Southwest Coastal Areas Of Bangladesh Research Articles

Integration of socio-ecological data to prioritize biodiversity hot-spots for Marine Protected Area (MPA) delineation in the coastal zone of Bangladesh

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are widely used tools for conserving coastal and marine biodiversity and ecosystem health. However, the goal of declaring and managing at least 10 % of coastal and marine waters as MPAs has not been achieved in Bangladesh and many other countries. This study aimed at prioritizing the potential areas for MPA delineation in the south-west coastal zone of Bangladesh. The study also examined the socio-economic status, environmental and ecological characteristics of the study areas. Data on socio-economic, environmental, ecological, and management variables were collected through intensive field surveys from August 2023 to December 2023. The data were integrated using a multi-criteria analytical technique. Fishing was identified as the primary occupation for all fishermen surveyed, with secondary occupations including fish selling, marketing, and drying activities. The fishing areas for fishermen from the three survey sites were mainly concentrated in the offshore area. All three areas were identified as biodiversity hotspots, with Kuakata coast showing the highest species diversity, followed by Salimpur and Sandwip coasts. The study revealed that the Kuakata coast has the highest conservation importance, especially for IUCN red-listed species, juvenile fisheries species, and megafauna species. Salimpur coast is important for the conservation of saltmarshes, mangroves, and their dependent communities, while Sandwip is crucial for juvenile fish species conservation. Based on socio-ecological criteria, Kuakata was recommended as the most potential site for MPA delineation, followed by Salimpur and Sandwip. Implementing these recommendations can improve the management and execution of existing MPAs by focusing conservation efforts on areas with the highest biodiversity and ecological importance, ensuring better protection for vulnerable species, and enhancing the sustainability of local fishing communities. This, in turn, will ultimately enhance biodiversity conservation and ecosystem health in the southwest coastal area of Bangladesh.

Coping with disasters: changing patterns of disaster risk reduction activities in the southwestern coastal areas of Bangladesh

Bangladesh is exposed to frequent natural disasters such as floods, cyclones, tidal surges, and earthquakes. To improve resilience, the country has implemented multisectoral and muti-level national interventions based on international guidelines over the past few years. As a result, local people have become more knowledgeable about and adept at coping with disasters. While previous studies have focused on the causes and consequences of this development, this study examines the trend of successful disaster risk reduction (DRR) interventions through qualitative research in the southwest coastal area of Bangladesh. The authors performed 10 in-depth interviews, four focus group discussions, non-participatory observatory notes, and gathered 36 photographs of the surrounding landscapes in two selected villages of Dacope Upazila and Mongla Upazila, Khulna Division of Bangladesh. This study has suggested that coastal residents have changed their actions through DRR due to a range of awareness programs led by governmental and non-governmental organizations. While a top-down approach has improved early warning, disaster preparedness, and safer environments, a bottom-up approach should be considered to incorporate effective local DRR activities such as kinship network support. These findings suggest that both new and traditional disaster-coping activities should be integrated into more effective DRR strategies.

Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment: A Case Study of South West Coastal Community of Bangladesh

This study aimed at assessing the Livelihood Vulnerability Index (LVI) using the IPCC framework approach and a modified approach to estimate climate change vulnerability in south-west coastal area of Bangladesh. Nine Upazillas (sub-districts) in the south west coastal community were considered for this study. The major component indices of LVI such as socio-demographic profile, livelihood strategies, social network, health, food, water, natural disaster and climate variability were calculated based on the household survey data. The LVI based on the IPCC approach (LVI-IPCC) in nine upazillas in southwest coastal region of Bangladesh were found within a range of –0.02 to + 0.04 (on the scale of –1 to +1). In the modified approach, the LVI for the nine study areas was found within a wide range from 0.253 to 0.544 (on a scale of 0 to 1). For the LVI-IPCC approach, although the contributing factors (exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity) individually show variations in their indices from one to another, no significant variation is observed for the total livelihood index. However, the modified approach shows significant variation in LVI among the studied nine areas. It is concluded that the modified approach is suitable for community or district level assessment, whereas the LVI-IPCC may be suitable for regional level evaluation.

