Climate and Disaster Resilience of Greater Dhaka Area

Megacity Dhaka encounters various kinds
of natural disasters quite frequently owing to its
geographical location and a number of other physical and
environmental conditions including low topography, land
characteristics, multiplicity of rivers and the monsoon
climate. Climate and disaster resilience is not the same in
all parts of a city. Spatial variations in resilience
patterns result from differences in the strengths and
weaknesses of the city’s economic, social, physical,
institutional or natural aspects across its various parts.
Traditional frameworks to assess adaptive capacity at the
local level have focused largely on assets and capitals as
indicators. While useful in understanding the capacity of a
system to cope with disasters and adapt to changing
environments, asset-oriented approaches overlook the
processes and functions of a system (for example, governance
system, community participation in decision-making,
knowledge dissemination and management, structure of
institutions and entitlements etc.) that are important
aspects influencing the capacity of a human system to
respond to climate change events.