Dhaka S Changing Landscape

Between 1991 and 2010, Dhaka’s population more than doubled to 15 million. Simultaneously, the city’s contribution to the national economy almost trebled. Clearly, population growth was accompanied by an unmistakable trend of economic growth, and a significant decline in urban poverty and income inequality. On the other hand, Dhaka’s high population density exacerbated serious environmental challenges, and it was soon ranked as one of the world’s least livable cities. In the context of these contradictory signals of rapid urbanization, Dhaka’s Changing Landscape sets to answer three most intriguing questions: Are the poorer segments of urban population, which migrate with dreams for better lives, benefitting from positive economic trends? Are these benefits sustainable? Are these benefits creating scope for this group to have a stake in the city’s growing prosperity? By studying 600 households and applying comparative analysis over a span of 20 years, the authors examine demographic and economic trends to understand the patterns, scale, and complexity of urban poverty, income inequality, and rural–urban migration. Going beyond the space and poverty debate, they enlighten the readers about the quality of life questions, sustainability matters, and gender and generational roles and relations necessary to understand qualitative transformation and migrants’ prospects for a better future.

This work narrates how opportunities and challenges of rapid urbanisation in Dhaka are translated into realising dreams of better lives and livelihoods, and prospects for a shared future for city dwellers - poor/non-poor, men/women, young/old, migrant/non-migrant.

Environmental change presents a new context and new opportunities for transformational change. This timely book will inspire new ways of understanding the relationship between environmental change and human security. A Changing Environment for Human Security: Transformative Approaches to Research, Policy and Action both supports and informs a call for new, transformative approaches to research, policy and action. The chapters in this book include critical analyses, case studies and reflections on contemporary environmental and social challenges, with a strong emphasis on those related to climate change. Human thoughts and actions have contributed to an environment of insecurity, manifested as multiple interacting threats that now represent a serious challenge to humanity. Yet humans also have the capacity to collectively transform the economic, political, social and cultural systems and structures that perpetuate human insecurities. These fresh perspectives on global environmental change from an interdisciplinary group of international experts will inspire readers – whether students, researchers, policy makers, or practitioners – to think differently about environmental issues and sustainability. The contributions show that in a changing environment, human security is not only a possibility, but a choice.

Agricultural expansion has transformed and fragmented forest habitats at alarming rates across the globe, but particularly so in tropical landscapes. The resulting land-use configurations encompass varying mosaics of tree cover, human settlements and agricultural land units. Meanwhile, global demand for agricultural commodities is at unprecedented levels. The need to feed nine billion people by 2050 in a world of changing food demands is causing increasing agricultural intensification. As such, market-orientated production systems are now increasingly replacing traditional farming practices, but at what cost? The Agrarian Change project, coordinated by the Center for International Forestry Research, explores the conservation, livelihood and food security implications of land-use and agrarian change processes at the landscape scale. This book provides detailed background information on seven multi-functional landscapes in Ethiopia, Cameroon, Indonesia, Nicaragua, Bangladesh, Zambia and Burkina Faso. The focal landscapes were selected as they exhibit various scenarios of changing forest cover, agricultural modification and integration with local and global commodity markets. A standardized research protocol will allow for future comparative analyses between these sites. Each case study chapter provides a comprehensive description of the physical and socioeconomic context of each focal landscape and a structured account of the historical and political drivers of land-use change occurring in the area. Each case study also draws on contemporary information obtained from key informant interviews, focus group discussions and preliminary data collection regarding key topics of interest including: changes in forest cover and dependency on forest products, farming practices, tenure institutions, the role and presence of conservation initiatives, and major economic activities. The follow-on empirical study is already underway in the landscapes described in this book. It examines responses to agrarian change processes at household, farm, village and landscape levels with a focus on poverty levels, food security, dietary diversity and nutrition, agricultural yields, biodiversity, migration and land tenure. This research intends to provide much needed insights into how landscape-scale land-use trajectories manifest in local communities and advance understanding of multi-functional landscapes as socioecological systems.

