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Livelihood Adaptation in the Drought Prone Areas of Bangladesh

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Climate Change Adaptation Actions in Bangladesh

Part of the book series: Disaster Risk Reduction ((DRR))

Abstract

Droughts are very frequent in Bangladesh due to its geo-physical position and varying rainfall pattern. Drought is considered as devastating and causing substantial damage and loss to agriculture and allied sectors. Particularly the northwestern livelihood experiences its noteworthy impact on their daily because of the consequence of drought impacts. More specifically, agriculture, health and social life are badly affected by drought. Despite drought vulnerabilities, a large number of actors have been involved in developing and implementing adaptation strategies to reduce the vulnerabilities. However, to adapt with drought, livelihoods in this region have been developing and using various practices mainly through agronomic management, crop intensification, water resource exploitation, etc. Although, livelihood based adaptation is person centric solution based on both local-knowledge with scientific facilitation and it is dual-way process that builds on the adaptive capacity through a systematic process. Moreover, livelihood adaptations actions may not sufficient enough for reducing drought risk that caused by climatic variability and climate change considerably. It requires greater institutional capacity at all levels of government and more efficient coordination between different levels of government. With this regards, this chapter serves as a basis for understanding drought impacts and to scale up viable adaptation options in the drought-prone areas of Northwest Bangladesh. In conclusion, this chapter emphasizes on the development of successful drought adaptation actions that would be performed through national to local level and helps livelihoods to build resilience against drought in future.

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Acknowledgements

The first author highly acknowledges the support from GCOE-ARS Postdoctoral program of Kyoto University. The author specially thanks the Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies for supporting her research at Kyoto University, Japan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

    Umma Habiba & Rajib Shaw

  2. Department of Agricultural Extension, Ministry of Agriculture, Dhaka, Bangladesh

    Abu Wali Raghib Hassan

Authors
  1. Umma Habiba
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  2. Abu Wali Raghib Hassan
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  3. Rajib Shaw
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Umma Habiba .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Kyoto University, Yoshida-Honmachi, Kyoto, 606-8501, Japan

    Rajib Shaw

  2. , DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE, BRAC University, 66 MOHAKHALI , DHAKA 1212, Dhaka, ---, Bangladesh

    Fuad Mallick

  3. , SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT UNDP, UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME (UN, IDB BHABAN, SHER-E-BANGLA NAGAR, DHAKA 1207, Dhaka, ---, Bangladesh

    Aminul Islam

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Habiba, U., Hassan, A.W.R., Shaw, R. (2013). Livelihood Adaptation in the Drought Prone Areas of Bangladesh. In: Shaw, R., Mallick, F., Islam, A. (eds) Climate Change Adaptation Actions in Bangladesh. Disaster Risk Reduction. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-54249-0_13

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