Files

• BANGLADESH CLIMATE AND DISASTER RISK ATLAS Exposures, Vulnerabilities, and Risks—Volume II

Date

December, 2021

Author(s)

• Asian Development Bank

Abstract

Climate change is a reality, and Bangladesh is one of the countries considered most vulnerable to it. Most development projects in Bangladesh have inherent sensitivity to changing climate and its impacts, and this sensitivity may lead to significant losses affecting the country’s overall economy. It is crucial to have a better understanding of the impacts of climate change, natural hazards, and disasters on different development projects—especially for the Bangladesh Planning Commission, as the country’s central planning organization responsible for approving and allocating budget resources to all development projects in the country. Such understanding of a complex issue is one of the recent imperatives in policy formulation, decision-making, and development planning that, in turn, are further enabled and strengthened by holistic, integrated geospatial perspectives. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is closely associated with the Government of Bangladesh on climate change adaptation and disaster resilience through its operations in water resources management including flood and riverbank erosion management, coastal town protection, and other projects. This is part of Operational Priority 3 in ADB’s Strategy 2030 that focuses on tackling climate change, building climate and disaster resilience, and enhancing environmental sustainability. In this context, ADB recognizes the value of easyto-use technical resources that promote country capacity for climate risk assessment and adaptation planning processes. The Bangladesh Climate and Disaster Risk Atlas is a major output of Establishing a Climate Risk Screening System for Mainstreaming Climate Change Adaptation into National Development Budgeting Activities in Bangladesh, under an ADB regional knowledge and support (capacity development) technical assistance. This atlas aims to promote the sustainable development of Bangladesh’s agriculture and water resources sectors and their various components, by enhancing the understanding of stakeholders on the variability of climate change scenarios, other hazards, exposures, vulnerabilities, and their combinations as risks, to which these sectors are exposed. The geospatial maps of Bangladesh based from the geographic information system (GIS) presented in this two-volume atlas will be very useful for the country’s policymakers and development partners, in crafting climate change and disaster resilient overall development plans. The Bangladesh Planning Commission, particularly its Programming Division, has taken the initiative to mainstream climate change adaptation along with disaster risk reduction, poverty alleviation, and gender in all projects under the country’s Annual Development Programme (ADP). To support the designing of climate-resilient projects, in 2014 the Planning Commission published a Development Project Pro-Forma/Proposal Manual in which an Integrated Climate Change, Disaster, and Environment (ICCDE) Framework has been incorporated to support the country’s response to risks associated with climate change. This atlas, based on the ADB framework underpinning the climate risk screening and climate risk vulnerability assessment (CRS/CRVA) processes and tools, supports the ICCDE Framework by presenting spatial information and maps necessary for assessing future development investments in terms of their risks to climate and geophysical hazards. It is appreciated that the Planning Commission intends to mainstream and adopt these to evaluate, establish, and address the climatic sensitivity of development projects in Bangladesh. Building on the exemplary partnership between Bangladesh and ADB, this atlas is another product promoting knowledge and development with well-designed and targeted interventions that positively contribute to the country’s growth. It targets concerned stakeholders with current or planned development activities in Bangladesh, including the public and private sectors, nongovernment organizations, research and academic community, development partner agencies, other financial institutions, and the general public. Apart from the overall visualization and spatial analysis for CRS/CRVA, the hazard, exposure, vulnerability, and risk maps contained in the atlas will be useful for a wide range of other practical applications such as infrastructure planning and design, hazard mitigation, and disaster-proofing, thus ensuring development continuity in the country. It is envisioned that the Bangladesh Climate and Disaster Risk Atlas will significantly contribute to rendering important sector development investments more resilient to hazard-specific risk scenarios in the short, medium, and long terms. We hope users will be able to derive maximum benefits from the information presented in this publication.

Citation

Asian Development Bank

Publisher

Asian Development Bank

Rights Holder

Asian Development Bank

URI

https://knowledgehub.pksf.org.bd/collections/dForbVArZ29qRStjdzBETVlvazMxdz09