Journal of Coastal Zone Management

Abstract

Societal Dealings with Cyclone in Bangladesh-A Proposal of Vulnerability Atlas for Sustainable Disaster Risk Reduction

Bishawjit Mallick and Joachim Vogt

The factors of climate change, demographic patterns and the effects of economic globalization are increasing the risk exposure of almost all regions of the world. Coastal area of Bangladesh is a hotspot of cyclone hazards in the world. However, the perception and management practices of the cyclone events are spatially heterogeneous, so that comprehensive measures are in many cases neither socially acceptable nor economically sensible. It is therefore necessary to consider the actual heterogeneity of the factors of social vulnerability, in that they are collected and aggregated algorithms supported. It is essential that existing interactions between the factors that lead in most cases to an exponential amplification of social vulnerability and thus generate the socially devastating effects of natural disasters, be covered. The aim of this research was to develop methods of customized data collection and analysis and to determine the algorithms of the interactions between the factors of a cyclone induced vulnerable livelihood management. This is the basis of building plans and measures for the sustainable way of disaster risk reduction. The social acceptance of all consequent actions, including restrictions on use at the local level, can only be increased by the fact that the derivation of these limitations is transparent. All these are presented in this paper based on an empirical investigation with 1555 respondents those were victims of cyclone Sidr (2007) and cyclone Aila (2009) in southwest coastal villages in Bangladesh.