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The coastal zone of Bangladesh is very heterogeneous in nature and has marvelous
potential to create opportunities of national importance and contribute
to GDP. Among the potentials—intensification of agriculture, aqua-culture
and marine fishery, ship building industry, Eco-tourism, deep sea port etc. are
most significant. Unfortunately, the coasta...
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... More than ever, human beings need sustainable energy infrastructure to provide these services while reducing the impact on the environment (Zhang et al. 2021;Wang et al. 2022b). Ahmed et al. (2017) investigated the problems of the floodplain in the western part of the Ganges and propose some important strategies to map out a development roadmap. The coastal areas of Bangladesh are very diverse in nature and have great potential to create opportunities of national importance and contribute to gross domestic product (GDP). ...
Water shortage is a universal resource problem worldwide, especially in arid and semi-arid regions. Water resources are often the main limiting factor for socio-economic development and regional resource development. The Hami Basin is one of the most water-scarce areas in China, with low average annual precipitation and high evaporation. In order to effectively monitor groundwater problems, this paper proposes a study on the status and change characteristics of groundwater resource pollution in the Hami area based on sustainable development strategies, aiming to study the changes in groundwater in the Hami area and propose corresponding measures to reduce pollution and save water resources. The method of this article is to introduce the groundwater quality evaluation method, analyze the environmental carrying capacity and then study the evolution process of the groundwater environment in the Hami area. The function of the method is to assess the ecological risk of groundwater and the risk of groundwater pollution, and to analyze the changes in the carrying capacity of the local environmental system. This paper uses groundwater detection experiments to detect the current status of groundwater resource pollution and the characteristics of groundwater changes in the Hami area, and establish a groundwater numerical model in the Hami area.
... Climate change adaptation planning, however, often uses aggregated indicators, disregarding equity considerations (Kolstad et al., 2014;Stanton et al., 2009). For example, adaptation planning studies by Ahmed et al. (2017), Campos et al. (2016), Radhakrishnan et al. (2017), Ranger et al. (2013), and Smajgl et al. (2015) all report on aggregated indicators such as flooded area, total area having a certain salt concentration, number of people exposed to flooding, total paddy yield, and total economic value in a flood prone area. If little to no attention is given to assessing which groups of the population are more affected, the recommended adaptation policies might fail to target specific vulnerable groups within the population. ...
The need for explicitly considering equity in climate change adaptation planning is increasingly being recognized. However, evaluations of adaptation often adopt an aggregated perspective, while disaggregation of results is important to learn about who benefits when and where. A typical example is adaptation of rice agriculture in the Vietnam Mekong Delta (VMD). Efforts focused on flood protection have mainly benefitted large‐scale farmers while harming small‐scale farmers. To investigate the distributional consequences of adaptation policies in the VMD, we assess both aggregate total output and equity indicators, as well as disaggregated impacts in terms of district‐level farming profitability. Doing so requires an adequate representation of the multisectoral dynamics between the human and biophysical systems which influence farming profitability. We develop a spatially explicit integrated assessment model that couples inundation, sedimentation, soil fertility and nutrient dynamics, and behavioral land‐use change and farming profitability calculation. We find that inter‐district inequality responds in a non‐linear way to climatic and socio‐economic changes and choices of adaptation policies. The patterns of who wins and who loses could change substantially when a different policy is implemented or if a slightly different uncertain future materializes. We also find that there is no simple ranking of alternative adaptation policies, so one should make trade‐offs based on agreed preferences. Accounting for equity implies exploring the distribution of outcomes over different groups over a range of uncertain futures. Only by accounting for multisectoral dynamics can planners anticipate the equity consequences of adaptation and prepare additional measures to aid the worse‐off actors.
... This approach is often found in simulation-based IAMs. For instance, Ahmed et al. (2017) assess the performance of alternative adaptation pathways for the western Ganges floodplain based on both their effectiveness in reducing flood risk, their impacts on economic development, and their sociopolitical feasibility. The advancement in many-objective optimization has contributed to the uptake of the disaggregated metrics approach in simulation-optimization IAMs. ...
Models for supporting climate adaptation and mitigation planning, mostly in the form of Integrated Assessment Models, are poorly equipped for aiding questions related to fairness of adaptation and mitigation strategies, because they often disregard distributional outcomes. When evaluating policies using such models, the costs and benefits are typically aggregated across all actors in the system, and over the entire planning horizon. While a policy may be beneficial when considering the aggregate outcome, it can be harmful to some people, somewhere, at some point in time. The practice of aggregating over all actors and over time thus gives rise to problems of justice; it could also exacerbate existing injustices. While the literature discusses some of these injustices in ad‐hoc and case specific manner, a systematic approach for considering distributive justice in model‐based climate change planning is lacking. This study aims to fill this gap by proposing 11 requirements that an Integrated Assessment Model should meet in order to enable the assessment of distributive justice in climate mitigation and adaptation policies. We derive the requirements from various ethical imperatives stemming from the theory of distributive justice. More specifically, we consider both intra‐generational (among people within one generation) and intergenerational (between generations) distributive justice. We investigate to what extent the 11 requirements are being met in recent model‐based climate planning studies, and highlight several directions for future research to advance the accounting for distributive justice in model‐based support for climate change planning.
