VIRTUAL London.
Abstract
Fast-growing cities in Bangladesh are vulnerable to climate change-induced events, necessitating effective planning and policymaking, including the impacted population. A growing amount of research reveals that to increase the resilience of social-environmental systems to the impacts of climate change, it is necessary to comprehend stakeholder opinions and concerns for performing assessments and planning adaptation strategies. Moreover, the participatory approach creates a sense of community ownership among stakeholders by putting them in charge of identifying their requirements. To achieve this objective, interviews were conducted with a wide range of stakeholders in five selected susceptible fast-growing cities as case study sites, namely Khulna, Rajshahi, Rangpur, Barisal, and Sylhet. The data gathered from focus group discussions and in-depth interviews helped to recognize specific climate change events and vulnerabilities in susceptible areas. Additionally, the strategy is tailored and made flexible enough to consider suggestions from government and non-government officials, experts from multiple fields, and the local community. The conducted field surveys helped to recognize a range of climate change impacts that were case study area-specific. The respondents also suggested solutions for addressing the issues, for instance, raising awareness, increasing vegetation, and educating the local community and children about disaster mitigation and the construction of climate-resilient housing. Thus, this valuable set of perceptions and suggestions gathered from local stakeholders helps to prioritize factors that need to be addressed for combating climate change issues during policy making to implement national and regional-level resilience strategies.
Md. Maruf Hossain is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Urban Planning and Territorial Planning in the Higher Technical School of Architecture of Madrid (ETSAM) of the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM). He has a Masters of Engineering from Gifu University of Japan and a Bachelor in Architecture from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). His research involves ways to mitigate and adapt to the climate change issues in Bangladesh. He currently works as a faculty member in the School of Architecture at the North South University of Bangladesh.
José Miguel Fernández-Güell holds a PhD in urban and regional planning from Texas A&M University and a Bachelor in Architecture from the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM). He currently holds the positions of Professor in the Urban and Regional Planning Department at UPM and Deputy Director of Research in the School of Architecture. He has previously served as a consultant for the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, the Inter American Development Bank, and the European Commission.