ASPIRATION PICTURE AND CLIMATE ADAPTATION: HOUSEHOLDS’ INCREMENTAL STRATEGIES IN CLIMATE-RESILIENT HOUSING IN RURAL COASTAL BANGLADESH

Abstract

While housing is a critical component of incremental climate change adaptation, identified by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), climate resilient housing implementation is widely focused on the module's safety and modularity, ignoring the beneficiaries' social adaption process underscored by incremental housing ideas. The study explores the incremental adaptation strategies employed by households in climate-vulnerable rural coastal Bangladesh to understand the complex adaptation attitudes of households in social or climate adaptation. The study uses a case study approach with qualitative methods encompassing household interviews, focus group discussions, and in-depth observation on 10 self-built homesteads, 10 Government of Bangladesh (GoB) provided, and 10 United Nations Development Program (UNDP) provided housing modules at Koyra, Khulna. The study observes that households adopt distinct adaptation strategies depending on sittings, roofs, walls, foundations, bedrooms, kitchens, and toilets of modules, which are prone to climate exposure and sensitivity. Therefore, households tackle the delicate complexity of the aspiration picture and social and climate adaptation when the residential situation is coupled with climate vulnerabilities. The study finds that the incomplete nature of a module allows for more aspiration achievement, while a more complete module leads to aspiration adjustments by changing attitudes toward the aspiration picture. This study underscores that in the design of climate-resilient housing modules, it is essential to consider a minimalist approach that can produce more robust climate-resilient homesteads while offering better opportunities for household engagement to enhance knowledge for building back better and safer.