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Predominant water scarcity and environmental degradation in Bangladesh's coastal communities arise due to extreme meteorological conditions, unrestrained water usage, and extensive saline intrusion into both surface and groundwater. This study leverages both quantitative data from a household survey and qualitative data from a Participatory Rural Appraisal to explore the perspectives of 150 official experts and 240 coastal public respondents regarding the implementation of a "Community-Based Rainwater Harvesting System" (CBRWHS) as a sustainable water supply technology in six major coastal districts of Bangladesh. Though CBRWHS surpasses the benefits of an individual harvesting system (IHS) due to its collective approach, high storage capacity, social cohesiveness, environmental benefits, and potential for scalability, findings suggest that the experts identify financial insolvency, lack of technical skills, and insufficient education as principal barriers against adopting CBRWHS. They propose that providing technical instructions, education, and establishing a CBRWHS pilot could serve as effective incentives. While expressing a sufficient understanding of IHS, respondents are willing to adopt CBRWHS only if financial support is provided. Given the residents' experience with IHS, they are cognizant of the financial and technical challenges intrinsic to such systems. CBRWHS, unlike IHS, operates as a shared system with collective property rights and regulations. Majority of respondents perceive CBRWHS as a potential significant mitigation tool against the water shortage situation since the challenges associated with harvesting, maintaining, and using rainwater could be addressed collectively by the user community. Similar to the official experts, public respondents identify a lack of technical expertise, financial constraints, and regulations as the most significant obstacles to IHS adoption. The findings of this study hold substantial implications not only for the local region but also for similar coastal regions worldwide, suggesting a crucial need for the prioritization of community-based solutions to water scarcity within the wider global discourse on sustainable water management.

The very fast economic and population growth of Bangladesh, along with its high urbanization rate, have been seen since its independence in 1971. Sylhet City Corporation (SCC) has also experienced high population growth as well as rapid urbanization since 2002. The solid waste generation rate is also increasing along with the high economic and population growth in SCC. SCC and its extended areas are now producing more solid waste than ever before because of accelerated unplanned urbanization, ever-growing tourist pressure, and an overgrowing urban population. Sooner than later, resource recovery and capacity development in existing solid waste management systems are required to allow the sustainable and resilient growth of SCC. This study aimed to explore the total amount of solid waste generation per day as well as the waste composition and potentiality for resource recovery from the generated solid waste in SCC and its extended areas. This study has found that SCC is now generating a total of 375.68 tons of solid waste daily from households, daily kitchen markets, medical institutes, resident hotels, commercial shops, and restaurants. This study has also found that about 90% of daily-generated solid waste is perishable and has a high moisture content. This study has found that the generated waste in SCC has the potential to produce compost fertilizer, solid recovered fuel (SRF), and electricity. On the other hand, this study can directly help the conservancy department of SCC to have a brief idea about the existing solid waste generation rate, composition, categories, and potentialities of resource recovery from the generated solid waste. It can also succor other conservancy departments of other city corporations or urban areas of Bangladesh as well as other researchers in a similar way.

Whether micromobility is hurting or boosting transit ridership remains a matter of debate. Previous studies on this topic mainly use either individual level data or system level data. This paper provides insights into this debate through analyses of the connection between bike-share use and transit use at both the individual-level and the system-level. The analysis uses data from an intercept survey of bike-share users and system-level data on bike-share trips from the Sacramento region’s dockless electric bike-share system prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our individual-level analysis results suggest that people in the Sacramento region are more likely to replace their transit use with bike-share than to use bike-share as a first- or last-mile transit connector. Certain socio-demographic groups, however, are more likely to use bike share to connect to transit compared to others. Analysis of the system-level data shows that the number of bike-share trips that begin or end near transit stops is positively associated with transit boarding or alightings at those stops conditional on variables known to directly influence transit ridership. In this study, individual- and system-level analyses lead to different conclusions about the relationship between bike-share and transit, suggesting that reliance on system-level data alone may not provide an accurate assessment of the relationship between bike-share and transit use. A detailed understanding of the relationship using both sources of data can assist in better policy formulation that benefits both modes.

