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The geographical location and development of Bangladesh means that the country is vulnerable to tropical cyclones. Cyclones are becoming more frequent and severe due to the effects of climate change [1]. Since 2007, more than 5000 people have died, and damage runs into billions of dollars due to cyclones. This study aims to conduct an assessment of early preparation measures on cyclonic events since the 1970s with an emphasis on cyclone Amphan, May 2020 in Bangladesh. The study adopted a desk-based systematic survey of secondary literature. Technological advancement and better communication improve early warning significantly. However, the results show that the disaster preparedness to reduce the effect of cyclonic disaster has many limitations which need to be addressed, particularly by (i) involvement of mosques’ Imams (leaders) and school teachers in warning dissemination management since they are the most respected people in the society and, (ii) awareness of, and improved confidence in early warning and evacuation orders with (iii) gender issues addressed to facilitate equality in decision making. The quantity and quality of cyclone shelters need to be improved to ensure sufficient space. There appears to be a role for security forces in the emergency evacuation process as they have proven effective during Covid-19, where they were deployed to ensure that citizens did not leave home unnecessarily, which minimized the death toll. Continuous review and research on disaster risk reduction needs to be conducted, at all stages of cyclonic disaster management as increased severity and frequency of cyclones unavoidable for Bangladesh.

Bangladesh is one of the most earthquake vulnerable countries in the world. As Bangladesh is located near to the boundary of two active plates (Indian plate in the west and Eurasian plate in the east and north) the country has invariably been under threat of an earthquake that may be so harmful that may kill people to less than a moment. With the frequency of earthquakes on the increase, it is natural for people to be scared as specialists consider them to be warning of what lies ahead. Vulnerability of Lalmatia against earthquakes is stressed using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and multi-criterion analysis in this study. The APH allows decision-makers to model a complex problem in a hierarchical structure showing the relationship of the goal, objectives (criteria), sub-objectives, and alternatives. In this method six affecting factors against earthquake vulnerability in five subcategories has been considered as like as construction year, population, road width, building use, area of parcel and building vulnerability. The Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) model is also applying for determining the weight and priority of the vulnerability factors contribution to the lives of individuals. This research finally reveals some buildings that are ‘very high’ vulnerable and refers to detail assessment for first step plan and some buildings are ‘high’ vulnerable and also refers to detail assessment in the second step plan. Rest of the buildings are considered less vulnerable for the screening process. The retrofitting of structural components is conducted for not only an individual component or groups of components. The good performance of the entire structural system must be ensured. Retrofitting strategy is determined based on the results of technical assessment. The indicators and model of this study has contributed in the vulnerability assessment as well as initiate mitigation efforts against earthquake of Dhaka city.

The success of decentralisation highly depends on improving local government accountability. Although a decentralisation process exists in Bangladesh, the issue of accountability is a major challenge for urban development planning in this country. This paper identifies whether there are impacts related to the arrangement of decentralisation in urban development planning and the promotion of accountability issues and practises in Bangladesh. Using a mixed-method research strategy, this study evaluates the performance of three municipal entities and how they ensure accountability in their urban development-planning activities. Findings show that local government organisations are more accountable than other entities that have been delegated to perform these activities and that have been devolved through decentralisation in Bangladesh. This study also identifies that pro-accountability arrangements cannot be expected to spontaneously take place as a result of the devolution of the decentralisation process, but they need to be intentionally structured. This paper concludes that where single form of decentralised organisation exists, there is no problem of upward accountability. However, where two different forms of decentralised organisations exist, the problem of upward and downward accountability prevails to a larger extent. Therefore, this study recommends active citizen participation and it also advocates for a better coordination mechanism in cases where a multi-layered organisational form of decentralisation in urban development exists in Bangladesh.

The geographical location and development of Bangladesh means that the country is vulnerable to tropical cyclones. Cyclones are becoming more frequent and severe due to the effects of climate change [1]. Since 2007, more than 5000 people have died, and damage runs into billions of dollars due to cyclones. This study aims to conduct an assessment of early preparation measures on cyclonic events since the 1970s with an emphasis on cyclone Amphan, May 2020 in Bangladesh. The study adopted a desk-based systematic survey of secondary literature. Technological advancement and better communication improve early warning significantly. However, the results show that the disaster preparedness to reduce the effect of cyclonic disaster has many limitations which need to be addressed, particularly by (i) involvement of mosques’ Imams (leaders) and school teachers in warning dissemination management since they are the most respected people in the society and, (ii) awareness of, and improved confidence in early warning and evacuation orders with (iii) gender issues addressed to facilitate equality in decision making. The quantity and quality of cyclone shelters need to be improved to ensure sufficient space. There appears to be a role for security forces in the emergency evacuation process as they have proven effective during Covid-19, where they were deployed to ensure that citizens did not leave home unnecessarily, which minimized the death toll. Continuous review and research on disaster risk reduction needs to be conducted, at all stages of cyclonic disaster management as increased severity and frequency of cyclones unavoidable for Bangladesh.

