Coping with riverbank erosion hazard and displacement in bangladesh: survival strategies and adjustments.
As a deltaic plain, Bangladesh annually experiences riverbank erosion hazard due to sudden and rapid channel shifting, particularly in the major floodplain areas of the country. Consequently, valuable cultivable land is lost; also village settlements, markets and towns are destroyed, displacing tens of thousands of people. This paper examines the magnitude of river channel migration and encroachment on land, and the nature of human adjustment systems in the Brahmaputra-Jamuna floodplain, by investigating aspects of the social and cultural dynamics of resettlement of the displaced people. Some policy measures are recommended to improve the ability of the people in the floodplain to cope with these hazards.
C.E. Haque Department of Applied Geography Ryerson Polytechnical Institute 350 Victoria Street Toronto, Ontario Canada M5B 2K3 M.Q. Zaman Department of Anthropology The University of Lethbridge Lethbridge, Alberta Canada T1K 3M4.
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