The multi-scale assessment of surface-groundwater interactions in hard rock (granite), water limited environments was carried out first in the ~80 km2 Sardon catchment and finally in a small, 7.6 ha Trabadillo study area (Western Spain). Three different thematic studies (Chapters 2-4) had been carried out applying various techniques including: field data acquisition, automated monitoring, remote sensing and integrated hydrological modelling using GSFLOW code. Chapter 2 addresses the assessment of dynamics of surface-groundwater interactions at the Sardon catchment scale; the main findings were: (1) intense groundwater exfiltration; (2) groundwater flow characterized by short groundwater flow-path and short residence time; (3) declining trend of catchment groundwater outflow; and (4) large variability of infiltration influenced by land cover type. That impact of land cover upon dynamics of surface-groundwater interactions triggered expansion of further research in Chapters 3 and 4, but also underpinned some hardcoded deficiencies of GSFLOW, related to formulation of driving forces. That initiated the study in Chapter 3, addressing spatiotemporal tree rainfall interception loss (EI). Experimental measurements of EI on selected evergreen Quercus ilex and deciduous Quercus pyrenaica oaks were carried out during two years and spatiotemporally upscaled into two homogeneous (1 ha) plots and into the entire Sardon catchment; the main findings were: (1) yearly EI was larger in wet than in dry hydrological years but if reflected as percent of rainfall, then it was opposite; (2) EI of Quercus ilex trees were larger than of Quercus pyrenaica but for the catchment scale EI, it was opposite, because of much larger catchment population of the latter; (3) catchment EI was primarily dependent on tree density and species type. The Chapter 4 focusses on simulating surface-groundwater interactions at very fine grid (5x5 m) and at temporal daily resolution, using 20-year time-series observation to assess the net recharge dependence upon land cover type expressed through hydrological terrain units (hydrotopes). The findings of this study confirmed all findings of the Chapter 2, adding the following: (1) hydrotope-dependent variability of water fluxes; (2) non-negligible grass interception; and (3) much lower net recharge under tree than grass hydrotopes, meaning more trees, less water resources.

Internal out-migration from rural–urban in same upazila, district and capital is increasing especially in disaster and social vulnerable northern part of Bangladesh, resulting in dependency on adjacent upazilas for basic needs’ fulfillment. So, this study focuses on to delineate functional regions based on influence areas from highly migrated zone and to identify impact of different service facilities on highly migrated zone in Bangladesh. Hence, 24 upazilas of Kurigram, Rangpur and Gaibandha districts from high internal out migrated zone were selected and population data from these upazilas were collected from Bangladesh Bureau of statistics (BBS). Reilly’s Law of Retail Gravitation was then applied to determine their influence area based on their population. Furthermore, facilities related to economic and climatic parameters like relief related NGO facilities, basic and non-basic facilities, micro-credit institutions and shelter camps were selected and data were collected to assess the impact on influence areas and high migration rate. Results from influence area delineation shows regional gap between the adjacent upazilas. Results also reveal that Taraganj, Chilmari and Sadullapur have less influence areas and high unserved areas due to limited quantities of relief facilities, basic and non-basic facilities, micro-credit institutions and shelter-camps. Furthermore, frequent flash-flooding and riverbank erosion are also found as major causes in creating unserved areas in northern part of Bangladesh that ultimately cause internal out migration. The study can help in policy making through identifying scope for extension of different facilities’ activities that can ultimately work as pull factor for internal out migration in Bangladesh.

Abstract Purpose – Pabna is suffering from waterlogging problems from ancient times. The previous Drainage Master Plan was failed due to the lack of reflection of the general people of Pabna Municipality. As a result, this study focuses on identifying the causes of waterlogging in people’s eyes. This paper will help the local authority and planners eradicate the waterlogging problem and build a planned and resilient community. Design/methodology/approach – Both primary and secondary data were used for the study. Present drainage pattern, topology climatic elements were collected from the journals, websites and Municipal Ingratiated Development Plan (MIDP), Pabna-2008. The sample size was 246, and this respondent was surveyed. By the survey, the people’s perception of waterlogging was collected. For that, five independent variables and one dependent variable were determined. These variables were determined by previous studies, reconnaissance survey of the study area. It used multiple linear regression and the correlation method; the causes of waterlogging were determined. Findings – The study found solid waste disposal into the drainage, absence of operation and maintenance system, small discharge capacity with blocked in the current drains, nonappearance of combined drainage network of roadside drains and unplanned drainage system as the leading causes of waterlogging from the perception of the people. Also found that the absence of operation and maintenance system, solid waste disposal into the drainage and unplanned drainage system as the influencing causes on small discharge capacity with blocked in the current drains. Originality/value – This study has focused on people’s perceptions rather than secondary data. That is why this study will significantly impact eradicating the waterlogging problem from the Pabna Municipality and will carry out the core problems without any bias. This will lead to a sustainable, planned and resilient community.