This article is categorized under: Climate, Nature, and Ethics > Climate Change and Global Justice
... Following the Plan, the construction drainage and irrigation of large flood controlling projects, began in earnest. The objective of that plan was to protect the area from flooding and coastal storm surges, and eventually protect the agricultural produce (Ahmad, 2019;Ahmed, Choudhury, & Ahmed, 2017). ...
In Bangladesh every single settlement, whether it is urban or rural is situated alongside a form of inland water network. Livelihood, culture and civilization of these settlements maintain an intrinsic relationship with the Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna River Basin System. Inland water ecosystem service plays a significant role in the establishment of a settlement and its socioeconomic activities. The traditional role of the water network has however, deteriorated over the years due to the lack of ecological knowledge, dearth of proper strategies and policy guidelines and various anthropogenic activities in the face of accelerated climate change scenarios. This study attempts to find out the ecosystem services of Bhiarab River in the context of the national river management strategies and policies in cooperation with river-dependent community and challenges thereof. The paper explains the background of this Rivers channel-based navigation, along with the discussion of issues and challenges faced by the settlements. The findings reveal various strategic policies that have been implemented over the years on piecemeal basis to manage water resources, which did not end up well due to the absence of a holistic approach. It is suggested in this paper that future management plans for this River should involve local communities to avail their willingness to conserve the River, while making them resilient against anthropogenic and natural impacts through enhancement of socioeconomic outputs from it. The community willingness and its dependence, as unearthed in this research, provides compelling ground for the authors to state that integrated planning with proper respect for local ecology is a mandatory strategic element for successful implementation of the policies in this regard.
... Following the Plan, the construction drainage and irrigation of large flood controlling projects, began in earnest. The objective of that plan was to protect the area from flooding and coastal storm surges, and eventually protect the agricultural produce (Ahmad, 2019;Ahmed, Choudhury, & Ahmed, 2017). ...
In Bangladesh every single settlement, whether it is urban or rural is situated alongside a form of inland water network. Livelihood, culture and civilization of these settlements maintain an intrinsic relationship with the Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna River Basin System. Inland water eco-system service plays a significant role in the establishment of a settlement and its socio-economic activities. The traditional role of the water network has however, deteriorated over the years due to the lack of ecological knowledge, dearth of proper strategies and policy guidelines and various anthropogenic activities in the face of accelerated climate change scenarios. This study attempts to find out the ecosystem services of Bhiarab River in the context of the national river management strategies and policies in cooperation with riverdependent community and challenges thereof. The paper explains the background of this River’s channelbased navigation, along with the discussion of issues and challenges faced by the settlements. The findings reveal various strategic policies that have been implemented over the years on piecemeal basis to manage water resources which did not end up well due to the absence of a holistic approach. It is suggested in this paper that future management plans for this River should involve local communities to avail their willingness to conserve the River, while making them resilient against anthropogenic and natural impacts through enhancement of socio-economic outputs from it. The community willingness and its dependence, as unearthed in this research, provides compelling ground for the authors to state that integrated planning with proper respect for local ecology is a mandatory strategic element for successful implementation of the policies in this regard.
... Water logging and Salinization are the two major constrains for coastal agriculture in Sundarban [33]. Since early 19th century, the unsystematic construction of embankments along rivers and its distributaries (locally known as khal) have been increased siltation within river bed and its peripheral land. ...
... In Gosaba Island, 27-42% of the total respondent engaged in farming activities, face extreme to severe waterlogged situation in agricultural land (Fig. 3). Near about 68% of the total cultivable land is low lying and mono-cropped and facing intensive waterlogging because of impeded drainage system [33]. The average production of Aman Paddy in 2018 is 3.24 tones/hectors in non waterlogged areas but the production decreases up to 35-40% in waterlogged areas (field survey, 2018-2019) (Fig. 4). ...
... In recent research, it is revealed that erratic monsoon rainfall, effect of climate induced sea level rise and gradual subsidence of the delta will aggravate the problem of waterlogging in near future [3,16]. Human encroachment and consequent drainage blockage will make the situation worse in near future [13,33,37]. The average sea surface temperature in Sundarban is increasing 0.5°C per decade in pre-monsoon season. ...
Drainage congestion induced waterlogging problem is a major issue for coastal agriculture in Sundarban. The mismanagement of drainage system, saucer shape appearance of the delta and erratic rainfalls in monsoon season (June–September) have been aggravated the problem of waterlogging. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to find out the root causes of waterlogging in agricultural field and its implications to the coastal agriculture. This work is based on primary data, directly collected from farmers through questionnaire and face to face interview to understand the issues and challenges of waterlogging in coastal agriculture. In addition to this, the Instrumental surveying has also been conducted to identify the minute changes in slope direction with relation to land use pattern of the delta. Remote sensing and GIS techniques help to detect the spatio-temporal change of drainage network and resulted drainage congestion through overlay analysis of multi-temporal vector layers. This study revealed that there are 70% farmers engaged in monocropping mainly rice farming but a few farmers treated waterlogging as an opportunity for integrated farming such as rice + fish farming, rice + fish + on dyke horticulture. The farmers who are engaged in monocropping intend to shift from monocropping to integrated farming system but monetary constrains and lacks of skills are the major barriers for adaptation of integrated farming. A comparative economic assessment has been done to calculate the relative economic efficiency of different types of farming system and better utilization of land use potentiality. This study is a way direction towards better management of agricultural system in this island.
