Potential of Community Volunteers in Flood Early Warning Dissemination: A Case Study of Bangladesh

Abstract

Flood early warning (FEW) is a vital component of disaster risk management and is particularly important for saving lives, developing a sustainable agro-based economy, economic stability, and the overall development of the people of Bangladesh as well as others. This study was conducted in a northern, flood-prone area of Bangladesh to investigate the potential of incorporating volunteers of the community to the Union Councils (UCs) to disseminate FEW alongside the top-down approach. Several studies have found that despite having a sophisticated flood forecasting technology, local communities are not reaping the benefits of it, as the existing dissemination system is inaccessible to most local people. Since risk communication takes place in a social context, this study investigated and thereby proposed that volunteerism, as a form of social capital or communal virtue, can potentially assist the community-based disaster management (CBDM) institutions in enhancing their capacity to reach the maximum population at times of flood risk. Therefore, it was confirmed that the trained volunteers need to be integrated into and endorsed by the national policy. In addition, this study also provides a number of recommendations connecting literature with policy documents of Bangladesh.

Impact of Farmers’ Participation in Community-Based Organizations on Adoption of Flood Adaptation Strategies: A Case Study in a Char-Land Area of Sirajganj District Bangladesh

“…Moreover, most of the people in the rural char-lands are illiterate and have no proper knowledge of floods [8]. Rural communities are also not aware of flood early warnings [9], which highlights the gaps in current flood risk communication systems. As a result, potentially vulnerable people do not take flood adaptation measures [10].…”

“…The government of Bangladesh has taken steps to institutionalize disaster management at the union level through Union Disaster Management Committees (UDMCs). However, the committees mainly focus on relief, rescue, and rehabilitation activities after floods rather than disseminating flood early warnings (FEWs), and UDMCs cannot reach all villages and communities with FEWs [9]. The government, on the other hand, disseminates flood warnings in a top-down approach through policies, the media, and the internet, which is a one-way passive risk communication because people may or may not read these materials [11].…”

Exhaustive Insights Towards Social-Media Driven Disaster Management Approaches

“…Following are some of the existing methodologies being reviewed:  Early Warning Methods  Such a form of methodology is related to the usage of real-time updates and automated alert systems. Various methodologies reviewed are Forest fire detection (Aramendia et al [26]), earthquake detection (Beltramone & Gomes [27]), Rating curve method integrated with nomograph (Cheong et al [28]), Community-based scheme (Al-Mueed et al [29]), Loosely coupled architecture for risk assessment (Psaroudakis et al [30]), Flood detection by hybrid method (Rozos et al [31]), People-centric method (Shah et al [32]), Joint modelling with machine learning and classification using rule-based methods (Shen et al [33]), Cyclone detection (Sultan et al [34]), Community monitoring for hydrological forecast (Tarchiani et al [35]), Flood mapping with satellite images (Wania et al [36]). The contribution of social media platforms in all the schemes mentioned above was mainly to facilitate the authorities to offer more immediate updates about disasters with automatic push alerts to the users in affected areas.…”

“…Social media platforms have become increasingly important tools for natural disaster management, with several prominent attributes that have the potential to influence disaster response efforts viz. i) Real-Time Information Sharing (Aramendia et al [26], Beltramone & Gomes [27], Cheong et al [28], Karmegam et al [59], Turay and S. Gbetuwa [68], Zhu et al [66]), ii) Crowdsourced Data Collection (Tavra et al [65], Astarita et al [37]), iii) Two-Way Communication (Tran & Kim [42], Zhang et al [45]), iv) Public Engagement and Mobilization (Malla et al [70], Tarchiani et al [35], Al-Mueed et al [29], Mitcham et al [40]), v) Information Aggregation and Analysis (Malla et al [70], Han & Wang [39], Tavra et al [65]), vi) Crisis Mapping and Visualization (Divjak and Lapaine [47], Du et al [49], Durrant et al [50], Maxant et al [51], Vavassori et al [52]). Under attributes of real-time information sharing, it is believed that social media allows for the rapid dissemination of information during disasters, enabling authorities, organizations, and individuals to share updates on hazards, evacuation orders, shelter locations, road closures, and other important developments in real time.…”