Perceived and Actual Risks of Drought : Household and Expert Views From Lower Teesta River Basin of Northern Bangladesh

Abstract

Disaster risk perception, as well as risk appraisal, play a pivotal role in making the disaster risk reduction policy. This study examines the actual vs perceived drought risks by constructing risk indices at the household and expert levels using survey data from the lower Teesta River Basin in northern Bangladesh. Survey data were collected from 450 farmers based on the structural questionnaire. A composite drought risk index was developed to understand households’ perceived and actual risks in the designated areas. The results show that the actual and perceived risk values differ significantly among the three designated sites of Ganai, Ismail, and Par Sekh Sundar. The risk levels also differ significantly across the household’s gender, income, occupation, and educational attainment. People with poor socio-economic status are more prone to drought risk than others. Results also reveal that the mean level of perceived risk agrees well with the actual risk; females perceive comparatively higher risk than males. Expert views on drought risk are similar to the individual household level perceived risk. The outcomes of this study would help the policy-makers and disaster managers to understand the concrete risk scenarios of the study areas and to take timely and appropriate disaster risk reduction actions for ensuring a drought-resistant society.

Assessing factors affecting drought, earthquake, and flood risk perception: empirical evidence from Bangladesh

“…Interestingly, past experiences of facing drought, earthquake, and ood hazards didn't show any signi cant correlation with the dependent variables which regulate the severity of disaster risk. The present study found that the female respondents perceived more risks, lack enough knowledge, and will be less capable of controlling the upcoming disasters than male which is supported by the ndings of Salam et al (2021). Adequate measures need to be taken to reduce the gap of risk perception between male and female.…”

“…In a short term, the progression of collection, selection, and interpretation of the impacts of certain unpredictable events denote RP (Wachinger, 2013;Castro et al, 2017). Most scholars do believe that commons RP can in uence their preparedness for, response to, and recovery from natural disasters (Grothmann and Reusswig, 2008;Ho et al, 2008;Salam et al, 2021). RP plays a vital role in managing any hazardous and disastrous event.…”

“…These characteristics in uence people to take appropriate measures for reducing disaster losses (Abid et (Islam and Haque, 2018). Previous studies on RP conducted in north-western Bangladesh considering in single risk perspective of drought (Habiba et al, 2012, Salam et al, 2021, Earthquake (Islam et al, 2016), Riverbank erosion (Alam et al, 2017), and ood risk (Rahman, 2017). However, the integrated RP studies of drought, earthquake, and ood are still unexplored in Bangladesh.…”

Assessing Factors Affecting Drought, Earthquake, and Flood Risk Perception: Empirical Evidence From Bangladesh

“…Even after the great ood in northern Bangladesh in August 2017, there found no notable research on ood RP (Islam and Haque, 2018). Previous studies on RP conducted in north-western Bangladesh considering in single risk perspective of drought (Habiba et al, 2012, Salam et al, 2021, Earthquake (Islam et al, 2016), Riverbank erosion (Alam et al, 2017), and ood risk (Rahman, 2017). However, the integrated RP studies of drought, earthquake, and ood are still unexplored in Bangladesh.…”