Members’ Publication

Proper solid waste disposal is very important for the nature itself and its’ inhabitants. However, a study covering various aspects of solid waste management including management practices, prevailing problems and possible solutions are scarce in the literature. Accordingly, this study investigates a municipality of Bangladesh to understand the practices, problems and probable solutions of solid waste management. The dwellers of the surveyed municipality throw solid waste in various places like dustbin, drain, roadside and other crude dumping sites. Only about one-fourth of the respondents throw wastes to designated dustbins. More than half of the respondents don’t have knowledge about proper disposal of solid wastes. The study findings indicate that the survey respondents throw waste throughout the whole day. More than 80 percent of the respondents are either dissatisfied or highly dissatisfied with the existing solid waste management services of the municipality. The data indicate that about two-third of the respondents are willing to pay for improving the waste disposal system. The respondents informed that they are affected by various diseases such as diarrhea, pneumonia, asthma, and bronchitis during the last one year which they perceive as the outcome of improper solid waste management. Therefore, this study suggests for awareness development, time management of waste disposal, establishment of more disposal and collection points, employment of more manpower and vehicles, introduction of the ‘door to door’ waste collection mechanism, segregation of industrial and clinical wastes for ensuring a better managed solid waste disposal system in the municipality.

Abstract: Flood is one of the most common and extreme hazards in Bangladesh because of its geographical location. Sirajganj is a district with the highest flood propensity in Bangladesh. The study aims to evaluate the vulnerability in the ten Unions of Sirajganj Sadar upazila to the flood hazard. Different forms of vulnerability evaluation approaches differ in their method. The Flood Vulnerability Index (FVI) method has been implemented in this research to determine flood vulnerability in order to classify which areas of the study are the most vulnerable to flooding. For the study of flood vulnerability, three indicators (i.e. exposure, sensitivity and resilience, etc) are selected in four dimensions (social, financial, environmental and physical). The FVI calculation determines the flood vulnerability index scores for each union. Following the analysis of FVI, in Sirajganj Sadar Upazila Mechhra union is marked as being highly vulnerable. Since this union is very poor in adaptability, coping capacity and resilience; exposure and susceptibility are greater. The other syndicates are highly exposed to floods. Finally, the zoning map for flood risk was developed on the basis of vulnerability index ratings.

Bangladesh is an agriculture-dependent country and very often this sector struggles a lot due to various natural hazards including drought and flood. Almost every year in kharif crop season, Bangladesh undergoes through drought which causes a lot of yield loss. So, this has become important to identify the drought-prone areas to reduce the risk of crops yield loss and for policymaking to suggest alternative drought-tolerant crops. The agricultural drought is related to soil properties because of having spatially dynamic in nature. In the present study, agricultural drought has been assessed comprising meteorological drought of kharif season and water holding capacity (WHC) in Geographic Information System (GIS) platform, as GIS is a widely used as a powerful tool to manage and model the spatial data. The metrological drought map has prepared by rainfall data with the calculation of Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) using GIS and WHC of soil map has converted from soil texture map. Finally, the agricultural drought map has been derived by overlying metrological drought map and WHC of soil map. The study has found that the north-west and south-west region along with Barisal division of Bangladesh are more prone to agricultural drought area than the other parts. Some districts of the middle part of the country (Dhaka, Manikganj and Faridpur: 492 km2) also suffered in extreme agricultural drought during kharif season.

Bangladesh is an agriculture-dependent country and very often this sector struggles a lot due to various natural hazards including drought and flood. Almost every year in kharif crop season, Bangladesh undergoes through drought which causes a lot of yield loss. So, this has become important to identify the drought-prone areas to reduce the risk of crops yield loss and for policymaking to suggest alternative drought-tolerant crops. The agricultural drought is related to soil properties because of having spatially dynamic in nature. In the present study, agricultural drought has been assessed comprising meteorological drought of kharif season and water holding capacity (WHC) in Geographic Information System (GIS) platform, as GIS is a widely used as a powerful tool to manage and model the spatial data. The metrological drought map has prepared by rainfall data with the calculation of Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) using GIS and WHC of soil map has converted from soil texture map. Finally, the agricultural drought map has been derived by overlying metrological drought map and WHC of soil map. The study has found that the north-west and south-west region along with Barisal division of Bangladesh are more prone to agricultural drought area than the other parts. Some districts of the middle part of the country (Dhaka, Manikganj and Faridpur: 492 km2) also suffered in extreme agricultural drought during kharif season.

The structure of the industrial sectors of a region is a driving factor to explain the growth of a region's economy. In Bangladesh, spatial variation in economic growth exists among different regions. A primary factor in this variation is the economic structure of the region, which can be characterized by basic and non-basic sectors. Economic base theory helps to understand how data can be used to study the economic development process and evaluate alternating development strategies. The aim of the study, thus, is to identify the basic and non-basic sectors using economic base theory and to explore the short-run regional economic structure in selected districts. Data of selected districts from economic census, 2003, and 2013 has been analyzed for thirteen sectors. The comparative analysis of the selected districts reveals that all of the districts except Bandarban are becoming economically weak during the timeframe. In contrast, Bhola district is in economic malaise relative to the other districts. The lagging behind the Transport, Storage, and Communication sector triggers to the disadvantaged economic condition for all the districts during the timeframe. The findings of this study would act as a reference for regional planners to allocate resources in different economic sectors of these districts.