Community Based Adaptation to climate change

Mangrove Ecosystems in Sri Lanka: Climate Change Impacts and
Community-Based Conservation and Restoration

Sri Lanka has 19,500 hectares and more than 20 species of true mangroves. Mangrove forests are highly valuable ecosystems that capture carbon, protect the coastline, and provide a wide variety of
services worth US$33,000-57,000/ha per year.
Large areas of mangroves have been destroyed or degraded over the past decades in Sri Lanka. Even though mangroves are afforded comprehensive legal protection throughout the island, the existing laws are not always implemented or followed. Conserving and expanding mangroves is a national goal formulated in recent policies, plans, and strategies, as well as a priority for climate change adaptation and resilience.
Sustainable mangrove restoration hinges on community participation and ownership. Scoping sites, identifying and mapping key stakeholders, building capacities, creating awareness, and implementing community-driven actions are steps to establish a community-based restoration system.
Connecting restoration and sustainable livelihoods like ecotourism is crucial to give ownership to and incentivize local stakeholders.

Technology can be of both ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ in nature. While both kinds of technologies are applicable for climate change mitigation technologies, the latter kind is more appropriate for climate change adaptation. This is because unlike mitigation technologies, most of the adaptation methods involve some form of technology  that broadly cannot be considered as mere product or equipment. Instead, these technologies are broadly considered as various forms of ‘knowledge’ or ‘know-how’. While the mostly ‘product’ or ‘tool’ based ‘hard’ kinds of mitigation technologies are protected by intellectual property rights (IPRs) and brings financial benefit to the IPRs holders, typically ‘knowledge’ or ‘information’ based ‘soft’ kinds of adaptation technologies are vastly considered as ‘public good’, which are not protected by IPRs, nor bring any financial profit for the knowledge generators or the original knowledge holders. This paper assesses whether these soft kind of ‘knowledge’ or ‘know-how’ climate change adaptation technologies can be brought under modern IPRs system as such considered as commercially valuable. The study suggests some modification of existing system, where necessary. Finally, the study suggests introducing a ‘sui generis’ protection for community knowledge or traditional knowledge adaptation technologies.

Mangrove forests are valuable and vulnerable ecosystems covering the liminal area between sea and land. According to Forest Department data, Sri Lanka has 15,670 hectares of mangroves which are mainly concentrated in the Puttalam, Jaffna, Trincomalee, and Batticaloa districts. Mangroves have been diminished by shrimp farming, construction, tourism, industry, and the civil war, especially over the last decades.
This paper gives an overview of mangrove ecosystems in Sri Lanka and evaluates existing projects to restore and protect mangrove ecosystems with a focus on community participation and the usage of local knowledge.
On paper, mangroves ecosystems are protected in Sri Lanka. There are, however, very few dedicated areas for them to grow undisturbed, mainly one terrestrial protected area and a handful of sanctuaries. As seen in other countries, marine protected areas can be a useful tool to protect mangroves, but their effectiveness depends on active management and enforcement. Legislature is in conflict with the interests of local communities that depend on mangrove ecosystems for their livelihoods, especially in the face of progressive climate change. Protection efforts are also opposed by commercial interests and coastal development, especially in the tourism and industrial sector, and pollution coming from inland sources.
After the 2004 Tsunami, a surge of donor-driven mangrove reforestation projects attempted to improve coastal protection. 14 years later, the results are sobering: out of 1,000-1,200 hectares of restoration efforts, only 200-220 hectares survived. The main reasons for this comprise inappropriate locations, unsuitable mangrove species, and a lack of post-planting monitoring and care.
The paper tries to extract lessons learnt and best practices in mangrove conservation. It recognizes that mangrove conservation cannot happen without local communities, and that it has to take their developmental problems and poverty, often exacerbated by climate change, into account. Awareness creation as well as the engagement of local communities are integral to the success of preservation measures. Successful projects all use an inclusive approach that relies as much on technical expertise as it does on local knowledge, sustainable cooperation, and the empowerment of coastal communities.

