Recent trends of human wellbeing in the Bangladesh delta

Hossain, Sarwar; Johnson, Fiifi Amoako; Dearing, John A.; Eigenbrod, Felix

doi:10.1016/j.envdev.2015.09.008

Cited by 21 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 21 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The generally weak relationships between provisioning services and the slowly changing (and worsening) driving variables (e.g. temperature, rainfall, water discharges) may reflect the effect of 'slow variables' on system resilience that are not observable until a threshold is reached (Hossain, Johnson, et al 2015). For example, the warming climate may have no negative effect on provisioning services until a threshold temperature is exceeded.…”

Section: System Stabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the Bangladesh delta, previous work (Mirza 1998;Azad et al 2009;Swapan and Gavin 2011;Hossain et al 2013;Hossain, Johnson, et al 2015) provide ample evidence to enable us to explicitly link relevant regulating services to provisioning services, and thereby to identify dependent and independent variables within a relationship. Examples of this include the declining trends of water flow and higher rates of sea water intrusion that are leading to increasingly high ground water levels, and water flow reduction, higher temperatures and rainfall change that strongly influence food production.…”

Section: Interlinkages Between Es and Hwbmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Provisioning services are positively (strongly) linked with material wellbeing (GDP and income). In addition, positive links between production costs and production at the household level indicate the fact that higher crop production through intensive cultivation, shifts in technology and changes in crop varieties are associated with the higher production costs (Ali 1995;Husain et al 2001;Hossain, Johnson, et al 2015). Although the material wellbeing exhibits a positive relationship with provisioning services, some of the quality of life indicators such as access to 'safe drinking water' and improved 'sanitation' are not related to production at the household level.…”

Section: Interlinkages and Connectivity Within Socialecological Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…government initiatives for education and health) and technology (e.g. water quality purification, alternative livelihood sources) (Hossain, Johnson, et al 2015). An understanding of the full relationship between ES and HWB demands a dynamical perspective based on time series data (Carpenter et al 2009) that can give insight into the complex and uncertain nature of a social-ecological system, for example, the potential time lag effects between regulating services and HWB.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Unravelling the interrelationships between ecosystem services and human wellbeing in the Bangladesh delta

Hossain

Eigenbrod

Johnson

et al. 2016

International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ec

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Coupled social and ecological systems need to be understood from a dynamic perspective in order to operationalise complexity concepts, such as tipping points, for sustainable ecosystem management. In this study, we strive to achieve this type of conceptual understanding through the analysis of the relationships (e.g. strength, nonlinearity) between the trends of ecosystem services (ES) and human wellbeing (HWB) between 1960 and 2010 in the south-west Bangladesh delta using generalized additive and logistic regression models. We use sequential principal components analysis to investigate the connectedness within the social-ecological system as a measure of resilience. We also use published literature to help develop a system dynamic framework in order to investigate how ES and HWB are interlinked. Overall, our results support previous work, which depicts that material wellbeing (basic materials for a good life) having a strong relationship with provisioning services, which in turn, show a weak relationship with the quality of life (security and health). Moreover, our analysis confirms the 'Environmentalist's Paradox' that HWB has increased despite the deterioration in ES. However, our results suggest that provisioning services are not the only important reason for the increases in observed HWB, as these have also been substantially influenced by technology and capital investment (aid and subsidy). In addition, worsening trends in regulation services and in 'slow' variables such as climate suggest that the resilience of the overall social-ecological system is decreasing. Such changes may have severe consequences if they continue, for example, if temperatures exceed the upper physiological limits of key provisioning services (e.g. rice, fish) in the Bangladesh delta. These indicators all suggest that although in terms of HWB the deltaic social-ecological system may be successfully adapting to environmental change, it may also be close to transgressing critical ecological boundaries in the near future. ARTICLE HISTORY

show abstract

Section: System Stabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Interlinkages Between Es and Hwbmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Interlinkages and Connectivity Within Socialecological Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Unravelling the interrelationships between ecosystem services and human wellbeing in the Bangladesh delta

Hossain

Eigenbrod

Johnson

et al. 2016

International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ec

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The GBM delta (Figure 1b) is notable for an extremely high population density, natural mangrove forest ecosystems (the Sundarbans), and a vast complex of intertidal and estuarine areas that provides nursery grounds for many species of fish and invertebrates across multiple political boundaries (Babel and Wahid 2011;Hossain et al 2012;Hossain et al 2013;Siddique-E-Akbor et al 2014). This delta has been experiencing a rapid urban growth, which has resulted in widespread social and economic inequality across different spatial scales (Brichieri-Colombi 2004;Sharma et al 2010;Babel and Wahid 2011;Webster and Jian 2011).…”

Section: Ganges-brahmaputra-meghnamentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolutionary social and biogeophysical changes in the Amazon, Ganges–Brahmaputra–Meghna and Mekong deltas

et al. 2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Policy-making in social-ecological systems increasingly looks to iterative, evolutionary approaches that can address the inherent complexity of interactions between human wellbeing, provision of goods and the maintenance of ecosystem services. Here, we show how the analysis of available time-series in tropical delta regions over past decades can provide important insight into the social-ecological system dynamics in deltaic regions. The paper provides exploratory analysis of the recent changes that have occurred in the major elements of three tropical deltaic social-ecological systems, such as demography, economy, health, climate, food, and water. Timeseries data from official statistics, monitoring programmes and Earth observation data are analysed to explore possible trends, slow and fast variables, and observed drivers of change in the Amazon, Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna and Mekong deltas. In the Ganges-BrahmaputraMeghna delta zone, increasing gross domestic product and per capita income levels since the 1980s mirror rising levels of food and inland fish production. In contrast, non-food ecosystem services, such as water availability, water quality and land stability appear to be deteriorating. In the Amazon delta, natural and anthropogenic perturbations are continuously degrading key ecosystem services, such as carbon storage in biomass and soils, the regulation of water balance, and the modulation of regional climate patterns. In the Mekong delta, rapid economic development, changing land use practices and salinity intrusion, are progressively putting more pressure on the delivery of important provisioning services, such as rice and inland aquaculture production, which are key sources of staple food, farm incomes and export revenue. Observed changes in many key indicators of ecosystem services point to a changing dynamic state and increased probability of systemic threshold transformations in the near future.

show abstract

Ecosystem Services for Well-Being in Deltas

Nicholls¹,

Hutton²,

Adger³

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Recent trends of human wellbeing in the Bangladesh delta

Abstract: Although recent studies show that human wellbeing on global and national scales is improving, it is important to monitor the regional progress of human wellbeing and Millennium Development Goals

Cited by 21 publications

References 21 publications

Unravelling the interrelationships between ecosystem services and human wellbeing in the Bangladesh delta

Unravelling the interrelationships between ecosystem services and human wellbeing in the Bangladesh delta

Evolutionary social and biogeophysical changes in the Amazon, Ganges–Brahmaputra–Meghna and Mekong deltas

Ecosystem Services for Well-Being in Deltas

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About