A Comparative Analysis of Self-Built House and Agency-Driven House for Disaster Resilient Housing Infrastructure in South-West Coastal Areas of Bangladesh

A Comparative Analysis of Self-Built House and Agency-Driven House for Disaster Resilient Housing Infrastructure in South-West Coastal Areas of Bangladesh

Characterization of Pathogenic Vibrio parahaemolyticus Isolated From Fish Aquaculture of the Southwest Coastal Area of Bangladesh.

Vibrio parahaemolyticus is a major foodborne pathogen responsible for significant economic losses in aquaculture and a threat to human health. Here, we explored the incidence, virulence potential, and diversity of V. parahaemolyticus isolates from aquaculture farms in Bangladesh. We examined a total of 216 water, sediment, Oreochromis niloticus (tilapia), Labeo rohita (rui), and Penaeus monodon (shrimp) samples from the aquaculture system where 60.2% (130/216) samples were positive for V. parahaemolyticus. Furthermore, we identified 323 V. parahaemolyticus strains from contaminated samples, 17 of which were found positive for trh, a virulence gene. Four isolates out of the 17 obtained were able to accumulate fluid in the rabbit ileal loop assay. The correlation between the contamination of V. parahaemolyticus and environmental factors was determined by Pearson correlation. The temperature and salinity were significantly correlated (positive) with the incidence of V. parahaemolyticus. Most of the pathogenic isolates (94.1%) were found resistant to ampicillin and amoxicillin. O8: KUT was the predominant serotype of the potentially pathogenic isolates. ERIC-PCR reveals genetic variation and relatedness among the pathogenic isolates. Therefore, this region-specific study establishes the incidence of potential infection with V. parahaemolyticus from the consumption of tilapia, rui, and shrimp raised in farms in Satkhira, Bangladesh, and the basis for developing strategies to reduce the risk for diseases and economic burden.

Risk-based determination of polder height against storm surge Hazard in the south-west coastal area of Bangladesh

Bangladesh was introduced with the polder system during 1960s to secure agricultural production from salinity intrusion. Existing polder design practice follows traditional return-period based approach. The article introduces a risk-based framework to determine optimal polder level in the coastal area of Bangladesh. Distinguishable features of risk-based framework over previous method is its inclusion of risk cost and optimal project size. Storm surge flooding was considered as the hazard intensity in this study. Agricultural losses due to storm surge flooding were factorized to get total losses. The optimum level of the polder was determined by summing up the annualized costs of raising polder and the risk cost due to storm surge flooding. The optimal polder level was found to be about 5.63 mPWD with a return period of about 37 years. The optimum design return-period for the polder in Bangladesh is considerably low compared to the current global design practices. This underscores the local peculiarities of the area (e.g., land use, economic activities, hazard sensitivity) in balancing incremental investment costs with reduced risk costs in a risk-based concept. The demonstration of the risk-based concept that is made for designing a coastal polder has potential for replication in other infrastructure designs.

Evaluation of Agricultural Projects by Parametric Cost Efficiency and Productivity-gap Approaches: An Empirical Study of Flood Control and Drainage Systems in the Southwest Coastal Area of Bangladesh

Evaluation of Agricultural Projects by Parametric Cost Efficiency and Productivity-gap Approaches: An Empirical Study of Flood Control and Drainage Systems in the Southwest Coastal Area of Bangladesh

Empirical Understanding of Social Protection Programmes in Southwest Coastal Areas of Bangladesh: A Postmodern Perspective