This paper explores the case for system change as theorised by the idealist/humanist tradition in International Relations theory with the most explicit example of Alexander Wendt’s constructivism, as the difficult to accomplish, yet creative solution to the climate crisis. The paper aims to offer an innovative, original account of the climate crisis based on studies of specific authors within constructivism, international political economy and philosophy. The paper excels in examining the significance of a complex issue that has been 'a tough nut to crack' as clearly as possible summarizing a lot of complex information into a well-organized synthesis of ideas by relying on meditative flow followed by objective analysis and policy recommendations. Climate change is persistent just as the predominant theory of International Relations, Realism, is. To solve it, scholars have to change paradigm. Although among the top leadership, progress within the existing global climate governance architecture is steadily proceeding in averting the worst security impacts of climate change by attempting to significantly reduce global carbon emissions, there is also a common perception among societies that action happening within the system is disappointingly slow, even considered ineffective. Despite the existence of several solutions such as: 1) climate negotiations within the system of global governance focused on significantly reducing global carbon emissions, 2) the commitment within the private sector, that is, a hundred companies in the world that produced 70 percent of the world’s emissions, 3) introducing of the carbon tax, 4) reforming capitalism, 5) giving more credibility to the scientific community and scientific solutions and 6) politicising the issue to the point when people can vote for climate leaders who make climate as the number one priority; none of the above offers a sufficiently comprehensive or lasting solution. The idea is to introduce radical solutions that could have a massive, exponential impact. The unconventional solution offers a more spontaneous way out of the problem. The research problem is the most profound issue humanity has ever attempted to solve in the history of civilization, arguably requiring a complete transformation of the system. It comes down to the conscious evolution of human species to act in time since the climate clock will soon be surpassing tipping points which make humanity close to transgressing planetary boundaries after which cataclysmic climate change occurs alongside the increased risk of conflicts over water, migration crises, food shortages and humanitarian disasters. Paper consist of an introduction, the chosen method, educational research on creativity is explained; a brief overview of constructivism where the possibility of system’s transformation is explained; an overview of the system change theory; an evaluation of whether system change is a viable way forward; plus section explaining pathways of advancing civilization to the next level followed by conclusions. A major, analytical finding is that with people’s power inspired by hope even the most difficult, seemingly impossible is possible. Agency, the capacity to make things happen to envision and enact change, can bend and shove the structure. The majority of people have bought into the false idea that we have to serve, and behave, and be enslaved else chaos will engulf the world. We need to carry out objective analysis of the situation to the point where people believe in change and make change happen. If the majority of people continue as up to this point, then the fate of the whole planet might be in peril. Why are so many so submissive? Why are they so forgiving to gangsterism and horrendous evil done to the planet by the autocratic and corrupted politicians, 'big fish' who impudently swim in the water of the system. The answer may be that the established structure of the system is not only very entrenched but also increasingly sophisticated in its perfection of subliminal mechanisms of control of the people and exploitation of the planet. It is not only through the action or inaction of authoritarian tyrants or grandiose, imperialistic thinking of obsessive dictators or through press releases and the enforced idiocy of television, the drama of the dying world has been turned into a soap opera for most people. People do not understand that climate change is their story and that they will be in one way or another affected by climatic changes. At the end, all will be affected. Earth must be healthy and Nature benign again. Our Lady of Fátima on 13th May 1917 asked for the Consecration of Russia to Her Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of reparation on the First Saturdays. If Her requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred; the Holy Father will have much to suffer; various nations will be annihilated. ''In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she shall be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world.'' (Santos, Fatima in Lucia's Own Words I, 2003: 123–124). There must come a moment for penance, repentance, turning back to God, prayer and belief in salvation of one's soul. Humans cannot be happy without God in our lives. There must come time of global, spiritual awakening, accepting the beauty of the Earth, rejecting militant conquests, enslavement of humanity under repressive doctrines which justify militarily invasions, conforming to rapacious materialism and secularism. There is a need for cleaning up of the system, giving a second chance to the planet, draining of the water, getting rid of the ageing 'big fish' swimming in the dirty water of system - climate-denialist politicians who do not respect the ecological balance with nature. The rise of the movement is inevitable when the machinery or machinations of the unjust structure of the system become so odious, and so exposed that people are willing to strive for change and force the re-evaluation of the situation. The forces of the status quo weaponize gangsters in the system who want to thwart change. As Steffen (2022) noted, ''We need a politics of boldness and possibility, one that brings people and institutions together to achieve spiky successes and strong ruggedization.'' Somebody has to stand against the unfair structure of the system, defend trees, and somebody has to make the point: we disown our past, and we will start living according to our own inner being and create our own future. We will not allow the past to create our future…. And, it could be done by marching for the Earth, claiming our vision, our being, our intuition and acting from that without regret inspired by hope. More recently, a broad array of influential climate action advocates started to demand immediate, disruptive changes to destroy fossil fuel demand and drop emissions in decisive ways. Change comes from the people - to beat a machine, change the structure of the system with a movement. Climate change is a global, multi-generational threat featuring impacts that lie entirely outside anything that modern humanity has ever experienced. Indeed, the most sustainable society is the one which passes forward the best possibilities to future generations. Justifiably, the issue of global climate change has moved to the centre of the international agenda. Actively, rapidly and deliberately driving high-carbon industries out of business is an unavoidable step in every real climate action strategy. Those industries do not deserve our sympathy. It is their own predatory delay over decades that has led to their on-rushing demise. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Address to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference on August 16, 1967) reminded, ''the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” Change takes a long time, but it does happen. Energy transition from addictive and dirty fossil fuel structures is inevitable. As François Jacob said, ''It is hope that gives life meaning. Hope is based on the prospect of being able one day to turn the actual world into a possible one that looks better.'' Thus, ''let us remember that there is a creative force in this universe, working to pull down the gigantic mountains of evil, a power that is able to make a way out of no way and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows.'' (Martin Luther King, Jr, “Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution.” Speech given at the National Cathedral, March 31, 1968). In the service of the above, this paper constitutes a modest, cutting-edge, interdisciplinary policy-relevant research with the aim of exposing a pertaining political problem through an experiment with Gordian-knot, style-resolved, possible creative solutions leading to cascading dynamics of solution activating momentum.

