Riverine Islands Research Articles

The Impact of Climatic Characteristics on Increasing Soil Salinity in Manathira District Center

The climate plays a crucial role in shaping soil characteristics. High temperatures during summer can lead to increased evaporation of soil moisture, resulting in drier and more fragmented soils. This process often leads to higher salt concentrations, altering the soil's properties. In the study area, the soil is categorized into four types: river shoulder soil, river basin soil, riverine island soil, and desert gypsum soil. These soil types are significantly influenced by environmental factors, both natural and anthropogenic. Soil, being a fundamental component of the environment that supports life, is essential for the survival of humans, plants, and animals. In the Najaf Governorate, the soil is vital for agriculture, supporting the growth of various important crops, including vegetables and fruits. However, the soil's natural and human-induced changes have led to a noticeable deterioration in its quality, rendering much of the land unsuitable for agriculture due to high concentrations of saline elements. The natural factors impacting the soil in the study area include climate, soil properties, and water resources, while human activities have further exacerbated these effects. As a result, the soil, particularly in cultivated and uncultivated basins, has seen a rise in the levels of total dissolved salts, sodium, magnesium, calcium, potassium, sulfate, and chloride, often exceeding global standards. In contrast, the soils of river shoulders have remained within acceptable limits.

Determinants of Solar Home Systems Adoption among Riverine Island Dwellers: A Case Study of Sirajganj District in Bangladesh

Purpose: This study aims to identify the determinants of solar home systems adoption among riverine island dwellers, focusing on the Sirajganj district in Bangladesh. Methodology: The research, based on a comprehensive survey of 200 households, utilized logistic regression analysis and descriptive statistics. Findings: The study finds that ‘education of the household head’, ‘access to credit’, and ‘monthly household income’ significantly affected solar home systems adoption at different level of significance. Factors leading to adopt solar home systems included lack of electricity access, focus on energy security, and cost savings, along with access to loans or installments and community connections. Conversely, non-adopters faced barriers such as perceived high initial costs, lack of installment facilities, and insufficient awareness. Practical Implications: The study highlights the importance of credit accessibility, educational background, and household income in promoting solar home systems adoption. Policymakers and stakeholders can use these insights to tailor interventions addressing specific determinants and encourage widespread adoption. Originality/Value: This research provides valuable new insights into promoting sustainable energy initiatives in similar contexts. Limitations: The study's limitations include its small sample size and potential regional variations. Further research is recommended to validate and extend these findings across diverse geographical settings.

Distinct drivers of bacterial community assembly processes in riverine islands in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

Riverine islands are widespread alluvium wetlands developed in large rivers, and bacterial communities are crucial to their ecological function, yet their assembly processes are rarely addressed. The ecosystem services provided by the middle and the lower Yangtze are primarily threatened by pollution discharge from agricultural land use, and resource overutilization (e.g., embankments), respectively. Here, we assessed bacterial community assembly processes and their drivers within riverine islands in the middle Yangtze River (MR islands) and those in the lower reach (LR islands). A significant distance-decay relationship was observed, although the turnover rate was lower than that of the terrestrial ecosystem with less connectivity. Deterministic and stochastic processes jointly shaped community patterns, and the influence of stochastic increased from 26% in MR islands to 59% for those in LR islands. Meanwhile, the bacterial community in MR islands was controlled more by inorganic nitrogen availability, whereas those in LR islands were governed by pH and EC, although those factors explained a limited fraction of variation in the bacterial community. Potential indicator taxa (affiliated with Nocardioides and Lysobacter) characterized the waterway transport pollution. Overall, our study demonstrated that bacterial community dissimilarity and the importance of dispersal limitation increased concurrently along the flow direction, while distinct local factors further determined bacterial community compositions by selecting habitat-specificity taxa and particularly metabolism function. These findings enhanced our understanding of the mechanisms driving changes in bacterial communities of riverine islands subject to increased anthropogenic impacts.IMPORTANCERivers are among the most threatened ecosystems globally and face multiple stressors related to human activity. However, linkages between microbial diversity patterns and assembly processes in rivers remain unclear, especially in riverine islands developed in large rivers. Our findings reveal that distinct factors result in divergent bacterial community compositions and functional profiles in the riverine islands in the middle Yangtze and those in the lower Yangtze, with substantial differentiation in deterministic and stochastic processes that jointly contribute to bacterial community assemblages. Additionally, keystone species may play important metabolic roles in coping with human-related disturbances. This study provides an improved understanding of relationships between microbial diversity patterns and ecosystem functions under environmental changes in large river ecosystems.