Background COVID-19 pandemic outbreak is an unprecedented shock throughout the world, which has generated a massive social, human, and economic crisis. Identification of risk factors is crucial to prevent the COVID-19 spread by taking appropriate countermeasures effectively. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the potential risk factors contributing to the COVID-19 incidence rates at the district-level in Bangladesh. Method Spatial regression methods were applied in this study to fulfill the aim. Data related to 28 demographic, economic, built environment, health, and facilities related factors were collected from secondary sources and analyzed to explain the spatial variability of this disease incidence. Three global (ordinary least squares (OLS), spatial lag model (SLM), and spatial error model (SEM)) and one local (geographically weighted regression (GWR)) regression models were developed in this study. Results The results of the models identified four factors: percentage of the urban population, monthly consumption, number of health workers, and distance from the capital city, as significant risk factors affecting the COVID-19 incidence rates in Bangladesh. Among the four developed models, the GWR model performed the best in explaining the variation of COVID-19 incidence rates across Bangladesh, with an R2 value of 78.6%. Conclusion Findings and discussions from this research offer a better insight into the COVID-19 situation, which helped discuss policy implications to negotiate the future epidemic crisis. The primary policy response would be to decentralize the urban population and economic activities from and around the capital city, Dhaka, to create self-sufficient regions throughout the country, especially in the north-western region.

Zoning is an important tool to regulate the use of land and to characterize built form over land, and thus to facilitate urban sustainability. Availability of reliable data is crucial for monitoring land use zoning, which contributes directly to the success of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in general, and SDG Goal 11 for sustainable cities and communities in particular. However, obtaining this valuable information using traditional survey methods is both costly and time-consuming. Remote sensing technology overcomes these challenges and supports urban policymaking and planning processes. This study unveils a novel approach to developing a cost-effective method for identifying building types using Sentinel-2A, Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS)–based nighttime light (NTL) data, and TanDEM-X–based Digital Surface Model (DSM) data. A newly developed index for this study, the Normalized Difference Steel Structure Index (NDSSI), is useful for rapidly mapping industrial buildings with steel structures. The implementation status of Dhaka’s existing land use plan was evaluated by analyzing the spatial distribution of different types of building uses. This study classifies residential, commercial, and industrial buildings within Dhaka using building height, and nighttime light emission. The experimental results reveal that about 67% of commercial and 51% of industrial buildings within the Dhaka Metropolitan Area (DMA) do not comply with the land use zoning by the Detailed Area Plan (DAP). It also reveals that approximately 10% of commercial buildings, 9% of industrial buildings, and 6% of residential buildings have encroached upon conservation zones (such as open space, flood-prone zones, water bodies, and proposed areas for future road extension). A major constraint in the study was the low spatial resolution of the nighttime light dataset, which made it difficult to distinguish individual sources of light. Still, the methodological approaches proposed in this study are expected to promote reduced costs and efficacious decision-making in urban transformation and to help achieve SDG 11, especially in developing countries.

Background: National forest inventory and forest monitoring systems are more important than ever considering continued global degradation of trees and forests. These systems are especially important in a country like Bangladesh, which is characterised by a large population density, climate change vulnerability and dependence on natural resources. With the aim of supporting the Government’s actions towards sustainable forest management through reliable information, the Bangladesh Forest Inventory (BFI) was designed and implemented through three components: biophysical inventory, socio-economic survey and remote sensing-based land cover mapping. This article documents the approach undertaken by the Forest Department under the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change to establish the BFI as a multipurpose, efficient, accurate and replicable national forest assessment. The design, operationalization and some key results of the process are presented. Methods: The BFI takes advantage of the latest and most well-accepted technological and methodological approaches. Importantly, it was designed through a collaborative process which drew from the experience and knowledge of multiple national and international entities. Overall, 1781 field plots were visited, 6400 households were surveyed, and a national land cover map for the year 2015 was produced. Innovative technological enhancements include a semi-automated segmentation approach for developing the wall-to-wall land cover map, an object-based national land characterisation system, consistent estimates between sample-based and mapped land cover areas, use of mobile apps for tree species identification and data collection, and use of differential global positioning system for referencing plot centres. Results: Seven criteria, and multiple associated indicators, were developed for monitoring progress towards sustainable forest management goals, informing management decisions, and national and international reporting needs. A wide range of biophysical and socioeconomic data were collected, and in some cases integrated, for estimating the indicators. Conclusions: The BFI is a new information source tool for helping guide Bangladesh towards a sustainable future. Reliable information on the status of tree and forest resources, as well as land use, empowers evidence-based decision making across multiple stakeholders and at different levels for protecting natural resources. The integrated socioeconomic data collected provides information about the interactions between people and their tree and forest resources, and the valuation of ecosystem services. The BFI is designed to be a permanent assessment of these resources, and future data collection will enable monitoring of trends against the current baseline. However, additional institutional support as well as continuation of collaboration among national partners is crucial for sustaining the BFI process in future.

