Assessing and Mapping Spatial Variations in Climate Change and Climatic Hazards in Bangladesh

Abstract

Climate change and the frequency and severity of climatic hazards vary significantly by region. There is a pressing need for increased understanding of spatial discrepancies in climate change and climatic hazards within a country and the mapping of areas that require resources to enhance resilience and achieve adaptation and sustainable development goals. This chapter synthesises relevant literature to understand spatial variations in climate change and climatic hazards across Bangladesh. We used data on disaster records from the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT), administered by the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED), to analyse vulnerability to climatic hazards (relating to storms and extreme temperatures, for example) and hydrological events such as floods, across 64 administrative districts of the country. The climate-change literature confirms that dramatic variations in temperature and rainfall change are unevenly distributed within Bangladesh. CRED’s disaster records reveal an uneven geographical distribution of vulnerability to different administrative districts’ climatic hazards. The findings have implications for climate adaptation and disaster management, and the methods used could be applied elsewhere in the Global South.