Mashfiqus Salehin

Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology | BUET · Institute of Water and Flood Management

Climate change and economic growth are having a profound influence on the integrity of socio-economics and ecology of coastal Bangladesh. In the extreme, there are widespread expectations of inundation and coastal abandonment. However, results from our integrated assessment model (IAM) show that over the next 30 years, development choices might hav...

Transitioning from the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) is a big challenge, particularly for SDG 6.1, as the effective delivery of drinking water services drops due to more stringent indicators, especially for water quality constraints. Salinity in groundwater has received less attention compared to arse...

Water productivity (WP), a performance indicator, defines if the agricultural production system uses the resources competently. Spatial information on crop WP is fundamental to knowing where a gap in WP exists along with underlying reasons within the gaps, where a crop production system performs well, and where developments are still possible to en...

Unlabelled: River deltas globally are highly exposed and vulnerable to natural hazards and are often over-exploited landforms. The Global Delta Risk Index (GDRI) was developed to assess multi-hazard risk in river deltas and support decision-making in risk reduction interventions in delta regions. Disasters have significant impacts on the progress...

The need to integrate Early Warning System (EWS) with Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) has long been recognized in several global forums, for example, Yokahoma Strategy in 1994, Hyogo Framework of Action 2005-2015, and Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030. In this context, in the year 2006, the United Nations International Strategy f...

The north-eastern region of Bangladesh is known for its intricate hydrology and the capricious flash floods induced from the copious rainfall multiple times in the upstream hilly region of India each year. But the flood happened in the June 2022 has been an unorthodox one: estimated 70 to 80 percent of the total area of Sylhet and Sunamgonj distric...

Climate change adaptation is currently an important community concern in developing countries like Bangladesh. The conceptualization of adaptation within the government system matters for the promotion of activities such as employment generation for local communities. The lesser the gap between government policy and the local community’s needs for...

Northwest Bangladesh faces twin challenges- food and water security, which are likely to increase in the future mainly due to climate change (CC). Assessing crop water productivity (WP) could be a key strategy to address these challenges. AquaCrop 5.0 model prior to calibration/validation was used coupled with Global Climate Models (GCMs) projectio...

Bangladesh, specifically the northwestern region, faces twin challenges, namely, food and water security, which are pressing now and likely to increase in the future mainly due to climate change. More crops per drop of water, namely crop water productivity (WP), could be a key strategy to address both challenges. This study assessed future wheat (T...

The co-creation of knowledge through a process of mutual learning between scientists and societal actors is an important avenue to advance science and resolve complex problems in society. While the value and principles for such transdisciplinary water research have been well established, the power and empowerment dimensions continue to pose a chall...

Increasing flood risk, salinization and waterlogging threaten the lives and livelihoods of more than 35 million people in Bangladesh’s coastal zone. While planning models have long been used to inform investments in water infrastructure, they frequently overlook interacting risks, impacts on the poor and local context. We address this gap by develo...

Climate change adaptation is currently an important community concern in the developing countries like Bangladesh. The conceptualization of adaptation in the government system matters to develop its canon in promoting activities such as employment generation important for local communities. The lesser the gap between government policy and the local...

Ecosystem services and livelihood security are strongly interrelated in any social-ecological system (SES), and their interdependence should be assessed using an integrated framework. Overexploitation of ecosystem resources may undermine the ecosystem services while restrictions on resource extraction may hamper the dependent livelihoods. We examin...

Abstract This paper uses multimedia to showcase the narratives and lived experiences of those who live and work in tropical Asian mega‐deltas, and as such is the first journal article of its kind in the field of Regional Geography. Using videos, photography and audio this paper describes the characteristics of ponds and their place in the intrinsic...

Deltas are experiencing profound demographic, economic and land use changes and human-induced catchment and climate change. Bangladesh exemplifies these difficulties through multiple climate risks including subsidence/sea-level rise, temperature rise, and changing precipitation patterns, as well as changing management of the Ganges and Brahmaputra...

