1Lecturer, Department of Architecture, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET)
Keywords
Transformative Resilience;
Adaptability; Climate change;
Ecological Resilience;
Abstract
The diverse and dynamic coastal area of Bangladesh is currently facing incontrovertible climate change problem which leads to constant flooding, rising sea- level, coastal erosion, subsidence, and salinity. Shyamnagar Upazila, Satkhira, most Aila affected area in 2009, is one of the vulnerable Upazila of the south-western coastal region (Roy. S. 2017) of Bangladesh in face of climate change. This paper is based on field observation, software simulation and design thinking to create an ecologically responsive resilient community which represents the adaptive capacity to adjust with the unforeseen challenges of climate change allowing the present growth rate. It also represents the inter-scalar relationship between smaller to a larger scale of development by allowing transformative change among the settlement formation in case of Shyamnagar, a south-western Upazila of Bangladesh. With a vision of introducing ecological resilience to make a vulnerable indigenous community in face of climate change, the design process is based on highlighting the wind flow, cyclonic storm flow, water flow within and around the site. The expected result of this research will provide a vision for a vulnerable community to be self resilient over the years by modifying the settlement pattern.
Introduction
Researchers (Aktar et al. 2019, Lamari, M. et al. 2016) in the field of resilience research study have found that, due to unique geographical location and geo-morphological condition, Bangladesh has become one of the most vulnerable countries of the world in particular to sea-level rise. The interface between the two different regions, south of Bengal Bay and north of Himalayas lies between Bangladesh. In addition to creating a life-giving monsoon, this distinctive area of Bangladesh also generates devastating natural catastrophes to which climate change and the rising sea-level are being added. Except for the northwest and southeast areas, the nation has a very small and flat topography. In different research papers, it is evident that approximately one-third population of Bangladesh is under climate change risk because of having small and almost flat topography. The country has three separate coastal regions — namely, central, western, and eastern coastal areas (Fig. 1, Islam et al., 1999).
Bangladesh lies on an active delta zone titles the “Ganges Delta”, where the three major rivers are the Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Meghna (Masood et al. 2015) known as the tidal plain of Ganges and it is crossed by endless streams and creeks with very low topographies. The occurrence of water -introduced disasters is a frequent occurrence due to its unique geographical location. Furthermore, after analysis, Masood et al. 2015 stated in his paper that, Bangladesh I going to face more intensified hydrological cycle which will impact overall basin areas and leads to frequent flooding and inundation. The country’s southwest region is covered by the world's biggest mangrove (Islam et al 2018). The mangrove forests act as a deterrent to the furiosity and storm surges of the tropical cyclone.
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Figure 1 Map of Bangladesh showing coastal area and the major river system (Islam et al., 1999)
According to Whitehead et al, 2015, Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna is one of the world's biggest river basins serving over 650 million inhabitants and this river system is regarded to be one big trans-boundary river basin, even though this system's three rivers have separate features and flow for most of their lengths through very different geographic areas. They join the downstream Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna delta before flowing into Bengal Bay. In their studies, they observed that the 2050s and 2090s indicate a substantial rise in monsoon flows in future environments, with increased flood potential by introducing INCA-N to the Ganges deltaic River Systems to simulate flow and water quality along the rivers under a range of future climate circumstances.
In view of these, the paper focuses on the effect of the cyclonic storm as well as the decreasing rate of mangrove and sea-level rise in the case of Shyamnagar Upazilla, an Upazila from Bangladesh's south-west region. The paper also describes some feasible adaptation processes that may be undertaken in Bangladesh through a transformative resilience method to face the challenge of climate change in the near future.
Conclusion
It is obvious that there will be a tension between maintaining resilience of the desired current state in the face of some known and unknown shocks and stresses and thereby building a transformable system is needed to foster the flexibility to the unforeseen challenges. However, the characteristics of the adaptive and transformative settlement are likely to overlap. With relation to such characteristics of the system, ith is expected that the transformative resilience of a human settlement will emphasize the diversity, strength and human capital of a community across the multiscale dimensions. But transformation does not occur in a vacant place. Drawing resilience from multiple scales and using every shock and stress as an opportunity and combining the indigenous knowledge and technology it is possible to navigate the special-ecological transformation from one state to another state of the landscape.
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