Presented at the First Regional Consultation on Himalayan Sustainable Development Forum held at Dehradun, Uttarakhand on August 4, 2015 sharing the law, policy, and institutional recommendation for effective environmental governance of the entire IHR with a special focus on climate change adaptation.

Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change due to high population density with immense poverty, its geographical location near the Bay of Bengal and flat deltaic topography. It’s high level of poverty and depleted ecosystem increase the vulnerability to the climate change, which has hindered the sustainable development goal of the country. Sustainable development in Bangladesh requires ensuring equitable economic growth, which is built upon a solid foundation of ecological and socio-economic resilience and key to this is an effectively managed and integrated Protected Area (PA) network of forests and wetlands. The Nishorgo Network brings government and community stakeholders together to conserve a large number of forest and wetland PAs across Bangladesh through co-management. Co-management shares the roles, rights and responsibilities of PA conservation between government and PA-dependent communities, ensuring broad benefits of climate change adaptation and mitigation accrue to Bangladesh as a whole while PA-dependent communities benefit directly from increased capacity to adapt to climate change as well as through climate change-friendly livelihoods development opportunities. Nishorgo Network has built climate change adaptation capacity through the facilitation of nearly 1000 community-based climate change vulnerability assessments and action plans. Aggregated at the PA landscape level, these adaptation plans provide the basis for Upazila- and District-level climate change adaptation plans. More importantly, the planning process provided a unique opportunity for local communities to become informed, work together to find a voice, and become advocates for building climate change adaptation into local development planning. Key to achieving scale in community climate change adaptation planning was the training and empowerment of nearly 1,000 Nishorgo Shahayaks (community facilitator / volunteers). Over the past year, a flipchart was developed and field tested, and then 35 batches of (an average of 30 Nishorgo Shahayaks) community facilitators participated in 3-day training programs that built skills in community facilitation, adult education, ecosystem conservation, and climate change vulnerability assessment and action planning. Nishorgo Shahayaks then returned to their communities and rolled-out climate change vulnerability assessment and action planning through a series of weekly and monthly meetings. This has resulted in more than 200,000 Bangladeshi’s with increased understanding of and capacity to adapt to climate change as well as nearly 1000 community action plans that are currently being aggregated into more than 20 PA landscape-level climate change action plans. The report summarizes the adaptation plans prepared by ranking vulnerabilities and relevant adaptation measures based on the local community perception. The report will be useful for preparing PA dependent communities to build climate resilient PAs and local community livelihoods.

