Evaluation of Adaptation Practices in the Agriculture Sector of Bangladesh: An Ecosystem Based Assessment

Abstract

Abstract:Climate changes imposed differential impacts on Bangladesh in the form of sea level rise, extreme events, and variability, which has enormous economic, environmental and social cost. Such impacts are assorted across the ecosystems of the Southwest, Northwest and Central region of the country. Among the different sectors, agriculture is comparatively more vulnerable to climate change impacts. In order to reduce the climate change induced loss and damage, a series of adaptation options have been being practiced by the people at the local level for many years, but the effectiveness, profitability, and sustainability of such adaptation options are still not too well investigated or understood. From this backdrop, the study intends to identify, prioritize and evaluate the adaptation options in the agriculture of different ecosystems of Bangladesh. It is found that the economic gain of adopting rice prawn farming, replantation of rice, and saline tolerant and short duration rice varieties are much higher than the other adaption options. Through investing $10 in such adaptation options, $22, $4, $2 and $2 net return will be provided, respectively. Unavailability and less affordability are impeding the promotion of some effective adaption options, which require more attention from policy makers, while further research, demonstration and capacity building of the farmers will reduce vulnerability and build resilience.

Sustainable urbanization in Southeast Asia and beyond: Challenges of population growth, land use change, and environmental health

“…Cities' heavy dependence on ecosystem services results in the depletion of natural resources, reduced ecosystem services flow, loss in biodiversity, and the growth in efforts needed to mitigate and adapt to climate change, whilst prioritizing public health and quality of life (Arfanuzzaman, Mamnun, Islam, Dilshad, & Syed, 2016;Marshall, 2005; Science for Environment Policy, 2015; WHO, 2016). Cities' heavy dependence on ecosystem services results in the depletion of natural resources, reduced ecosystem services flow, loss in biodiversity, and the growth in efforts needed to mitigate and adapt to climate change, whilst prioritizing public health and quality of life (Arfanuzzaman, Mamnun, Islam, Dilshad, & Syed, 2016;Marshall, 2005; Science for Environment Policy, 2015; WHO, 2016).…”

“…One of the major challenges for the current urbanization process is to manage its heavy dependence on ecosystem services. Cities' heavy dependence on ecosystem services results in the depletion of natural resources, reduced ecosystem services flow, loss in biodiversity, and the growth in efforts needed to mitigate and adapt to climate change, whilst prioritizing public health and quality of life (Arfanuzzaman, Mamnun, Islam, Dilshad, & Syed, 2016;Marshall, 2005; Science for Environment Policy, 2015;WHO, 2016). A sustainable city can only be the one for which the inflow of material and energy resources, and the outflow of wastes, do not exceed the capacity of the city's surrounding environment (Kennedy, Cuddihy, & Engel-Yan, 2007).…”

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

“…Furthermore, local water management organizations often constructed pumps and canals in the polders, where groundwater salinity is relatively low, to supply fresh water (ground water) for irrigation (arrow 6). The groundwater in the polders adjacent to the Sundarbans contained relatively high salinity, yet with the introduction of the CEP the temporary cropping became more intensified (Arfanuzzaman et al 2016). Empirical evidence reports that social conflicts associated with using and maintaining the canals are rare in the region (arrow 6; Tutu 2005, Islam and Kibria 2006).…”

Geospatial Modeling for Investigating Spatial Pattern and Change Trend of Temperature and Rainfall

“…This geospatial research aimed at investigating spatial patterns and changing trends of temperature and rainfall within the geographical boundary of Bangladesh and the interlinkage between them. This would facilitate better understanding of changing patterns, and their probable impacts on the ecosystem that were discussed in another author's paper [18] and a book chapter [19].…”

“…In most cases, geospatial models are two-dimensional, which take parameters on time and space to simulate a process and visualize a phenomena at given time and space. The evaluation of high resolution Regional Climate Models (RCMs) is seriously constrained by the lack of representative high-resolution observational datasets [18]. Gaps in well distributed and quality datasets on climate parameters are also big challenges in carrying out dynamical three-dimensional experiments covering Bangladesh.…”