Transformation of coastal wetlands in the Sundarban Delta (1999–2020)

Spanning across Bangladesh and India, the Sundarban Delta consists of over a thousand islands, the majority of which are protected. These islands are important for the rich biodiversity and unique species found here. However, these islands are also at the forefront of climate change due to the impact of rising sea levels and extreme weather events. Therefore, we analyzed the long-term transformations in the land use land cover (LULC) between 1999 and 2020. We used a variety of geostatistical methods, including optimized hot spots cold spots and join count statistics, to examine the spatial patterns of changes in LULC across the study area. The results of our analysis revealed substantial changes in the spatial patterns of mangroves and pond aquaculture. The changes revealed a distinct north–south demarcation in spatial patterns, in the form of clustering of mangroves in the uninhabited islands located in the south and pond aquaculture clustered in the northern inhabited islands. The loss of area under mangroves was concentrated in the southern edges of the islands, which were most exposed to erosion in the open ocean. Nevertheless, we observed an increase in the area under mangroves in some of the northern riverine islands (17 km2). In the case of pond aquaculture, it was mostly concentrated in inhabited islands in the north. Most of the expansions were concentrated in the Indian part of the delta (631 km2). It is noteworthy that because of effective conservation measures, there was very limited overlap between mangroves and pond aquaculture, denoting the conversion of agricultural land to pond aquaculture instead of mangroves. Thus, the results of our study revealed the importance of local level conservation policies and anthropogenic activities, such as deforestation and local level disturbance like over-extraction of water and pollution, on the changing patterns of LULC across this unique, fragile ecosystem. Future studies may incorporate a finer resolution time series of LULC changes over time and space to enable more detailed analysis.

Some Local Survival Strategies to Cope with Flood: Examples from Bhakat Chapori, Majuli, Assam

The understanding of local coping and survival strategies are very important to know about how a community deals with hazardous condition. Each community builds own local survival strategies to overcome the vulnerability of familiar disastrous events. Histories have shown that ‘Majuli the largest riverine Island of the world has been experiencing the effects of flood since past. The mainland of Majuli Island is surrounded by several small islets or chapories and the studied area “Bhakat Chapori” is one of them. Local people of this chapori have been living with flood since long and now flood became a part of their life and culture. The present study includes how local or indigenous knowledge system of the villages of Bhakat chapori can help them to manage mild effects of flood as per their own survival strategies. The paper is an outcome of ongoing doctoral research work, purely based on ethnographic fieldwork. Here an attempt has made to document and understand the local survival or coping strategies of a small island during flood events. Some strategies are so effective that those can be applied other parts of the country or world for the better survival of the people.

Healthcare Challenges in Disaster-Prone Riverine Islands: A Study of Sirajgonj, Bangladesh

Healthcare Challenges in Disaster-Prone Riverine Islands: A Study of Sirajgonj, Bangladesh

Empowerment of Muslim Women in Char Areas: A Study of the Morigaon District of Assam

This study embarks on an in-depth exploration of the socio-political and economic dimensions of womens empowerment in the char areas of the Morigaon district in Assam, a region marked by its unique geographical and demographic characteristics. Despite accounting for nearly half of the nations population, women in India, particularly those in the under-researched char areas, grapple with low literacy rates and limited access to educational resources, starkly contrasting with the national growth figures. This research aims to dissect the multifaceted layers of empowerment, or the lack thereof, among Muslim women in these regions, scrutinizing their socio-economic status, political awareness, and the systemic obstacles impeding their holistic development. Leveraging both primary and secondary data, and employing empirical, descriptive, and analytical methods, the study seeks to unveil the nuances of empowerment and the factors contributing to the continued backwardness of the char areas, thereby providing a comprehensive understanding of the life and challenges faced by the women residing in these isolated riverine islands of the Brahmaputra.

