Abstract

 Although households in the coastal areas of Bangladesh undertake various adaptation and coping measures to minimise their vulnerability to cyclone hazards and salinity intrusion, these autonomous measures have received little attention in the past. However, the Government of Bangladesh has recently emphasised the importance of understanding these measures so that necessary interventions to make households more resilient to natural hazards and the adverse impacts of climate change can be introduced. This paper, based on secondary sources, explores adaptation and coping measures that households in the coastal areas of Bangladesh undertake to minimise their vulnerability to cyclone hazards and salinity intrusion. This paper shows that many of the adaptation and coping measures contribute to making households less vulnerable and more resilient to cyclone hazards and salinity intrusion, although some coping measures do the opposite as they reduce households’ adaptive capacities instead of improving them. This paper argues that the adaptation and coping measures that contribute to reducing households’ vulnerability to natural hazards need to be supported and guided by the government and NGOs to make them more effective. Additionally, measures that make households more vulnerable also need to be addressed by the government and NGOs, as most of these measures are related to and constrained by both poverty, and because the households have little or no access to economic opportunities.
Highlights
Bangladesh, which is one of the most disasterprone countries in the world, regularly experiences various types of natural hazards, including floods, cyclones and storm surges, tornados, river-bank erosion, droughts, landslides, and earthquakes (Ministry of Environment and Forests [MEF], 2005; DisasterManagement Bureau [DMB], 2010)
Bangladesh’s low level of social and economic development, inadequate infrastructure, lack of institutional capacity, and higher dependency on the natural resource base increases its susceptibility to existing natural hazards and the adverse effects of climate change (MEF, 2005), with the population living in the coastal areas being more exposed to these impacts than those living in other parts of Bangladesh (MEF, 2005; Parvin, Takahashi, & Shaw, 2008; Warner et al, 2012)
Despite the high level of vulnerability to multiple natural hazards, coastal people of Bangladesh have a long tradition of employing various adaptation and coping measures to cope with these hazards (MEF, 2009; Ahmed, Haq, Nasreen, & Hassan, 2015; Paul & Routray, 2011)
Summary
Bangladesh, which is one of the most disasterprone countries in the world, regularly experiences various types of natural hazards, including floods, cyclones and storm surges, tornados, river-bank erosion, droughts, landslides, and earthquakes The three major government policy documents related to climate change and disaster management are the Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan (BCCSAP) (MEF, 2009), the National Plan for Disaster Management 2010–2015 (NPDM) (DMB, 2010), and the National Disaster Management Policy (NDMP) (MDMR, 2015) These documents focus on community-based disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation measures to strengthen community and household capacity to cope with natural hazards and the adverse effects of climate change.. A comprehensive understanding of what adaptation and coping measures households undertake to cope with natural hazards is essential in designing effective interventions that suit local needs and make households more resilient to natural hazards and the adverse impacts of climate change (DMB, 2010; MEF, 2009). Presents the cyclone and salinity situation in households of the coastal areas of Bangladesh coastal Bangladesh; and the third investigates undertake in relation to these two hazards
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