Community-Based Autonomous Adaptation and Vulnerability to Extreme Floods in Bangladesh: Processes, Assessment and Failure Effects

The IPCC (2007) warned that the Ganges Brahmaputra Meghna (GBM) basin will be at greatest risk due to increased flooding, and that the region’s poverty would reduce its adaptation capacity. This book investigates autonomous adaptation using a multi-method technique comprising PRA and a questionnaire survey applied in the case study area ‘Islampur’ Upazila in Bangladesh.

The study has four key approaches. First, it reviews the flood literature for Bangladesh from 1980 to 2014. Second, it examines farmers' crop adaptation processes in a case study area at Islampur, Bangladesh. Third, it assesses the vulnerability and adaptation (V & A) in response to three extreme flood events (EFEs). Fourth, the book assesses the economic consequences of failure effects of autonomous crop adaptation in response to EFEs. The results show that Bangladeshi farmers are highly resilient to EFEs, but the economic consequences of failure effects of autonomous crop adaptation (FEACA) on marginal farmers are large.

The book contributes to current knowledge by filling three important research gaps as follows, 1) farmers’ autonomous crop adaptation processes in response to various types of extreme floods; 2) methodological contribution for assessing vulnerability and adaptation through PRA; and 3) the economic consequences of the failure effects of autonomous crop adaptations.

“This book provides a good account of ‘autonomous adaptation’ and its impact on fl

Dr Younus, Fellow of Adelaide University, Australia, is a pioneer researcher who has been working on V&A issues with some World authorities: Professors K B Rasheed, Q K Ahmad, Nick Harvey, Martin Williams, Munir Morad, and Richard Warrick since 1994. Dr Younus taught several courses: Environmental Studies: Climate Change and Human Adaptation, Environmental Decision Making Tools, Cities as Human Environments, and Research Project Design and Management in Flinders School of the Environment, Australia; has presented many papers in international conferences in the UK, the USA, Australia, Finland, Norway, and Bangladesh; and published many articles in international scientific journals. He is a member of the Institute of Australian Geographers, ISEE and Australia New Zealand Society for Ecological Economics (ANZSEE), Bangladesh Geographical Society (BGS), Bangladesh National Geographical Association (BNGA) and Bangla Academy.