Community-based adaptation (CBA) has a growing group of interested supporters, researchers, practitioners, policy makers, donors and indeed local communities themselves who see it as a way to tackle some of the many challenges of a world altered by climate change. The sixth international CBA conference in 2012 was held in Hanoi, Vietnam from 16-22 April 2012 and reflects this growing interest in CBA with over 320 people registered to attend from 61 different countries, and many more attending the opening and closing sessions. Over 30 co-sponsors and other contributing organisations provided support. CBA6 follows previous CBA conferences held in vulnerable countries such as Bangladesh and Tanzania, each of which has experienced year-on-year increases in attendance. The theme of CBA6 - communicating CBA - was addressed in dedicated communication-related sessions on blogging, working with the media, digital photo storytelling, using games to communicate risk, and methods and tools for working with children. Conference outreach was also dramatically improved compared to previous years. Live interviews were broadcast online each day and more than 50 interviews uploaded to YouTube. Delegates wrote nearly 30 blog posts and produced nearly 2000 tweets, using the Twitter hash tag #CBA6. The conference was also able to support several developing country journalists, which resulted in a number of published media articles throughout the world. The conference poster competition received over 30 submissions, and discussion groups were set up and led by conference participants with a particular interest in certain issues, such as activities in Latin America and risk insurance. An evening film session showed a number of short films on CBA submitted by conference participants.

The conference was organised by the International Institute for Environment and Development in the UK, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) of Vietnam, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) of Vietnam and the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies. It included three days of visits to eight communities across Vietnam that are already adapting to climatic changes. Conference delegates evaluated the different adaptation projects they visited and awarded a special “Solidarity Prize” of US$5000 to the best one. This was a Save the Children project in the North of Vietnam in which children play a key role in disaster preparedness.

These field visits were followed by three and a half days of interactive discussions on different thematic areas in the Melia Hotel in Hanoi. These formal plenary and parallel sessions addressed the following themes: communicating climate change; children as drivers of change; inland water management and coastal areas; increasing community resilience; mainstreaming CBA into government policies and planning; gender; ecosystem-based approaches to adaptation; vulnerable and indigenous communities; economics of CBA; agriculture; disaster risk reduction; monitoring and evaluation; food security and nutrition; CBA in urban areas; health; participatory communication approaches for CBA; and, emerging challenges for CBA.