The study focuses on four river basins, Gandaki, Indus, Upper Ganga and Teesta, in the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region in South Asia. The region is considered one of the more environmentally vulnerable areas in the world due to recurrent natural hazards that can be exacerbated by future climate change. The dependence of the population on natural resources based livelihoods makes the region particularly vulnerable to adverse climate change impacts. Labour migration can help household adaptation, particularly when it incurs significant cash investment. The paper analyses the determinants of household adaptation, including migration, in three sectors, namely, agriculture, livestock, and water. It shows that household adaptation to the negative effects of climate change was very poor in the region, with less than a third of the households undertaking adaptation measures. While labour migration showed a positive influence on household adaptation, it was statistically significant only in agriculture. Nevertheless, migration influenced household adaptation indirectly through livelihood diversification, access to services provide of external stakeholders, and changes in household composition. The study identified location, access to climate information, and services provided by external stakeholders as important factors in household adaptation to climate change.

This paper develops a methodology to map the two main rice types in northwest Bangladesh from 1989 to 2016, when Green Revolution technologies and policies resulted in a 300% rice area expansion and localised unsustainable groundwater use. The mapping is performed for the largely irrigated dry season Boro rice (grown from November/December to May/June), and the largely rainfed Aman rice (grown from June/July to October/November). The petabyte archive of Landsat reflectance data available via Google Earth Engine is used to extract monthly time-series of two remotely sensed vegetation indices – the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) and the Global Vegetation Moisture Index (GVMI) – which can capture crop phenological dynamics as they correlate during crop growth stages and can be used to discriminate standing water when EVI is low and GVMI is high. This feature is exploited to detect the effects of flooding before transplanting Boro rice in January and to capture the late phenological phases of Aman rice through harvesting months (October to November). A gap-filled and smoothed EVI and GVMI monthly time-series sequences for both rice cropping months are grouped using machine learning unsupervised K-means clustering into clusters (25 used here), and manually aggregated using crop calendars and local expert knowledge into rice types, other vegetated areas, water, non-permanent water and bare areas. A representative subset of these data are then used to construct a training sample using additional covariates besides the monthly EVI and GVMI values and train a Random Forest (RF) model capable of predicting the land cover types in other years. The resulting RF maps for the two cropping seasons were evaluated against publicly available survey crop statistics (from 1989 to 2016) and published Boro 30 m resolution maps for 2013 to 2016. The maps provide qualitative evidence that unsustainable groundwater extractions can be linked to Boro rice irrigation in some parts of northwest Bangladesh. Further research, using these maps and other hydrological data, is required to quantitatively assess when, where, and how much irrigation contributes to unsustainable groundwater use. The results show that the methodology can accurately (generally within 20% absolute error) capture Boro and Aman rice over the Green Revolution period, and other landscape dynamic characteristics of importance for environmental assessments, such as areas of standing water.

Bangladesh produces only 5% of the cotton she needs to sustain her readymade garments industries. The country has very limited agricultural land and cotton competes with other crops for this scarce land resource. On top of that, Bangladesh is regarded as a country where agriculture is highly vulnerable to the variabilities of weather patterns that result from climate change. Against this backdrop, to better understand the potential for the sustainable expansion of cotton production in Bangladesh, we examine cotton’s agricultural value chain and projected climate risks associated with different phases of the chain. We identified associated stakeholders at different phases of cotton production, engaged with them to understand climatic and non-climatic threats and developed an integrated set of recommendations for climate-risk management through improving the connection of producers to markets, increasing economic returns to small farmers, and improving efficiency along the value chain. We discussed our estimated climate projections with stakeholders to understand the challenges at different stages of production and marketing, and together explored and identified probable solutions. This research offers a new and evolving approach to assess climate change impact on agriculture utilizing a holistic approach, which could be adopted for other crops.