Climatic Hazards in Coastal Bangladesh

Non-Structural and Structural Solutions

Bimal Paul, Harun Rashid

• Publisher: Butterworth-Heinemann
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9780128052761
• eBook ISBN:
  9780128046128
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Environmental Science
• Index: Biological Sciences

Coastal Hazards in Bangladesh: Non-Structural and Structural Solutions provides a review of the study of Bangladesh's coastal region, an area whose location and physical geography present the prefect microcosm for the study of coastal hazards and for the development of tactics that are applicable to regions around the world. The book presents engineers, scientists, and planners with the necessary tools and planning solutions used to combat coastal vulnerabilities in Bangladesh. Divided into seven chapters, it begins with a critical overview of cyclone and storm surge disasters, focusing on both engineering responses and public preparedness programs to such events. In addition, engineering recommendations are provided for further reduction of their impacts, such as erosion, accretion, and land subsidence, and numerical models are introduced to assess flood induced hazard and risk, flood-induced design loads, and how to intervene in protecting key installations, infrastructures, and communities. - Provides engineers, scientists, and planners with the necessary tools and planning solutions they need to address the coastal vulnerabilities presented by floods, cyclones, and storm surge - Includes engineering recommendations on how to reduce coastal hazards and their impact - Explores the topic of sea level rise and the effect of salt water intrusion on fresh water and the surrounding soil - Examines land uses in the coastal zones, their trend, and their effects on coastal zones

Chapter One

Introduction

Abstract

Climate change has emerged as a pervasive environmental problem for the entire world. Increasing concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is the root cause of this problem. Since most of the countries of the world have contributed more or less certain amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere it can be argued that climate change is a collective global responsibility. Only a handful of industrial nations have emitted disproportionate amounts of greenhouse gases into the global atmosphere. This is the global context for opening this chapter.

Keywords

Atmosphere; Coastal zone; Flood; Greenhouse; Sea level rise; Tropical cyclone

Climate Change as a Global Problem

Who Are Polluting Our Atmosphere?

Climate change has emerged as a pervasive environmental problem for the entire world. Increasing concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is the root cause of this problem. Since most of the countries of the world have contributed more or less certain amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere it can be argued that climate change is a collective global responsibility. Yet, data in Table 1.1 show that only a handful of industrial nations have emitted disproportionate amounts of greenhouse gases into the global atmosphere. This is the global context for opening this chapter and this book with a provocative question “who are polluting our atmosphere?”

Our question is based on an assumption (or more like an assertion) that the atmosphere is a global common property (called “a global commons”) that is shared by all citizens of the world. This assumption is rooted in one of the basic physical characteristics of the atmosphere that it is an open system that exchanges energy and matter freely throughout the entire global atmosphere. The exchange of energy takes place through different forms of radiation. Solar radiation is the most basic form of energy for the atmosphere. Earth radiation (also called thermal infrared radiation) is another form of energy that is radiated by the earth surface into the atmosphere. Matters in the atmosphere include gas molecules (such as nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, ozone, and others), water vapor, dust particles, aerosols, and different types of particles from volcanic eruptions. Differences in air temperature from one place to another result in differences in air pressure which generates winds. At the global scale, a number of major wind systems called prevailing winds, such as the southeasterlies, the northeasterlies, southwesterlies, northwesterlies, and polar easterlies, transport both energy and matter across the latitudes. Thus, colder winds from the polar region are transported to tropical areas, whereas warmer tropical winds are carried to higher latitudes. Obviously, these exchanges of energy and matter do not follow any political boundary. Thus, warmer air temperatures attributable to greenhouse gas emissions in China or the United States may reach distant places like Siberia or Greenland or Bangladesh, crossing many countries in its path. Because of such free movement of air (and air pollution) throughout the global atmosphere it is not an unreasonable question to ask who are polluting our atmosphere. The answer may already be known in general, but we have prepared Table 1.1 to demonstrate that only a limited few industrialized countries are responsible for the bulk of these emissions.

Table 1.1

Geography of Carbon Dioxide Emissions in 1990, 2000, and 2010

1990 Total Global Emissions: 22 Gt^a	2000 Total Global Emissions: 25 Gt	2010 Total Global Emissions: 33 Gt
USA (22.62% of global total)^b	USA (23.13% of global total)	China (26.36% of global total)
China (11.21)	China (13.88)	USA (16.37)
Russia (11.06)	Russia (6.56)	India (5.38)
Japan (5.27)	Japan (5.03)	Russia (5.18)
Germany (4.63)	India (4.18)	Japan (3.75)
Ukraine (3.49)	Germany (3.42)	Germany (2.49)
India (2.99)	Canada (2.17)	South Korea (1.79)
UK (2.67)	UK (2.15)	Canada (1.68)
Canada (2.03)	Italy (1.81)	UK (1.54)
Italy (1.93)	South Korea (1.77)	Mexico (1.39)
Top 10 countries: 68%	Top 10 countries: 64%	Top 10 countries: 66%
France (1.78)	France (1.61)	Indonesia (1.37)
Poland (1.41)	Mexico (1.49)	Brazil (1.32)
Mexico (1.41)	Australia (1.41)	Australia (1.31)
Australia (1.24)	Ukraine (1.39)	Saudi Arabia (1.29)
South Africa (1.22)	Brazil (1.36)	Italy (1.27)
Kazakhstan (1.16)	Iran (1.35)	France (1.19)
South Korea (1.14)	South Africa (1.22)	Iran (1.17)
Spain (1.03)	Spain (1.21)	Poland (1.01)
Brazil (0.99)	Indonesia (1.16)	South Africa (1.00)
Iran (0.93)	Poland (1.14)	Ukraine (0.92)
Top 20 countries: 80%	Top 20 countries: 77%	Top 20 countries: 78%
Contributions by remaining 167 countries: 20% (each country contributed between 0.01% and 0.9%)	Contributions by remaining 167 countries: 23% (each country contributed between 0.01% and 0.9%)	Contributions by remaining 167 countries: 22% (each country contributed between 0.01% and 0.9%)^c

^a See endnote 2 for an explanation of the short form Gt.

^b Countries in bold indicate Annex I countries (see endnote 1).

^c In 2010, Bangladesh contributed 0.35% of global total greenhouse gas emissions.

Prepared by authors based on original data from EDGAR tables Olivier, J.G.L., Janssens-Maenhout, G., Muntean, M., Peters, J.H.A.W., 2014. Trends in Global CO₂ Emissions – 2014 Report. PBL Publications, The Hague.

Data in Table 1.1 indicate that only 10 countries (out of 187 ranked) had been responsible for about two-thirds of the total carbon dioxide emissions for past several decades (1990–2010). Of them, six to eight countries were Annex I nations.¹ One of the most challenging trends for this period had been that, despite UNFCCC's efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions, total carbon dioxide emissions (by far the most voluminous anthropogenic greenhouse gas) had increased from 22 gigatonnes (Gt) in 1990 to 25 Gt in 2000 and 33 Gt in 2010.² Another recent change (since 2010) has been the meteoric rise of China to the top as the infamous pollu...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Author Biography
• Preface
• Chapter One. Introduction
• Chapter Two. Tropical Cyclones and Storm Surges
• Chapter Three. Climate Change and Sea Level Rise in Bangladesh
• Chapter Four. Coastal Landform Changes: Coastal Erosion, Land Accretion and Subsidence
• Chapter Five. Salinity Intrusion and Impacts
• Chapter Six. Land Use Change and Coastal Management
• Chapter Seven. Nonstructural Adaptation
• Chapter Eight. Structural Adaptation
• Chapter Nine. Conclusion
• Index