Abstract Social protection programmes in Bangladesh aimed at reducing the vulnerability of the poor has become exceptionally challenging because of high exposure to weak institutional governance, and frequent natural disasters. As a matter of fact, both the coverage and the types of social protection programmes have been expanded to support the extremely poor households in Bangladesh over the last decade. However, the boundaries between ‘protection approach’ associated with risk reduction and ‘promotion approach’ regarded as the pathways to raise incomes and employment opportunities of the poor have remained understated in policy discourse. This paper addresses how an Interpretivist methodology can be used in exploring the current complexities of social protection programmes in extremely poor households with reference to disaster-affected areas in southwest coastal Bangladesh, giving a particular attention to the interpretation of the beneficiaries as well as service providers. This paper employs an interpretative framework for collecting qualitative data because of its ability to make sense of the complex situations of social protection programmes by generating multicontextual information provided by the beneficiaries of social protection programmes. During the initial fieldwork of the research, the research participants pointed out that there exist strong prevalence and dominance of local politics considered as ‘underlying issues’ in the delivering process of social protection programmes, which is further associated with power-relation between the rich and poor class of the society. However, the current policy discourses of social protection programmes have overlooked those highly pertinent phenomena both in local and national context. This paper argues that the aspects of availability, accessibility and utilisation of social protection programmes is not straightforward as each aspect is further associated with social relations and complex social understanding. An interpretive methodology along with illustrative data collection and analysis techniques can become effective to explore those complex societal understanding related with social protection programmes. Finally, within the adopted interpretive framework, the integrated view related with availability, accessibility and utilisation aspects of social protection programmes need to be addressed while creating a sense of meaning and understanding of overall situation of social protection programmes.

Empirical Understanding of Social Protection Programmes in Southwest Coastal Areas of Bangladesh: A Postmodern Perspective

0

Analysis of landcover change in southwest Bengal delta due to floods by NDVI, NDWI and K-means cluster with landsat multi-spectral surface reflectance satellite data

Floods in the southwest coastal area of Bangladesh are very much regular. Tidal floods are coming at every high tidal period twice in a day. The landcovers of the study area are mainly water bodies or wetlands – for saltwater shrimp and crab cultivation, and vegetation – for agricultural activities and the Sundarbans mangrove forest. There are significant changes and alteration in landcovers due to floods events in May 2009. Seasonal tidal floods are taking place at the wet season in the study area because of the damage of Polder-32 at several points, which had been breached during cyclone Aila and causing a prolonged inundation period. After cyclone Aila, it takes 4 years till 2013 November to recover the land from flood water. Due to cyclone Aila, a 43.7 sq. km flooded surface emerged and 43.6 sq. km vegetation covers disappear in 2009 November. These significant landcover changes are studied well with two spectral indexes –NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) and NDWI (Normalized Difference Water Index), and with a K-Means Cluster unsupervised and supervised land classification. The study found NDVI and NDWI are prominent to identify vegetation and water covers considering their individual constrain, along with the validation by K-means clustering unsupervised and supervised land classifications. Supervised K-means clustering is used to estimate the land cover areas. The NDVI and NDWI were used to identify the vegetation and water covers, and K-means cluster was used to estimate the vegetation and water covers.

Effectiveness of solar disinfection (SODIS) in rural coastal Bangladesh.

Scarcity of drinking water in the coastal area of Bangladesh compels the inhabitants to be highly dependent on alternative water supply options like rainwater harvesting system (RWHS), pond sand filter (PSF), and rain-feed ponds. Susceptibility of these alternative water supply options to microbial contamination demands a low-cost water treatment technology. This study evaluates the effectiveness of solar disinfection (SODIS) to treat drinking water from available sources in the southwest coastal area of Bangladesh. A total of 50 households from Dacope upazila in Khulna district were selected to investigate the performance of SODIS. Data were collected in two rounds to examine fecal coliform (FC) and Escherichia coli (E. coli) contamination of drinking water at the household water storage containers and SODIS bottles, and thereby determined the effectiveness of SODIS in reducing fecal contamination. All water samples were analyzed for pH, electrical conductivity, turbidity and salinity. SODIS significantly reduced FC and E. coli contamination under household conditions. The median health risk reduction by SODIS was more than 96 and 90% for pond and RWHS, respectively. Besides, turbidity of the treated water was found to be less than 5 NTU, except pond water. Only 34% of the participating households routinely adopted SODIS during the study.

