

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

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

Collective management of natural resources in a vulnerable environment: case studies from coastal Bangladesh

Incorporating institutions and collective action into a sociohydrological model of flood resilience

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