Physical Vulnerability and Local Responses to Flood Damage in Peri-Urban Areas of Dhaka, Bangladesh

Abstract

In Eastern Dhaka, perennial flood remains a constant threat to people and livelihoods. Learning from the micro-level experiences of the poor in the peri-urban areas of Dhaka provides insights on the intersections between physical vulnerability, flood response strategies, and adaptive capacity. Through a convergent mixed method, this study examines the physical vulnerability of residential buildings, flood damages, and local physical responses in three neighborhoods of Eastern Dhaka. Results show that the level of damage to buildings is the most important predictor of physical vulnerability to floods. Buildings that are older than 20 years old and built with natural materials are likely to experience high flood damages compared to buildings that are less than 10 years and constructed with durable materials. The study concludes that in addition to socio-economic interventions, a targeted and people-centered flood management regime that pays attention to age, material composition, and structural quality of houses is necessary to build residents’ adaptive capacities and long-term resilience to flooding. This study contributes to the emerging work on grassroots responses to flood vulnerabilities with practical insights for urban planners and disaster management professionals on particular interventions needed to improve the performance of local responses to flood risks and vulnerabilities.

Spatial Analysis of Urbanization Patterns in Four Rapidly Growing South Asian Cities Using Sentinel-2 Data

“…Urban areas have increasingly become vulnerable to flooding, and losses of human lives, animals, and property have been recorded. Flood disasters and their related damages have become severe in all four cities (see for details regarding Mumbai [18,19,98,99], Colombo [100][101][102], Karachi [103], and Dhaka [104]). Rapid urban development has damaged the natural drainage systems creating blocks.…”

Tracing the past: an insight on flood risk management strategies in the development instruments of Bangladesh and Dhaka city

“…Dhaka is bounded by six peripheral rivers (Tongi Khal to the north, Balu and Sitalakhya to the east, Turag and Buriganga to the west, and Dhaleshwari to the south) (WB, 2015;Fatemi et al, 2020a), which overflow frequently during the monsoon, making the city vulnerable. According to Shaw (2013), when a flood occurs, several areas of Dhaka become inundated for a few days.…”

Flooding in mega-cities: using structural equation modeling to assess flood impact in Dhaka

“…Flooding in Dhaka is also exacerbated by urbanization and spatial patterns, levels of urban poverty, infrastructure deficiencies and local planning capacities (Dinh et al, 2012). Studies have investigated flood hazard assessment (Barua and van Ast, 2011), flood management strategies (Haque et al, 2012) and local responses to flooding events (Aßheuer et al, 2013;Fatemi et al, 2020c). Although these studies (Barua and van Ast, 2011;Dinh et al, 2012;Dinh et al, 2012;Aßheuer et al, 2013;Gain et al, 2015;Thiele-Eich et al, 2015;Khan et al, 2018) provide a robust analysis of flooding in Dhaka, their contributions to reduce flood vulnerabilities and to build resilience across diverse socio-spatial neighborhoods are limited for two reasons.…”

“…Although these studies (Barua and van Ast, 2011;Dinh et al, 2012;Dinh et al, 2012;Aßheuer et al, 2013;Gain et al, 2015;Thiele-Eich et al, 2015;Khan et al, 2018) provide a robust analysis of flooding in Dhaka, their contributions to reduce flood vulnerabilities and to build resilience across diverse socio-spatial neighborhoods are limited for two reasons. First, although flooding damages residential buildings in both inner city and peripheral areas (Dewan, 2013), very few studies have examined flood damages to residential buildings and its driving factors at the neighborhood level (Fatemi et al, 2020c). This kind of analysis is necessary because flood events are increasing in frequency and intensity (CRED, 2019), and studies emphasize a need for flood vulnerability assessments that can inform response strategies that are sensitive to the sociospatial contexts of flood damage at the microlevel (Fatemi et al, 2020a(Fatemi et al, , 2020c.…”

“…First, although flooding damages residential buildings in both inner city and peripheral areas (Dewan, 2013), very few studies have examined flood damages to residential buildings and its driving factors at the neighborhood level (Fatemi et al, 2020c). This kind of analysis is necessary because flood events are increasing in frequency and intensity (CRED, 2019), and studies emphasize a need for flood vulnerability assessments that can inform response strategies that are sensitive to the sociospatial contexts of flood damage at the microlevel (Fatemi et al, 2020a(Fatemi et al, , 2020c. Fatemi (2020), for example, shows a connection between building modifications to improve physical resilience to…”