Local People’s Responses to Flood Disasters in Flood Prone Areas of Northeast Bangladesh

Naoki Yamashita; Terunori Ohmoto

doi:10.20965/jdr.2015.p0288

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JDR Vol.10 No.2 pp. 288-298

(2015)

doi: 10.20965/jdr.2015.p0288

Paper:

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Local People’s Responses to Flood Disasters in Flood Prone Areas of Northeast Bangladesh

Naoki Yamashita^* and Terunori Ohmoto^**

^*Water Resources & Energy Department, Nippon Koei Co., Ltd., 5-4 Kojimachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-8539, Japan

^**Graduate School of Science and Technology, Kumamoto University, Kumamoto, Japan

Received:

October 24, 2014

Accepted:

January 28, 2015

Published:

April 1, 2015

Keywords:

flood measures, self, community, public assistance, questionnaire survey, Northeast Bangladesh, flood prone area

Abstract

In the flood prone areas of Bangladesh, local people have adapted to flooding. Essentially, properties are protected against flooding by constructing villages in the highlands on natural levees, while using lowlands as agricultural fields during the dry season. It remains to spread flood inundation condition and exempts the necessity of strengthening measures against flooding. This study aims to clarify the status of self, community, and public assistance for flood disasters in flood prone areas of Northeast Bangladesh based on a questionnaire survey. We extracted similarities and differences between local people’s flood responses by comparing our findings to those of a similar study on a 2006 flood in the Sendai River Basin, Japan. The effects of preventive flood mitigation measures such as selection of house location are quantitatively confirmed. Maximum inundation depth and duration for houses is approximately 10% less than that for agricultural fields. The study reveals that both areas have evacuation activities, although factors motivating evacuation differ.

Cite this article as:

N. Yamashita and T. Ohmoto, “Local People’s Responses to Flood Disasters in Flood Prone Areas of Northeast Bangladesh,” J. Disaster Res., Vol.10 No.2, pp. 288-298, 2015.

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References

[1] Science Council of Japan, “Recommendations from Science Council of Japan (SCJ) : with confident steps towards reconstruction,” pp. 3-13, 2012 (in Japanese).
[2] MLIT, “Recommendations to the national land development for disaster-resistant (Saigai ni Tsuyoi Machizukuri heno Teigen),” pp. 17-19, 2011 (in Japanese).
[3] K. Schuyt and L. Brander, “Living waters, the economic values of the world’s wetlands,” WWF, p. 5, 2004.
[4] N. Yamashita and T. Ohmoto, “Flood mitigation effects and sedimentation of wetland in Kushiyara River Basin, northeast region of Bangladesh,” Journal of Japan Society of Civil Engineers, Ser. B1 (Hydraulic Engineering), Vol.69, No.4, I_1-I_6, pp. I_1525-I_1530, 2013 (in Japanese).
[5] Y. Muramoto, J. Matsumoto, M. Oya, T. Oka, and T. ODa, “Survey of flood damage due to heavy rainfall in Bangladesh in monsoon season, 1987,” Sponsored by Ministry of Education, Japan, No.-B-62-5, pp. 94-117, 1988 (in Japanese).
[6] H. Uchida and K. Ando, “Floods in Bangladesh: Farmers” adaptability and national policy,” Asian and African Area Studies, Vol.3, Nos. 3-34, KURENAI, Kyoto University Research Information Repository, pp. 7-18, 2003 (in Japanese).
[7] PWRI, “Factor analysis for water related disaster in Bangladesh (Bangladesh ni okeru mizusaigai ni kansuru youin bunseki,” Technical Note of PWRI, No.4052, 2007 (in Japanese).
[8] K. M. N. Islam, “Impacts of urban floods from micro-macro level perspectives, a case study of Bangladesh,” LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing, pp. 22-26, pp. 48-49, 2011.
[9] N. Sultana and M. I. Rayhan, “Coping strategies with floods in Bangladesh: An empirical study,” Natural Hazard, pp. 1209-1218, 2012.
[10] R. Hoque, D. Nakayama, H. Matsuyama, and J. Matsumoto, “Flood monitoring, mapping and assessing capacities using RADARSAT remote sensing, GIS and ground data for Bangladesh,” Nat Hazards, Vol.57, pp. 525-548, 2011.

This article is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internationa License.

[1] [1] Science Council of Japan, “Recommendations from Science Council of Japan (SCJ) : with confident steps towards reconstruction,” pp. 3-13, 2012 (in Japanese).

[2] [2] MLIT, “Recommendations to the national land development for disaster-resistant (Saigai ni Tsuyoi Machizukuri heno Teigen),” pp. 17-19, 2011 (in Japanese).

[3] [3] K. Schuyt and L. Brander, “Living waters, the economic values of the world’s wetlands,” WWF, p. 5, 2004.

[4] [4] N. Yamashita and T. Ohmoto, “Flood mitigation effects and sedimentation of wetland in Kushiyara River Basin, northeast region of Bangladesh,” Journal of Japan Society of Civil Engineers, Ser. B1 (Hydraulic Engineering), Vol.69, No.4, I_1-I_6, pp. I_1525-I_1530, 2013 (in Japanese).

[5] [5] Y. Muramoto, J. Matsumoto, M. Oya, T. Oka, and T. ODa, “Survey of flood damage due to heavy rainfall in Bangladesh in monsoon season, 1987,” Sponsored by Ministry of Education, Japan, No.-B-62-5, pp. 94-117, 1988 (in Japanese).

[6] [6] H. Uchida and K. Ando, “Floods in Bangladesh: Farmers” adaptability and national policy,” Asian and African Area Studies, Vol.3, Nos. 3-34, KURENAI, Kyoto University Research Information Repository, pp. 7-18, 2003 (in Japanese).

[7] [7] PWRI, “Factor analysis for water related disaster in Bangladesh (Bangladesh ni okeru mizusaigai ni kansuru youin bunseki,” Technical Note of PWRI, No.4052, 2007 (in Japanese).

[8] [8] K. M. N. Islam, “Impacts of urban floods from micro-macro level perspectives, a case study of Bangladesh,” LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing, pp. 22-26, pp. 48-49, 2011.

[9] [9] N. Sultana and M. I. Rayhan, “Coping strategies with floods in Bangladesh: An empirical study,” Natural Hazard, pp. 1209-1218, 2012.

[10] [10] R. Hoque, D. Nakayama, H. Matsuyama, and J. Matsumoto, “Flood monitoring, mapping and assessing capacities using RADARSAT remote sensing, GIS and ground data for Bangladesh,” Nat Hazards, Vol.57, pp. 525-548, 2011.

Local People’s Responses to Flood Disasters in Flood Prone Areas of Northeast Bangladesh

Naoki Yamashita* and Terunori Ohmoto**

Naoki Yamashita^* and Terunori Ohmoto^**