Natural disasters and land-use/land-cover change in the southwest coastal areas of Bangladesh

Natural hazards and major land-use/land-cover change can have significant impacts on humans around the world. If these two concerns exist together in a coastal area, the consequences for people and the environment may be severe. This study investigated the combined effects of land-use changes and natural disasters in the southwest coastal area of Bangladesh. Satellite images were analyzed to detect changes in land cover in the study period of 13 years (1999–2012). Three areas were selected for ground data collection. Household surveys and focus groups were conducted to discover the type, level and effects of disasters. Probit regression analysis was performed to assess the relationship between various disasters with overall income, agricultural production and outward migration. Results from image analysis showed an overall 30 % increase in shrimp culture ponds in the past 13 years. Agricultural land and vegetation decreased by 48 and 3 %, respectively. Barren and built-up areas increased by 73 % due to both land-use activity and natural hazards. Analysis of household data showed cyclones and storm surges had important effects on income, agricultural production and migration. Sustainable management and enhancement of resilience capacity of this area will be crucial in the near future.

Comparison of the trace metal concentration of drinking water supply options in southwest coastal areas of Bangladesh

In the coastal areas of Bangladesh, scarcity of drinking water is acute as the fresh water aquifers at reasonable depths are not available and surface water is highly saline. Households are mainly dependent on rainwater harvesting, pond sand filter (PSF), and rain-fed pond water for drinking purposes. To ascertain the water quality for human consumption, chemical parameters such as pH, conductivity and the concentrations of calcium, magnesium, iron, manganese, copper, zinc, lead, chromium, cadmium, nickel and arsenic were evaluated in the alternative drinking water supply options employed in the southwest coastal areas of Bangladesh. An inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy was used for determination of trace metal concentrations. pH and conductivity were measured using HANNA Instrument. The mean iron and manganese concentrations for rain-fed pond and PSF water were much higher than harvested rainwater. The iron concentrations for 41 % of the pond water samples were higher than the Bangladesh guideline value. Iron and manganese removal by PSFs was found to be 74 and 51 %, respectively. Scarcity of calcium and magnesium were found in harvested rainwater. Furthermore, one pond water sample showed arsenic concentration above the 10 μg/l WHO drinking water guideline. The presence of an elevated iron and manganese and low calcium and magnesium concentrations in the drinking water could be a matter of public health concern.

Evaluation of risk communication for rural water supply management: a case study of a coastal area of Bangladesh

Consumption of safe drinking water is an important public health issue. In this study, we considered the risk communication topic of human health concerns related to unsafe water consumption in rural coastal areas of Bangladesh, where potable water is scarce. Our objective was to investigate the level of knowledge that rural residents had concerning safe water consumption and to evaluate the effects of risk communication on knowledge and behavior changes. We considered four rural villages of southwest coastal areas of Bangladesh as sample. This study was based on the results of a questionnaire survey administered before and after risk communication. The pre- and post-survey were conducted during August 2009 and March 2010, respectively. Data were collected from 120 women aged 18–60 years. Two format presentations, with and without water quality information, were used to convey the risk messages. In the present study, indicator bacterial (Escherichia coli) contamination levels in drinking water sources were considered as water quality information since absence of E. coli is the safety margin for the detection of disease-causing organisms. Analysis of the survey data revealed that risk communication can be vital to changes in water consumption knowledge and behavior. Overall general knowledge scores were almost same in the pre-survey for without- (mean score 3.16) and with-information (mean score 3.10) villages. However, after risk communication, there were detectable increases in the mean scores (mean scores, 3.54 and 3.64, respectively, on a 4 point scale) for both groups. Furthermore, risk communication with water quality information appears to be a more effective method of risk communication. Dissemination of risk messages was also higher in with-information villages. Seventy four percent of the participants from with-information villages reported that they had discussed the risk messages with family members and neighbors, compared to 59% of those from without-information villages. The results of this study revealed that age, education, and distance of water sources influence changes in consumption and maintenance behavior. These findings suggest that, in addition to installation of water supply facilities, there is a need to address the low levels of knowledge about safe water consumption in rural coastal communities of Bangladesh. Location specific water quality information may be more useful to convey health risk messages concerning unsafe drinking water consumption.