Natural disasters, livelihood, and healthcare challenges of the people of a riverine island in Bangladesh: A mixed-method exploration.

Bangladesh's islands, because of their geographical location, frequently encounter crises like floods and river erosion, which pose significant threats to the residents' well-being and livelihoods. To delve into the effects of these disasters on livelihood and healthcare challenges, a mixed-method study was undertaken in a riverine-island near a major river of Bangladesh. Between February 15th and February 28th, 2023, a cross-sectional study was conducted on an island in Bangladesh. The quantitative method involved conducting a survey of 442 households, with a total of 2921 participants. Additionally, 10 in-depth interviews and 10 key-informant interviews were conducted using semi-structured guidelines. Qualitative interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using a thematic analysis. Triangulation was employed in this study through the integration of qualitative and quantitative analysis, resulting in the presentation of findings that offer an in-depth comprehension of the phenomenon being investigated. River erosions and floods are common and recurring natural disasters that significantly impact the lives of the riverine island inhabitants. These disasters often disrupted their livelihoods, forced many residents to endure substandard living conditions or relocated during flood events. The island faced a low diagnostic prevalence of chronic diseases (e.g., 5.1% of adults were hypertension and 2.5% are diabetes) because of the absence of diagnostic facilities and a shortage of certified doctors. A significant number of chronic illness people in the community turned to alternative medicine sources (39.3%) such as homeopathy, Kabiraj, and Ayurvedic medicine, especially it gets increased during periods of natural disasters. Moreover, reproductive aged women revealed that 79.4% of them gave birth at home, with 6.0% of these home deliveries resulting in miscarriage or infant death. The destruction of crops, unstable job opportunities, an inadequate educational system, and a deficient healthcare delivery system exacerbated the hardships faced by the population affected by these disasters. The failure to seek treatment for chronic diseases and undiagnosed diseases is a significant health issue among the aging adults on the island. Island residents face the challenge of establishing effective prevention strategies for the well-being of older adults especially at the period of natural disasters. It is crucial for the government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to collaborate to prevent the negative effects of floods and river erosions. This should include efforts to enhance the quality of education, healthcare services, job opportunities, and financial assistance for rebuilding homes.

Livelihood Changes of Char (Dry Land) Women Due to Involvement in Activities of the Char Livelihood Program

Climatic hazards are common in Bangladesh on delta and riverine island communities, which are large sandbars formed in riverbeds due to silt and alluvium deposition. Specifically, these hazards are caused by the dynamic erosion and accretion of riverbanks. The natural disaster caused by the subsequent sediment buildup on the riverbed and river bank erosion poses a serious threat to the way of life for the residents of Char, particularly the women, by causing damage to or destruction of houses, crops, and family income. The Char Livelihood Program (CLP) attempted to strengthen women's resilience and sense of empowerment while simultaneously improving their livelihoods, nutrition, access to clean water, sanitation, and hygiene habits of char women. This study was mainly undertaken to investigate the extent of changes in the livelihood status of char women due to the involvement in Char Livelihood Program (CLP), explore the factors that may influence the livelihood changes of the char women due to involvement in the CLP. Besides, the problems faced by the char women while working in CLP were also investigated. Data were collected from four villages of Islampur Upazila (sub-district) under Jamalpur district purposively and analyzed using Multiple Linear Regression Models. The goal was to identify the variables that affect the char women's changes in their livelihood. Findings indicated that involvement in char livelihood program had significant influence on the livelihood of char women. The main factor included years of schooling, family size and knowledge of CLP. Collectively, the factors explained 32.3% variation in the livelihood changes of char women. The most influential challenges, from highest to lowest, included unavailability of transport and poor communication status, and lack of commitment of the service provider. Therefore, in order to overcome these obstacles, efforts must be made to ensure seasonal transportation system and enhance road communication infrastructure to enable char women to move around freely in order to carry agricultural products and to connect with relevant stakeholders for better farming and income operations.