For the policy makers, risk-based planning to minimize future climatic risk needs decision on investment priority. This is particularly important where there are resource constraints, and in cases where the decisions depend on socio-political reality of the region. For the policy makers, it is also extremely important to know how a system will beha...

The co-creation of knowledge through a process of mutual learning between scientists and societal actors is an important avenue to advance science and resolve complex problems in society. While the value and principles for such transdisciplinary water research have been well established, the power and empowerment dimensions continue to pose a chall...

Achieving water security requires reconciling multiple objectives while prioritizing scarce resources for the provision of safe drinking water supplies. We examine decision-making to invest in drinking water infrastructure in coastal Bangladesh where increasing saline intrusion in aquifers intersects with high levels of poverty for the 20 million p...

We investigated the merits of performing multi-scale flood simulations with nested two-dimensional flood simulation models for flood risk management applications over an extended period with infiltration and evapotranspiration. For nested calculations, 1) inter-district, 2) district, and 3) regional scales were arranged as three levels in the neste...

Riverbank erosion is a natural geophysical process of Bangladesh due to the dynamic nature of the deltaic river systems and their numerous tributaries and distributaries. Conventional interventions that work against the natural power of the rivers such as groynes, spurs, revetment, etc. have a mixed experience of failure/success to cope up with the...

Both autonomous and planned strategies are being practiced at different stages of the recovery processes after a disaster related to flooding and usually, a normal recovery cycle takes around 3-5 years. Flooding in 2020 was extraordinary in terms of timing, duration and intensity especially along the Jamuna river that created substantial damages an...

Climate change is a growing concern for crop-water use efficiency, specifically in northwest Bangladesh. This study aims to simulate water productivity (WP) of wheat under changing climate along with adaptation strategies. The AquaCrop model has been used to simulate WP for the near-future (2020-2039), mid-future (2040-2059), and far-future (2080-2...

The coastal areas of the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna delta are acknowledged hotspots of environmental and social concerns. This reflects a large, mainly rural population of 56.7 million, which is exposed to a range of natural hazards exacerbated by climate change, sea-level rise and subsidence. There are high levels of poverty and limited social well...

Groundwater is used intensively in Asian mega-deltas yet the processes by which groundwater is replenished in these deltaic systems remain inadequately understood. Drawing insight from hourly monitoring of groundwater levels and rainfall in two contrasting settings, comprising permeable surficial deposits of Holocene age and Plio-Pleistocene terrac...

Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh is one of the most populous Mega Cities in the world. As the growth of urban population is taking place at an exceptionally rapid rate, the city is unable to cope with changing situations due to its internal resource constraints and management limitations. Consequently, the city is experiencing environmental de...

Impacts of climate change adaptation strategies need to be evaluated using principled methods spanning sectors and longer time frames. We propose machine-learning approaches to study the long-term impacts of flood protection in Bangladesh. Available data include socio-economic survey and events data (death, migration, etc.) from 1983–2014. These mu...

Policy development and management of deltas in the Anthropocene involves the consideration of trade-offs and the balancing of positive and negative consequences for delta functions and the societies that rely on them. This assessment outlines policy-driven and spatial trade-offs that dominate the landscape of choice. It highlights examples of such...

The Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) Delta and its catchment area are shared between five countries which means that the delta is strongly influenced by neighbouring country’s water and sediment management decisions in addition to climatic, environmental and internal management. Delta administration is also shared between Bangladesh and India, inclu...

Synopsis Involving citizens, and a broad range of stakeholders and beneficiaries from the government, private and non-profit sectors, more regularly and directly is one of the key components in project design, development, decision-making and implementation process. Traditional top-down approach to project implementation have increasingly lost publ...

Groundwater resources in deltaic regions are vulnerable to contamination by saline seawater, posing significant crisis for drinking water. Current policy and practice of building water supply infrastructure, without adequate hydrogeological analysis and institutional coordination are failing to provide basic drinking water services for millions of...

Coastal people, especially those living within deltaic areas, encounter major climatic concerns which affect their livelihoods. To cope with this problem, different types of planned adaptation strategies have been implemented guided by laws, policies and programs. However, these guiding documents sometimes fall short of addressing the needs of clim...

