Search

Natural disasters are a major concern in Bangladesh, particularly drought which is one of the most common disaster in Bangladesh. Drought needs to be explained spatially to understand its spatiotemporal variations in different areas. In this paper, the meteorological drought has been shown by using the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) method and illustrated through the Inverse Distance Weighted (IDW) method across Bangladesh. We used rainfall data of 30 meteorological stations in Bangladesh during the study period of 1981–2010. The results indicate that drought has been fluctuating and it has become a recurrent phenomenon during the study period. The SPI depicted the drought conditions that plunged dramatically in 1981, 1982, 1985, 1987, 1989, 1992, 1994, and 1996 and then gradually improved in 2004, 2006, and 2009 in the country. The present study demonstrated that drought occurred in Bangladesh on an average of 2.5 years. Drought was more prominent in the northern, south-western, and eastern regions in Bangladesh compared to the rest of the areas of the country. The outcomes of the present study will help in during disaster management strategies, particularly drought, by initiating effective plans and adaptation remedies in different areas of Bangladesh. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding household disaster risk perception is crucial to formulate and apply disaster risk reduction strategies. Using survey data from 300 households from three highly disaster-prone areas of the lower Teesta River basin in Bangladesh, this study explores households' risk perception of drought, earthquake, and flood at the local level. The ordered probit regression model was applied to identify the factors influencing household disaster risk perception. Most of the respondents perceived the likelihood of occurring drought, earthquake, and flood hazards on a large scale in the selected areas which cause negative impacts on their quality of life and financial losses. They have lack knowledge on mitigation actions which makes them unable to control the devastating impacts of disasters. Econometric results show that households' age, gender, education, and income-generating sources had significantly influenced the respondent's drought, earthquake, and flood risk perception. Female participants have less knowledge on mitigations actions and are less capable of controlling the hazards than their counterparts making them more vulnerable to the impacts of hazards. Urgent action is required to improve their socio-economic conditions, and to reduce the knowledge gap between males and females as well as to improve the household's understanding of mitigation and preparedness for disaster risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]