Protecting communities from the displacement and psychological trauma that may accompany severe flooding is challenging. Vulnerable communities are increasingly faced with climate change-induced crises, often having a limited, inadequate set of tools to cope with the intensity and urgency of post-crisis circumstances. The increasing frequency of natural hazardous events requires forward-looking strategies to limit the likelihood that hazards will evolve into disasters, leading to repetitive loss and rebuild. To date, standard flood mitigation strategies have ineffectively relied on systems that either attempt to control water or avoid it by moving away. Instead, how might we better embrace climate changes and adapt our infrastructure to accommodate flooding? One solution is the implementation of amphibious architecture, specifically, buoyant foundations. Buoyant foundations are a cost-effective, adaptive flood risk reduction strategy that works in synchrony with a region!s natural flood cycles. These are retrofits that modify the foundations of existing buildings, enabling them to rise and float on the surface of water upon flooding and then return to their original positions as the floodwater recedes. An amphibious retrofit is a low-cost, low-impact flood risk reduction option that drastically reduces the loss and displacement that may cause more trauma than the event itself. This paper discusses case studies of amphibious prototypes developed for flood-prone sites in Nicaragua and Vietnam.

Today, many older coastal, riverine, and deltaic communities are faced with increasing flood risk, often combined with a rise in sea levels or land erosion. Until now, the options available to owners of heritage properties have been limited. Buoyant foundation retrofits offer under-resourced communities a viable and affordable adaptation alternative to buy-outs, tear-downs, and “displacement by climate change”. Amphibious strategies will not solve all challenges related to the increased impacts of climate change on heritage architecture, but offer a resilient option for communities to protect their physical history and cultural identity. This paper will provide an overview of amphibious retrofit construction and its application to the preservation of historic buildings and neighborhoods. It will provide several case study examples, namely, retrofits of heritage buildings in the historically significant African-American community of Princeville, North Carolina; for a low-income neigh...

An innocuous diversion of rainwater into their farm wells by a few farmers two decades ago has triggered a water-centric social movement popularly known as the Saurashtra groundwater recharging movement in the southwestern part of Gujarat, India. Since irrigation is a socio-technical phenomenon, this paper attempts to capture the social and technical factors that influenced and shaped the demands and responses, and the shaping of the irrigation technology on the livelihood canvas. Apart from income as a key indicator, as a part of the socio-technical approach, the paper also examines several evidences that contributed to the total income, including agricultural income. These include crops and cropping decisions, changes in cropping intensity, shift from unirrigated land to irrigated land, changes in the number and composition of pump sets, well structuration in terms of depth, radial horizontal bores and depth limitations.
The paper also analyzes the quantum of recharge estimated at the village level with the stage of groundwater development. The agrarian livelihood decisions reflect farmers’ wisdom of adaptive techniques. The movement also got a boost due to the Gram Jyoti Yojana that provided an assured supply of energy for a certain number of hours every day.

Article
International Journal of
Rural Management
7(1&2) 43–82
2011 Institute of Rural Management
SAGE Publications
Los Angeles, London,
New Delhi, Singapore,
Washington DC
DOI: 10.1177/0973005212459827
http://irm.sagepub.com
Srinivas Mudrakartha, M.S. Rathore and Sudhanshu
International Journal of Rural Management, 7, 1&2 (2011): 43–82

Hurricanes and severe storms expose structures to both wind and flood damage. Permanent static elevation as a flood mitigation strategy has the concomitant disadvantage of exposing a structure to higher wind forces. This paper introduces a methodology for the systematic quantification of the increase in expected loss due to wind damage as a result of the increased wind exposure due to significant static elevation in order to reduce flood risk. Results show that the expected wind loss as a percentage of building value over the lifecycle of the building is significantly increased for permanent static elevation in comparison to an amphibious retrofit. Amphibious construction is an alternative flood mitigation and climate change adaptation strategy that allows a structure to remain close to the ground except during a flood, thus avoiding the increased vulnerability to wind that accompanies permanent static elevation.