Salinization of freshwater and soils is a global phenomenon that adversely affects 500 million people, particularly in low-lying river deltas. Impacts of salinity on food and water security and agricultural livelihoods are well documented and reviewed herein, along with additional effects on human health that have received less attention and warran...

This publication has been prepared as part of the project “Shifting Grounds: Institutional transformation, enhancing knowledge and capacity to manage groundwater security in peri-urban Ganges delta systems”, funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research under grant W.07.69.104.

Natural resource management and environmental protection are well addressed in policies, though translation of these into legal frameworks is less strong; stronger coherence is needed among sectoral policies to maximise their benefits.  General human rights are well-protected; however, the rights and special needs of IDPs need to be adequately rec...

A flexible meta-model, the Delta Dynamic Integrated Emulator Model (ΔDIEM), is developed to capture the socio-biophysical system of coastal Bangladesh as simply and efficiently as possible. Operating at the local scale, calculations occur efficiently using a variety of methods, including linear statistical emulators, which capture the behaviour of...

Determining soil salinity within the delta is crucial as it is the dominant factor determining crop productivity. There are numerous interacting drivers that influence soil salinity, including climate variability, saline river water inundation, storm surge inundation, depth to groundwater table, groundwater salinity, and shrimp farming (Bagda). For...

Scenario development for integrated analysis focuses on adopting an interdisciplinary approach covering key elements of the biophysical environment as well as changes in livelihoods, education, economics and governance both locally and internationally. Most importantly, the development of these scenarios generates a dialogue across institutions, st...

Seven distinct social-ecological systems are defined for the Bangladesh delta, based on analysis of the ways in which social systems differ according to the ecological system. These systems are rain-fed and irrigated agriculture, brackish and freshwater aquaculture, Charlands, coastal zones, and areas dependent on the Sundarbans mangrove forest. Th...

Deltas are distinct in terms of the concentration of freshwater, nutrients and especially sediment inputs to a small concentrated area of the coastal zone, creating conditions ideal for fertile ecosystems, dense population and high economic activity. Ecosystem services within these areas can provide services significant in the maintenance of well-b...

Bangladesh is identified as an impact hotspot for sea-level rise in multiple studies. However, a range of other factors must be considered including catchment management, socio-economic development and governance quality, as well as delta plain biophysical processes. Taking an integrated assessment approach highlights that to 2050 future changes ar...

The Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna delta in Bangladesh is one of the world’s most dynamic deltas and supports high population densities based on large provisioning ecosystem services. Analysing the future of these ecosystem services and associated human livelihoods represents a complex multi-scale, multi-disciplinary problem. A conceptual framework aims...

This book answers key questions about environment, people and their shared future in deltas. It develops a systematic and holistic approach for policy-orientated analysis for the future of these regions. It does so by focusing on ecosystem services in the world’s largest, most populous and most iconic delta region, that of the Ganges-Brahmaputra de...

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are offered as a comprehensive strategy to guide and encourage sustainable development at multiple scales both nationally and internationally. Furthermore, through the development of indicators associated with each goal and sub-goal, the SDGs support the notion of monitoring, evaluation and adaptive manageme...

Salinity intrusion in coastal Bangladesh has serious population health implications, which are yet to be clearly understood. The study was undertaken through the ‘Assessing Health, Livelihoods, Ecosystem Services and Poverty Alleviation in Populous Deltas’ project in coastal Bangladesh. Drinking water salinity and blood pressure measurements were c...

The objective of the study is to understand the impact of storm surge flooding on saline water intrusion in coastal aquifer in Bangladesh. The study was designed based on regional hydro-geological system of coastal aquifer in Bangladesh using numerical simulation of variable density groundwater flow and contaminant transport model. Firstly, a regio...

Water-related risks impact development opportunities and can trap communities in a downward spiral of economic decline. In this article, the dynamic relationship between water-related risks and economic outcomes for an embanked area in coastal Bangladesh is conceptualized. The interaction between flood events, salinity, deteriorating and poorly mai...