Fluid Ecologies, Sovereignty, and Colonialism: Princely contestations over riverine islands in colonial India

This article analyses the disputes over riverine islands between two princely states in colonial southern India in the 19th and early 20th centuries. These disputes arose because of changes in the islands’ landmass caused by water movements. Such tidal temporalities challenged cartographic rigidities and the established notions of sovereignty of states. What were assumed to be sovereign, undisputed and infallible were unsettled by such hydrological power and the fluid ecologies involved. A set of challenges emanated from external concepts arising from colonialism which undermined the native geographical understanding of the land-water continuum due to the monetisation of land. This article makes a critical appraisal of this double challenge to the traditional understanding of fluid ecologies while also highlighting the counter challenges from the princely states. These contests were particularly pronounced as the princely states had considerable autonomy in internal matters of administration and thus differed from the rest of the colonial territory directly ruled by the British in India. The article contributes to the study of riverine islands by investigating the nature and fluidity of shifting islands, whose variation in temporal contexts has been barely acknowledged in Island Studies to date.

Social vulnerability, impacts and adaptations strategies in the face of natural hazards: insight from riverine islands of Bangladesh

BackgroundBangladesh is one of the countries at risk of natural disasters due to climate change. In particular, inhabitants of its riverine islands (char) confront ongoing climatic events that heighten their vulnerability. This study aims to assess social vulnerability, impacts, and adaptation strategies to climate change in the riverine island areas of Bangladesh.MethodsA mixed-method approach incorporating qualitative and quantitative procedures was used on data collected from 180 households of riverine islands in Gaibandha, Bangladesh. The social vulnerability of riverine island communities was assessed based on their adaptation capacity, sensitivity, and exposure to climatic stressors.ResultsThe findings show that char dwellers' vulnerability, impacts, and adaptation capability to climate change vary significantly depending on their proximity to the mainland. Social vulnerability factors such as geographical location, fragile and low-grade housing conditions, illiteracy and displacement, climate-sensitive occupation and low-income level, and so on caused to the in-height vulnerability level of these particular areas. This study also displays that climate change and its associated hazards cause severe life and livelihood concerns for almost all households. In this case, the riverine dwellers employed several adaptation strategies to enhance their way of life to the disaster brought on changing climate. However, low education facilities, deficiency of useful information on climate change, poor infrastructure, and shortage of money are still the supreme hindrance to the sustainability of adaptation.ConclusionThe findings underscore the importance of evaluating the susceptibility of local areas to climate change and emphasize the need for tailored local initiatives and policies to reduce vulnerability and enhance adaptability in communities residing in char households.

The COVID-19: Socioeconomic Crisis and Its Management on a Bangladeshi Coastal Island

This study aimed to investigate the socio-economic crisis aroused due to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated prevention measures on the coastal riverine island Nalua in Bangladesh. The cross-sectional household questionnaire survey was done among the randomly selected households in the study area. This study revealed that more than 70 percent of the surveyed households had at least one member with COVID-19 symptoms. The local administration and community-based organizations have taken initiatives to enforce the government’s order on the island, but about three-fourths of households did not test their family members having COVID-19 symptoms because of fear of isolation and societal barriers. However, whether tested or not, approximately 15 percent of households took steps to isolate the infected person from the rest of the family. The demand for hand washing agents, face masks, and gloves increased in the study area. Island dwellers' food supplies were hampered and about 74 percent were supposed to buy food items at an increased price. For recovering from the educational crisis, the students watched live television classes, participated in online class lectures, and submitted their desired assignments to their institutions. According to survey results, about 39 percent of economically active family members lost their income-generating occupations. To manage their livelihoods, island dwellers have switched their income sources and, in most cases, taken consumer loans. This study suggests that governments, non-government organizations, and community-based organizations need to take effective steps to reduce socioeconomic crises during pandemics.

