1. Novel climate impact assessment tool for rural, urban, and water infrastructure development in climate-induced coastal areas – A case study.
- Author
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Khan, Md Zahid Hossain, Romero, Antonio Arenas, Khaleque, Abdul, Shafiullah, Mohammad, Lima, Farhana, and Chowdhury, Salim
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CLIMATE extremes , *ENVIRONMENTAL infrastructure , *TECHNICAL specifications , *INFRASTRUCTURE (Economics) , *CLIMATE change - Abstract
Bangladesh is the seventh most vulnerable country to climate devastation. Resilient infrastructure is critical to a sustainable and functioning society. Infrastructure planning and design are highly complex processes encompassing the interests of numerous stakeholders while they are pressured by the uncertainty of climate change and societal transition. To address this issue, the Climate Resilient Local Infrastructure Centre (CReLIC), a Centre of Excellence established under the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED), developed Rapid Climate Impact Assessment Tools (RCIA) as part of the Climate Resilience Tool (CRT) Handbook for engineers to plan, design, and maintain infrastructure investments by providing a sequence of processes. Considering the high risk of climatic disasters in many districts in Bangladesh, it is necessary to evaluate the impact of climate change on the selected project across the country. Therefore, this study utilized the newly developed RCIA to assess the impact of climate change on the selected project in Satkhira Municipality, one of the most climate-induced districts among the 64 districts in Bangladesh. The RCIA was analyzed using Module I (desk-level analysis) and Module II (participatory approach). Apart from highlighting the present and future adaptation challenges, this study determined the necessary use of the Comprehensive Climate Impact Assessment (CCIA) tool to assess the selected project comprehensively, assuming that the project may not comply with the country's Environment Conservation Act (ECA) and Environment Conservation Rules (ECR). Based on the findings, the average rate of change in Extreme Climate Indices (the ECIs considered in the study included temperature, precipitation, dry days, and sea level rise) increased at regular intervals of about 8%, indicating worsening climate change in the study area. The Aggregate Hazard Baseline (AHB) was calculated at 73%, while the Aggregate Hazard Index (AHI) was determined for up to the year 2100. Additionally, the proposed tool identified the associated hazards and their current and future levels and helped to analyze the potential impact that could occur on the infrastructure, considering the location, preliminary design, and materials. Finally, the study identified the present and future adaptation challenges. Since the project does not meet all the necessary conditions, the study recommended conducting a CCIA to describe the terms of reference (technical specifications) for a more in-depth assessment of climate risks and impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2025
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