Understanding the dynamics of salt movement in the soil is a prerequisite for devising appropriate management strategies for land productivity of coastal regions, especially low lying delta regions which support many millions of farmers around the world. At present there are no numerical models able to resolve soil salinity at regional scale and at...

The northeast (NE) region of Bangladesh covering Sunamganj, Habiganj, Netrokona, Kishoreganj and Brahmanbaria is highly vulnerable to flash flood. A major portion of matured Boro crops of the Haor region washed away by sudden flash floods in 2004, 2010 and 2016, causing huge loss for the farmers during the month of April. A strong and dedicated ear...

The Sylhet division on the northeast part of Bangladesh is mostly low lying area where the deepest points are below mean sea level. Surrounded by hills of Meghalaya of India, the area suffers from large volume of flood flow during flash flood from transboundary rivers on pre-monsoon which causes inundation and enormous losses to roads and other inf...

Urbanizing in South Asia has seen rapid growth and change. This has resulted in Khulna, the third largest city of Bangladesh, in an increasing pressure on groundwater resources. A threat to the sustainability groundwater management is felt most at the peri-urban area. Sanchibuniamouza, lowest administrative unit, located in the south fringe of the...

Fractal dimension index (FDI) and shape index (SI) of the islands of Bangladesh Sundarbans situated at the estuarine part of the Ganges–Brahmaputra–Meghna (GBM) delta were estimated with the aid of remote sensing techniques between the years 1989 and 2010. The main objective was to correlate the temporal change in these two indices within two decad...

The total blue carbon stock of the Bangladesh Sundarban mangroves was evaluated and the probable future status after a century was predicted based on the recent trend of changes in the last 30 years and implementing a hybrid model of Markov Chain and Cellular automata. At present 36.24 Tg C and 54.95 Tg C are stored in the above-ground and below-gr...

Deltas provide diverse ecosystem services and benefits for their populations. At the same time, deltas are also recognised as one of the most vulnerable coastal environments, with a range of drivers operating at multiple scales, from global climate change and sea-level rise to deltaic-scale subsidence and land cover change. These drivers threaten t...

Coastal deltas represent some of the most densely populated areas in the world. A good example is the coastal zone of Bangladesh where there are more than 1000 people/km^2 in the rural areas. Livelihoods, food security and poverty in this area is strongly dependent on natural resources affected by several factors including climate variability and c...

Detention basins are extremely important for storing excess storm water and saving megacities like Dhaka from urban flooding. Not only detention basins decrease potential chance of flooding from rainfall or storm runoff, but also if properly maintained, it can improve the quality of water as well as can provide a well-managed runoff system. Dhaka c...

Worldwide, delta regions support more than 500 million people who are often poor and live at high population densities with a high dependence on ecosystem services. These areas are subject to significant change due to multiple drivers such as climate change, changing catchment management, land use change, including urbanisation and groundwater with...

A comprehensible knowledge on the ground water (GW) recharge mechanism promises a better future prediction of highly dynamic shallow aquifer system in Bangladesh. However, due to the scarcity of data in the Bengal basin simplifications must be adopted in estimating groundwater recharge. Hence, a simplistic analytical approach of ground water rechar...

Deltas represent one of the most densely populated areas in the world. This is especially true for the coastal zone of Bangladesh where more than a thousand people live in each square kilometre of land. Livelihoods, food security and poverty in Bangladesh are strongly dependent on natural resources affected by several factors including climate vari...

Introduction to the ESPA deltas themed issue of Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts .

Multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) is a process of evaluating alternatives against relevant decision making criteria. Several methods are available to facilitate the evaluation steps. This paper deals with a rural water supply problem in the coastal areas of Bangladesh. Three different MCDM methods - weighted summation, analytical hierarchy p...

This paper quantifies the expected impacts of climate change, climate variability and salinity accumulation on food production in coastal Bangladesh during the dry season. This forms part of a concerted series of actions on agriculture and salinity in Bangladesh under the UK funded Ecosystems for Poverty Alleviation programme and the British Counci...