... At the same time decisions on adaptation are also driven by other incentives, such as economic development. In rural south west of Bangladesh, this triggers the implementation and development of pathways with dykes, drainage and pumps 17 . For the Mekong Delta, accommodate/retreat pathways have been explored, consisting of adapting agriculture to enhance yield, diversifying livelihoods to ensure other sources of income, and migrating to less hazardous areas 62 . ...
Adaptation to coastal flood risk is hampered by high uncertainty in the rate and magnitude of sea-level rise. Subsequently, adaptation decisions carry strong risks of under- or over-investment, and could lead to costly retrofitting or unnecessary high margins. To better allocate resources timely and effectively, and achieve long-term sustainability, planners could utilise adaptation pathways, revealing the path-dependencies of adaptation options. This helps to identify low-regret short-term decisions that preserve options in an uncertain future, while monitoring to detect signals to adapt. A major barrier to the application of adaptation pathways is limited experience. To facilitate this, here we generalize this pathways approach for six common coastal archetypes, resulting in generic pathways suitable to be adjusted to local conditions. This provides a much richer analysis of coastal adaptation than provided by any previous analysis, by assessing the solution space and options over time for a variety of coastal regions. Based on this analysis, we find that the number of adaptation options declines while sea-level rises. For some archetypes, it becomes clear that long-term thinking is needed now, about if, how and when to move to transformative options, such as planned retreat, which may presently not be considered or acceptable. Our analysis further shows that coastal adaptation needs to start earlier than anticipated, especially given time required for local debate and choice and to implement measures.
... The method starts by identifying the general conditions under which a policy will fail referred to as the ‗adaptation tipping point condition' and after these adaptation tipping points, additional or other policy actions are needed (Kwadijk, Haasnoot et al. 2010). The approach applied in analysis for exploring future uncertainties in water management strategies (Haasnoot, Schellekens et al. 2015), climate change adaptation (Kwadijk, Haasnoot et al. 2010) in Netherlands, flood risk management in Thames Estuary in UK (Lavery & Donovan, 2005) and western floodplain of Ganges in Bangladesh (Ahmed, Choudhury et al. 2017). All the above research was forward looking prospective studies to anticipate the future. ...
... The southwest coastal region of Bangladesh in the western Ganges delta constitute around 800 km 2 area and hosting around 10.2 million of population (Ahmed et al, 2017). This relatively flat, fertile plain lands are characterized by tidal dominated river system, streams and depressions (Nowreen, Jalal et al. 2014). ...
... Around 43, often belongs to the first generation of total 145 polders are in this region (Ahmed et al, 2017). Figure 1 shows the southwest region with polders. ...
This research aims to inform how uncertain factors including community response have triggered adaptation tipping points in the historical pathway of delta management in the southwest of Bangladesh. We applied the concept of Adaptation Tipping Points to analyze the co-evolution of community engagement and water management approaches in historical pathways specific to southwest Bangladesh since 1960. Results show that in addition to natural hazards and changing environmental conditions, adaptation tipping point result from new opportunities, donor influence, weak policy implementation and uncertain community response. Key Message 1. ATPs have arisen not only from natural hazard and changing environmental conditions, but also from global discourse, new opportunity, donor influence, delayed or non-implementation of planned action and uncertain response of community. 2. In addition to factors that trigger an ATP, the factors targeted for countering ATP or tapping new opportunities play an important role in development oriented governance. 3. The uncertain community responses have manifested in the form of shifts in livelihood preference and social (un)acceptance for a water management intervention. The influence of uncertain community response in reaching ATPs are either constrained in top-down bureaucratic governance system or captured by social elite or indirect through donor influence. 3
Traditional top-down methods for resource management ask first what future conditions will be, then identify the best action(s) to take in response to that prediction. Even when acknowledging uncertainty about the future, standard approaches ( a) characterize uncertainties probabilistically, then optimize objectives in expectation, and/or ( b) develop a small number of representative scenarios to explore variation in outcomes under different policy responses. This leaves planners vulnerable to surprise if future conditions diverge from predictions. In this review, we describe contemporary approaches to decision support that address deep uncertainty about future external forcings, system responses, and stakeholder preferences for different outcomes. Many of these methods are motivated by climate change adaptation, infra-structure planning, or natural resources management, and they provide dramatic improvements in the robustness of management strategies. We outline various methods conceptually and describe how they have been applied in a range of landmark real-world planning studies.
