Hazards in a Fickle Environment: Bangladesh

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xv

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2. Natural Hazards and Human Perspectives

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. Hazardous Environment and Disastrous Impact

      • C. Emdad Haque

      Pages 3-30

   3. Natural Disasters-Induced Displacement

      • C. Emdad Haque

      Pages 31-54

   4. Human Coping Responses to Natural Hazards

      • C. Emdad Haque

      Pages 55-77

3. Riverine Hazards and Human Ecology: Bangladesh

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 79-79

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   2. Physical Dimensions of Riverine Hazards in the Bengal Basin

      • C. Emdad Haque

      Pages 81-138

   3. Social Class Formation and Vulnerability of the Population

      • C. Emdad Haque

      Pages 139-164

4. Riverbank Erosion Hazard in Serajganj District-Impacts and Responses

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 165-165

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   2. The Rural Study Design

      • C. Emdad Haque

      Pages 167-185

   3. Impacts of Riverbank Erosion Disaster

      • C. Emdad Haque

      Pages 186-224

   4. Coping Responses of Floodplain Users in Rural Kazipur

      • C. Emdad Haque

      Pages 225-258

   5. The Displaced Poor in Urban Environments

      • C. Emdad Haque

      Pages 259-282

5. Emerging Policy Issues: Towards Sustainable Reduction of Disasters and Floodplain Development

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 283-283

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   2. Public Policy Issues

      • C. Emdad Haque

      Pages 285-310

   3. Towards a Sustainable Floodplain Development Strategy

      • C. Emdad Haque

      Pages 311-321

6. Back Matter

   Pages 323-381

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This book evolved from a collaborative research project between the University of Manitoba, Canada and Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh, which commenced in 1984 to study the problems of river channel migration, rural population displacement and land relocation in Bangladesh. The study was sponsored by the International Development Research Center (IDRC), based in Ottawa, Canada. It was through this project that I started my journey into disaster research more than thirteen years ago with basically an applied problem of massive magnitude in Bangladesh. I spent two- and-a half-years, in two stages, in Bangladesh's riparian villages to collect the empirical data for this study. Then the growing disaster discourse throughout the 1980s, especially its conceptual and theoretical areas, drew me in further, gluing my interest to these issues. In the 1990s, during my research and teaching at Brandon University, Canada, I realized that, despite the large body of literature on natural disasters, there was no work that synthesized the approaches to nature-triggered disasters in a comprehensive form, with sufficient empirical substantiation. In addition, despite the great deal of attention given to disasters in Bangladesh, I found no detailed reference book on the topic. Natural hazards and disasters, in my view, should be studied under a holistic framework encompassing the natural environment, society and individuals. Overreaction to the limitations of technocratic-scientific approaches-the control and prevention of physical events through specialized knowledge and skills-has resulted in a call for "taking the naturalness out of natural disasters.

• controlling
• development
• erosion
• natural disaster
• population
• hydrogeology

• Department of Geography, Brandon University, Manitoba, Canada

  C. Emdad Haque

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