A Comparative Assessment of Multi-Source Generation of Digital Elevation Models for Fluvial Landscapes Characterization and Monitoring

Imaging and measuring the Earth’s relief with sensors mounted upon unmanned aerial vehicles is an increasingly frequently used and promising method of remote sensing. In the context of fluvial geomorphology and its applications, e.g., landform mapping or flood modelling, the reliable representation of the land surface on digital elevation models is crucial. The main objective of the study was to assess and compare the accuracy of state-of-the-art remote sensing technologies in generating DEMs for riverscape characterization and fluvial monitoring applications. In particular, we were interested in DAP and LiDAR techniques comparison, and UAV applicability. We carried out field surveys, i.e., GNSS-RTK measurements, UAV and aircraft flights, on islands and sandbars within a nature reserve on a braided section of the Vistula River downstream from the city of Warsaw, Poland. We then processed the data into DSMs and DTMs based on four sources: ULS (laser scanning from UAV), UAV-DAP (digital aerial photogrammetry), ALS (airborne laser scanning), and satellite Pléiades imagery processed with DAP. The magnitudes of errors are represented by the cross-reference of values generated on DEMs with GNSS-RTK measurements. Results are presented for exposed sediment bars, riverine islands covered by low vegetation and shrubs, or covered by riparian forest. While the average absolute height error of the laser scanning DTMs oscillates around 8–11 cm for most surfaces, photogrammetric DTMs from UAV and satellite data gave errors averaging more than 30 cm. Airborne and UAV LiDAR measurements brought almost the perfect match. We showed that the UAV-based LiDAR sensors prove to be useful for geomorphological mapping, especially for geomorphic analysis of the river channel at a large scale, because they reach similar accuracies to ALS and better than DAP-based image processing.

Amazonian birds in more dynamic habitats have less population genetic structure and higher gene flow.

Understanding the factors that govern variation in genetic structure across species is key to the study of speciation and population genetics. Genetic structure has been linked to several aspects of life history, such as foraging strategy, habitat association, migration distance, and dispersal ability, all of which might influence dispersal and gene flow. Comparative studies of population genetic data from species with differing life histories provide opportunities to tease apart the role of dispersal in shaping gene flow and population genetic structure. Here, we examine population genetic data from sets of bird species specialized on a series of Amazonian habitat types hypothesized to filter for species with dramatically different dispersal abilities: stable upland forest, dynamic floodplain forest, and highly dynamic riverine islands. Using genome-wide markers, we show that habitat type has a significant effect on population genetic structure, with species in upland forest, floodplain forest, and riverine islands exhibiting progressively lower levels of structure. Although morphological traits used as proxies for individual-level dispersal ability did not explain this pattern, population genetic measures of gene flow are elevated in species from more dynamic riverine habitats. Our results suggest that the habitat in which a species occurs drives the degree of population genetic structuring via its impact on long-term fluctuations in levels of gene flow, with species in highly dynamic habitats having particularly elevated gene flow. These differences in genetic variation across taxa specialized in distinct habitats may lead to disparate responses to environmental change or habitat-specific diversification dynamics over evolutionary time scales.

