Abstract
Since August 2017, more than 744,400 stateless Rohingya refugees – an ethnic Muslim minority group from the Rakhine State – have entered Bangladesh to escape serious crimes against humanity conducted by the Myanmar Army. Extensive level of deforestation and hill cutting activities took place in Cox’s Bazar District (CBD) in Bangladesh to accommodate them. The refugee camps are sitting on hills and loose soil and are highly vulnerable to rainfall-triggered landslides. Notably in June 2017, landslides in the same region killed at least 160 people. From this perspective, the study aims to develop a localised landslide early warning system (EWS) for the Rohingya refugees and their host communities in CBD. A novel method, combining landslide inventory and susceptibility maps, rainfall thresholds and dynamic web-based alert system, has been introduced to develop the landslide early warning system (EWS) by applying advanced geoinformation techniques. Results suggest that approximately 5,800 hectares of forest land cover disappeared due to the 2017 Rohingya influx. Land cover changes through hill cutting andslope modifications, and unplanned urbanisation are predominantly responsible for slope failures and consecutive 5-day periods of rainfall between 95–220 mm could initiate landslides in high susceptible areas. The EWS would support the local authorities and international organisations in reducing disaster risks and saving lives from landslides in a humanitarian context.
Highlights
Disasters and conflict impact life, livelihood and critical infrastructure
The stateless Rohingya refugees are forced to live on temporary hilly camps in Cox’s Bazar District (CBD) that severely restrict permanent and safer constructions
A framework for developing a web-based dynamic landslide early warning system has been proposed in this study
Summary
Disasters and conflict impact life, livelihood and critical infrastructure. At present, there are around 70.8 million people who were forcibly displaced worldwide and among them 25.9 million are refugees (UNHCR 2018). To achieve the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), it is essential to ensure the refugee populations’ safety, reduce their disaster vulnerability, and protect the environment. Landslide disasters are evident in the Chittagong Hill Districts (CHD), located in the southeast region of Bangladesh (Figure 1(a)), that is home to nearly 12 million people (BBS 2014; Ahmed 2017; Rabby and Li 2019). Between 1990 and 2019, a number of catastrophic landslide disasters took over 400 lives and affected 56 thousand people in Bangladesh (Chisty 2014; Rahman et al 2017). In June 2017, torrential rainfall-triggered landslides in the CHD claimed at least 162 lives and left 80 thousand inhabitants affected (Ahmed 2017).
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