Climate Change Impacts, Scenario and Vulnerability of Bangladesh

Abstract

Bangladesh is affected strongly by climate change. Increasing surface air temperature is most prominent in Bangladesh, where an increasing trend and temporal variation in the mean seasonal temperature is observed within the range of 0.4-0.65 °C during the past 40-year period. Although the winter season experiences the minimum rainfall, historical trend is showing a positive inclination in 27 out of 32 rainfall observatories of the meteorological department. The riverine fl ood (or monsoon fl ood) is affected by the following climate change related phenomenon, especially due to change in the frequency and intensity in extreme rainfall event may subsequently increase the intensity of fl ood. Riverbank erosion is one of the major natural disasters of Bangladesh, which is also related to the monsoon fl ooding. Floods, especially the high intensity fl oods, often devastate physical infrastructure such as road networks, educational centres, market places, administrative buildings etc. Changes in climate may affect irrigation requirements for all the three cropping seasons: Rabi, Kharif-I, and Kharif-II. At present, western parts of Bangladesh are periodically being affected by droughts in winter months. Since the temperature will rise, and there exists a strong possibility that the winter precipitation will decrease further, it is likely that the moisture content of topsoil would decrease substantially leading to severe moisture stress.

Farm-level adaptation to climate change in Western Bangladesh: An analysis of adaptation dynamics, profitability and risks

“…). The mean maximum temperatures have increased by 1°C during the pre-wet (MAM), and post-wet (SON) seasons, but have increased by almost 2°C during the wet (JJA) period for the district Nishat and Mukherjee (2013). reported increasing surface air temperatures in the range 0.4-0.65 °C over the past 40-years in the western part of Bangladesh, making this region vulnerable to soil moisture stress.…”

Historical trends and variability of temperature extremes in two climate vulnerable regions of Bangladesh

“…Several attempts have been made to detect the climate change and climate extremes in Bangladesh. Over the past few decades, a warmer winter with a prominent increase in the minimum temperature and more hot summer were experienced by the country (Nishat and Mukherjee, 2013). General increasing trends of monthly average temperature both in winter and summer seasons and yearly average temperature were observed at different agro-ecological zones (Mia, 2003).…”

Unravelling coastal people's adaptation to salinity: evidence from Bangladesh

“…Bangladesh is highly affected by climate change induced disasters such as cyclone and flood (Nishat and Mukherjee, 2013;Ahmed, 2006). These rapid onset disasters apart, slow onset disasters like loss of bio-diversity, sea level rise leading to intrusion of saline water into aquifers, estuaries and wetland, sedimentation, drainage congestion, landslide and erosion during storm surges and rainstorms are viciously prevalent here (IPCC, 2007;Titus et al, 1991).…”