Self-medication Practice and its Potential Determinants among Riverine-Island’s People in Sirajganj, Bangladesh: A Cross-Sectional Study

The objective of this study was to investigate the prevalence of self-medication practice and associated risk factors among riverine-island’s people in Sirajganj, Bangladesh. This study was done by following cross-sectional method with close-ended questionnaire. Data were collected from a total of 459 respondents via face-to-face interview. Frequency analysis was done to identify the prevalence of selfmedication practice, and chi-square test and logistic regression analysis were conducted for identifying the associated factors with self-medication practice. Total 83% participants were self-medicated. Notably, 62% people were self-medicated with antibiotics. More than 30% people practiced with selfmedication due to high cost of doctor consultation. Age, gender, marital status, educational status, occupation, monthly family income, and suffering from illness were correlated with self-medication practice in chi-square (χ2) analysis. Gender (male vs. female, odds ratio [OR]: 0.49, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.25-0.95, p=0.031) and marital status (married vs. unmarried, OR: 0.43, 95% CI: 0.23- 0.83, p=0.011) were significantly associated with self-medication practice in logistic regression analysis. The rate at which persons living on riverine islands engage in self-medication is alarmingly high, and the consequence of this behavior is concerning. The inappropriate use of antibiotics is a source of concern. In order to reduce the practice of self-medication among people living on riverine islands in Sirajganj, Bangladesh, there is an immediate need to raise public awareness about the harmful effects of the practice as well as to implement appropriate legislation and activities. Bangladesh Pharmaceutical Journal 26(1): 79-88, 2023 (January)

Sea changes of sandbanks and reclamation of shallows in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River in the modern period

ABSTRACT The Yangtze River waterway is an open and dynamic natural system, where we see natural changes such as soil and water loss, river flooding, and rise and collapse of sandbanks and activities people carried out for land reclamation in the waterfront lowlands. Riverine island, a typical waterfront lowland, is formed by the sediment carried by the water from the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River when it is blocked, slowed down, and silted up in the process. It needs the protection of the dam. As important water conservancy facilities in lowland society, dams are, in fact, the result of state intervention and local self-organization governance. People’s adaptation to and transformation of the ecological environment in the waterfront region mainly revolves around the rise, collapse, and reclamation of the land and water control, which demonstrates the dynamic balance between “man and nature.” Since the late Qing, the north branch of Zhangjiazhou has gradually developed into a curved channel; the north bank has been eroded by water and accelerated to collapse, whereas the south bank has gradually silted up. The residents who lived on the north bank of the Yangtze River went to the south bank to reclaim land, resulting in continuous disputes over the reclamation of the new alluvial land. People realized their own demands for land reclamation by organizing groups beyond villages and families and using regulations on reclamation or land laws. This demonstrates that in the modern period the state and its institutional construction played a more important role in “confirming the rights” of the new alluvial land.

Disaster Psychology and Psychological Adaptation of Disasters: Evidence From Riverine Islands (Char) of Rural Bangladesh

Natural hazards disrupt the social-ecological system, causing much suffering, death, injury, and devastation of property and the environment. This study explores the factors influencing the disaster psychology and psychological adaptation of people living in disaster-vulnerable areas in Bangladesh. Data have been collected from 100 households in Bangladesh’s riverine island areas (char) of northern Bangladesh. Several criteria have been used to measure char dwellers’ disaster psychology (vulnerability concern, factor, and intensity) and psychological adaptation (weakness concern and emotional response). This study reveals that char dwellers perceived several hazards like floods (100%), riverbank erosion (83%), drought (29%), and earthquakes (14%). It is also found that females (88%) are more concerned about earthquakes than males (12%). The key vulnerability factors in the char areas are geographic position (100%), no access to migration (75%), resources (76%), housing (83%), training (18%), and alternative livelihood (24%). Flood and drought are identified as the most destructive hazards in char areas. Most household heads also felt anxiety (88%), fear (54%), helplessness, sadness, and anger due to natural hazards. The government should implement a context-specific disaster management plan to reduce household vulnerability and create livelihood opportunities in char areas to enhance char dwellers’ psychological resilience against disasters.

Climate change induced human displacement in Bangladesh: Implications on the livelihood of displaced riverine island dwellers and their adaptation strategies.

