Jahangir Hasan Masum
Coastal Development Partnership (CDP), Bangladesh,
Climate adaptation, Climate, Hazard mitigation, Measures
Risk Management in Agriculture
Environmental change, Livelihood
Bangladesh is susceptible to climate change with respect to rising temperature, high rainfall variability and rain shortfalls (Rahman & Lateh 2015). The climate in Bangladesh is changing or behaving differently and becoming more unpredictable in recent years (Hoque & Haque 2016; Rahman 2013). The lengths of winter, summer and rainy seasons have increased. Bangladesh ranks 6th among the countries with populations exposed to the multi-hazards (cyclone, drought, and flood) and ranks 2nd for flood hazard (Elizabeth et. al., 2014). Bangladesh regularly faces different types of climatic hazards such as floods, extreme temperatures, droughts, storm surges, tornados, thunderstorms, hail storms, shoreline recession, riverbank erosion tidal surges, landslides, salinity intrusion, coastal erosion and tropical cyclones. Climatic hazards are expected to amplify existing risks and create new risks for the people and environment in Bangladesh. However, the list of official natural disasters in Bangladesh has yet to include tornados, salinity intrusion, landslides, heat-wave and cold waves. Rain is a liquid form of precipitation that falls from the clouds to the Earth surface as water droplets. Precipitation is water in liquid or solid form that falls to Earth's surface from clouds. The main forms of precipitation include rain, snow and hail. In tropical climates, precipitation generally occur in the form of rain and the amount of annual rainfall is largely determined by the strength of the monsoon (Immerzeel 2008; Trenberth 2011). The possibility of experiencing rainfall-driven water-related challenges (such as floods, droughts or groundwater recharge) due to the changes in the monsoon strength & hydrological processes, can be referred as rainfall-driven climatic hazards. Flood is a common climatic hazard in all regions of Bangladesh. The monsoon rainfall drives the flows of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers, consequently causes floods in Bangladesh during the monsoon season (June to September). Floods in Bangladesh are mainly driven by the Brahmaputra river, though the Ganges and Meghna rivers play secondary roles (Hofer & Messerli 2006; Mirza 2011). Heavy monsoon rainfall, low floodplain gradient, high astronomical tide and congested drainage channels causes severe floods in Bangladesh. Most of the low-lying coastal areas of Bangladesh are susceptible to flooding even under normal astronomical tide conditions (Jisan et al., 2018) and strong tidal effects sometimes travel 200 km upstream from the coast (Dasgupta et al., 2015). During the monsoon period, the high astronomical tide usually penetrates landward very frequently and overflow saline water surrounding the coastal region. On June 11th, 2007, more than one-third of Chittagong was flooded due to high tide. Landslide is one of the most common natural hazards in hilly environments (Chisty 2014). Climate-induced landslides often occur in areas composed of unconsolidated rocks or in areas where slope saturation occurs due to excessive rainfall. During the monsoon season, landslides occur frequently in the hilly regions of Bangladesh and causes deaths, loss of homes & damage of assets. During the last five decades, 12 landslides had occurred in the southeast hilly region of Bangladesh (Sarker & Rashid 2013). Drought occurs in almost all climatic regions of Bangladesh due to the high rainfall variability. The drought had occurred 29 times in Bangladesh during the 1950–2011 period. Drought occurs in Bangladesh on an average of 2 to 2.5 years. Devastating droughts are projected to increase in frequency. Drought is more prominent in northern, north-western and south-western regions of Bangladesh. Cyclones are revolving tropical storms formed by low-pressure systems. The low-pressure system evolves due to the changes in sea surface temperature, wind speed, humidity and rainfall. With the increasing sea surface temperatures due to global warming, tropical cyclones are likely to become more intense and more widespread.
Coastal Development Partnership (CDP), Bangladesh, ISBN: 978-984-34-7002-4
Report/Proceedings