Bacteriological assessment of drinking water supply options in coastal areas of Bangladesh

This study was conducted to assess the bacteriological quality of alternative drinking water supply options in southwest coastal areas of Bangladesh. A total of 90 water samples were collected during both dry and wet seasons from household based rainwater harvesting systems (RWHSS), community based rain water harvesting systems (CRWHSs), pond-sand filters (PSFs) and ponds. The samples were evaluated for faecal coliform, Escherichia coli and Heterotrophic Plate Count, as well as Vibrio cholerae, Salmonella spp., Shigella spp. and Pseudomonas spp. Physico-chemical parameters (pH, electrical conductivity, and color) were also examined. In addition, sanitary inspections were conducted to identify faecal contamination sources. All options showed varying degrees of indicator bacterial contamination. The median E. coli concentrations measured for RWHSs, CRWHSS, PSFS, and ponds were 16, 7, 11, and 488 cfu/100 ml during the wet season, respectively. Vibrio cholerae 01/0139, Salmonella and Shigella spp. were not found in any samples. However, Vibrio cholerae Non-01/Non-0139 and Pseudomonas spp. were isolated from 74.4% and 91.1% of the water samples collected during the wet season. A maximum pH of 10.4 was found in CRWHSS. Estimation of the disease burden for all options in disability adjusted life years (DALYs) showed an increased disease burden during the wet season. According to sanitary inspections, poor maintenance and unprotected ponds were responsible for rainwater and PSF water contamination, respectively. The findings of the present study suggest that alternative drinking water supply options available in southwest coastal Bangladesh pose a substantial risk to public health.

A CHECKLIST OF FISH AND CRUSTACEANS OF THE SOUTH-WEST COAST OF BANGLADESH

The study was based on the preparation of a list of fish and crustacean species available in the South-west coastal areas of Bangladesh and aimed at establishing a museum at the Fisheries and Marine Resource Technology (FMRT) Discipline. Such a museum in the Discipline was thought to be useful for the teachers, students and researchers in the areas of fisheries management and fish culture. The collections were made from all over the places of rural and urban markets of Khulna, Bagerhat and Satkhira; from fish landing ghats and from fishermen boats of Mongla, Dacope and Khulna. A list of 137 species of fish and belonging to 16 Orders, 69 Families and 106 Genera was produced. The crustaceans were 9 Species belonging to the single Order, Decapoda consisting of 4 Families and 6 Genera. The specimens were identified using standard keys, preserved in 10% formalin, labeled and shelved in the museum of FMRT Discipline. The list, however, was not an exhaustive one. Because the collection could not be made from the offshore areas, it was not possible to include many of the rare and unconventional species of fish and crustaceans from the offshore waters. The museum established, it is hoped, will play a due role in fisheries teaching and research.

Compliance of Bangladesh shrimp culture with FAO code of conduct for responsible fisheries: a development challenge

A study was conducted in southwest coastal areas of Bangladesh to assess the status and to understand the degree of awareness of the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries among different stakeholders and its application in the area of shrimp culture in Bangladesh. Articles 9.1 and 9.4 of the Code were used for the investigation. Interviews with potential shrimp farmers and key informants at different level were undertaken for the investigation. A checklist was developed using both open and closed ended questions. Although Bangladesh is a signatory to the Code, virtually no significant efforts have been made to date to comprehend and elaborate the provisions of the Code within the context of Bangladesh. General awareness on the existence and significance of the FAO Code of Conduct, its scope, and purpose are yet to be increased for persons and institutions involved in shrimp aquaculture.