In Bangladesh, many people are being displaced in riverine island (char) areas every year due to climate change and its associated natural catastrophes. This study intends to investigate the impact of climate change on internally displaced char people’s lives and livelihoods along with local adaptation strategies and hindrances to the coping mechanism. Data have been collected from 280 internally displaced households in two sub-districts. A mixed-method approach has been considered combined with qualitative and quantitative methods. The results disclose that frequent flooding, riverbank erosion, and crop loss are the leading causes for relocation, and social relations are impeded in the new place of residence. Increasing summer and winter temperatures, recurrent flooding, severity of riverbank erosion, and expanding disease outbreaks are also important indicators of climate change identified by displaced people, which are consistent with observed data. This study also reveals that almost all households come across severe livelihood issues like food shortage, unemployment and income loss, and housing and sanitation problems due to the changing climate associated with disasters in the former and present places. In response to this, the displaced people acclimatize applying numerous adaptation strategies in order to boost the livelihood resilience against climate change. However, fragile housing, financial conditions, and lack of own land are still the highest impediments to the sustainability of adaptation. Therefore, along with the government, several organizations should implement a dynamic resettlement project through appropriate scrutiny to eradicate the livelihood complications of internally displaced people.

Assessment of flood vulnerability of riverine island community using a composite flood vulnerability index

The devastating impact of flooding is gradually increasing worldwide including riverine islands of Bangladesh due to climate change issue. Riverine islands and coastal communities are the primary victims due to their geographical position. The riverine islands (char) of Bangladesh are frequently flooded, necessitating context-specific flood management policies and actions that require an in-depth investigation of household vulnerability level. Therefore, this study assesses the vulnerability level of riverine island dwellers to flooding. Data were collected from 384 household heads living in geographically isolated char areas. A context-specific composite flood vulnerability index was developed under the IPCC framework. The results reveal that all households are vulnerable to flooding and are poorly able to cope with its adverse effect. Households living near the mainland have a somewhat more adaptive capacity than distant households. Flood vulnerability is mainly determined by char households' flood perception, damage, and access to food, water and health resources during flooding. Riverbank erosion, recurrent floods, a lack of employment, and limited access to essential public services were also identified as the primary socio-economic and natural causes of flood vulnerability. To decrease the livelihood risk and promote char dwellers’ resilience, a char-based policy plan with both a short- and a long-term focus is required.

Livelihood vulnerability of char land communities to climate change and natural hazards in Bangladesh: an application of livelihood vulnerability index

Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change. In general, Char land (Riverine Island) communities are frequently affected by floods, riverbank erosion, and other climatic hazards, including drought, cyclones, tornadoes, salinity intrusion, water logging, cold waves, etc., which cause many to lose their sources of livelihoods and properties and make them more vulnerable. Using survey data of 262 rural households, this study investigates the extent of livelihood vulnerability to climate change and natural hazards in the Char land communities by applying the climate change vulnerability index (CVI) (i.e., UN-IPCC vulnerability framework) and the livelihood vulnerability index (LVI) to develop context-specific interventions for building climate and livelihood resilience. The two approaches to vulnerability assessment were modified to incorporate local contexts and indigenous knowledge into 41 sub-components. The result shows that LVI and CVI values are different between Char land communities. The LVI index shows that households in Char Jotindro-Narayan (0.148) are more vulnerable than those in Char Kulaghat (0.139). The CVI values for Char Jotindro-Narayan (0.633) are slightly lower than for Char Kulaghat (0.639). The major vulnerability factors were access to food and water, social networks, natural disasters, and climatic variability. The study also indicates that flood, riverbank erosion, unemployment, and access to communication, market, and basic service opportunities are the major biophysical and socioeconomic factors determining livelihood vulnerability. Context-specific sustainable policies and development initiatives are required to improve the adaptive capacity of Char land communities across Bangladesh, thereby building their climate and livelihood resilience.