This comprehensive edited volume collects the most recent information with up-to-date citations, on the decrease in plant productivity under climatic changes and its link with global food security. The book emphasis on the crop management practices and recent advancement in the techniques for mitigating the negative effects of climate induced biotic and abiotic stress. It brings together 19 chapters developed by eminent researchers in the area of plant and environmental sciences. Global climate change is increasingly becoming a concern for future of agriculture. High levels of inorganic and organic pollutants and climatic stress adversely affects the sensitive and complex equation of natural resources and ecosystem services. To meet the increased food demand, plant productivity needs to be enhanced, therefore this book fills in the gap and brings together information on the physiological and molecular approaches for improving crop productivity. The book is resourceful reading material for researchers, faculty members, graduate and post graduate students of plant science, agriculture, agronomy, soil science, botany, Molecular biology and environmental science.

The world is currently experiencing changes in climate and environment that often lead to natural disasters. Nearly three million people worldwide may have been killed in the past 20 years by natural disasters. In total, 90% of the natural disasters and 95% of all disaster-related deaths occur in the developing countries. Recently such problems have accelerated due to LULC change, biodiversity degradation, increased tourism, urbanization and climate change. This book, consisting of 27 chapters, explores the topics of climate, environment and natural disasters in developing countries. It is essential to discuss these diverse issues in the field of geography as it encompasses interdisciplinary topics. The range of issues on national, regional and local dimensions is not only confined to geography but also concerned to other disciplines as well. Therefore, this book is a valuable source for scientists and researchers in allied fields such as climatology, disaster management, environmental science, hydrology, agriculture, and land use studies, among other areas. Furthermore, this book can be of immense help to the planners and decision-makers engaged in dealing with the problems of climate, environmental change and natural disasters in developing countries.

In the context of mounting challenges stemming from a rapid transformation of the urban-regional landscapes in many Asian countries, this book highlights a multifaceted array of issues that increasingly engage the academic and planning communities in search of viable solutions to complex problems facing us. Even though cities continue to dominate development studies, urbanization of Asia is evolving toward a hybrid urban-rural nexus beyond the cities. This volume considers these shifting dynamics of Asian urbanization, including urban spatial transformations and their ramifications in the context of sustainability and planning. Through the lens of a set of empirical studies across diverse disciplines, geographies and methodologies. yet with an overarching concern for sustainability in varied (but interconnected) areas such as climate change, land use planning, infrastructure and urban mobility, and quality of life, these studies examine a range of important topics (e.g., flooding, transportation, housing, open space/ green space, urban garden and such) in city/regional settings. Together, they add insights into varied transformational processes or patterns at work on the urban-regional landscapes in a number of Asian countries while offering innovative approaches or alternatives. The proposed volume fills a gap in urban/regional studies in context of South and Southeast Asia that will be of interest to all stakeholders (e.g., planners, administrators, academicians and the citizenry), particularly those interested in sustainability and planning paradigms. It should be a timely and valuable addition to the Asian urbanization literature.

Extreme Hydroclimatic Events and Multivariate Hazards in a Changing Environment: A Remote Sensing Approach reviews multivariate hazards in a non-stationary environment, covering both short and long-term predictions from earth observations, along with long-term climate dynamics and models. The book provides a detailed overview of remotely sensed observations, current and future satellite missions useful for hydrologic studies and water resources engineering, and a review of hydroclimatic hazards. Given these tools, readers can improve their abilities to monitor, model and predict these extremes with remote sensing. In addition, the book covers multivariate hazards, like landslides, in case studies that analyze the combination of natural hazards and their impact on the natural and built environment. Finally, it ties hydroclimatic hazards into the Sendai Framework, providing another set of tools for reducing disaster impacts. Emphasizes recent and future satellite missions to study, monitor and forecast hydroclimatic hazards Provides a complete overview and differentiation of remotely sensed products that are useful for monitoring extreme hydroclimatic and related events Covers real-life examples and applications of integrating remote sensing products to study complex multi-hydroclimatic hazards