Self-mitigation and adaptation often require conceptual and feasible innovative mechanisms, locally designed with inputs from key stakeholders. Developing prudent adaptation measures for local communities are often time-consuming, and require in-depth analysis due to the complex nature of climate change, encompassing several sectors and external facilitators. In our quest to achieve Millennium Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 13), placing communities in acute and highly vulnerable locations at the center are essential in determining critical and actual areas stemming these communities, hence, employing bottom-up approach in realizing global goals of regulating deteriorating climatic conditions. The ultimate aim of the study was to find-out self-protective measures, initiated by key proponents in the area. The study employed an action-based, descriptive and inferential statistics in the collection and analysis of data. Response from informants constituting officials from various institutions and vulnerable groups in the area were subjected to content analysis to avoid misjudgments. Results show majority of self-protective measures, initiated by proponents in the area are short-term (reactive) measures which does not have the efficacy and capacity to deal with large scale climate events of greater magnitude and intensity. The study would inform the decision of policy-makers and interested stakeholders towards achieving SDG 13 as well as critical areas to prioritize, both in the short and long term. Further research could be conducted on the extent to which enhancing socioeconomic parameters in the area can amplify residents' susceptibility to climate hazards in the long run.

This paper explores the adverse environmental impacts of cyclone and its adaptive techniques using questionnaire survey and participatory rural appraisal (PRA) tools in a most vulnerable coastal community at Nijhum Dweep in Hatiya, Bangladesh. The study revealed that the loss of livestock, spread out of skin diseases, salinity intrusion were the most dominant impacts on the community during the cyclones. Besides, there was a dramatic change in the occupation of livelihoods and source of palatable water for various purposes. It was found that people shifted their livelihood option after the cyclones from farming (25.6 % to 12.2 %) to fishing (48.9 % to 61.1 %). On the other hand, water sources for various purposes were shifted from pond to tube-well after cyclones. The most popular adaptive techniques were planting wind protection efficient and fast growing tree species, practicing multi-occupation and community based constructions. However, people of Nijhum Dweep are well-adapted to...

The multidisciplinary approach of the Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) is articulated on the synergy between the technical aspect of the urban water management, planning and environmental design to pursue strategic actions for climate change adaptation aiming to enhance the resilience of the complex urban system. The holistic methodology for the integration of the water management within the built environment provides effective outcomes for risk reduction through the development of multiscale solutions in which the goals of environmental regeneration are combined with the social sphere and its interaction with technology innovation issues. The socio-technical aspects of the WSUD at macro, meso and micro level are outlined to identify key points for the transition towards the water sensitivity of the urban system where retrofit interventions of the built environment are coupled with the strengthening of social capital. On a micro-scale the implementation of WSUD measures are teste...

HIGHLIGHTS • Water Sensitive Urban Design as adaptive design measure • Transition to water sensitivity and socio-technical innovation • Paradigm shift and hydro-social contract • Co-design and community engagement: community-based technical solutions • Field testing of a micro-scale Water Sensitive Urban Design device ABSTRACT The multidisciplinary approach of the Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) is articulated on the synergy between the technical aspect of the urban water management, planning and environmental design to pursue strategic actions for climate change adaptation aiming to enhance the resilience of the complex urban system. The holistic methodology for the integration of the water management within the built environment provides effective outcomes for risk reduction through the development of multiscale solutions in which the goals of environmental regeneration are combined with the social sphere and its interaction with technology innovation issues. The socio-technical aspects of the WSUD at macro, meso and micro level are outlined to identify key points for the transition towards the water sensitivity of the urban system where retrofit interventions of the built environment are coupled with the strengthening of social capital. On a micro-scale the implementation of WSUD measures are tested in the case study of East Naples where the inclusion of bottom-up processes has been effective for the acceptance of adaptation measures at local level. Participatory tools have been developed to achieve the community engagement as an essential goal for WSUD options dealing with changes in the use of water resource and everyday practice of sustainability.

Louisiana's coastline is losing wetlands at a rate if 16.57 square miles a year, equal to the loss of a football field of coast every hour." Located outside the boundaries of Louisiana's levee system, five major hurricanes and the BP oil spill have slowly eroded Leeville. Since 1932, Leeville has lost approximately 70% of its land area. This paper looks at the benefits of implementing flood mitigation systems in Leeville by conducting a Loss Avoidance Study* for a house that is being fitted with a Buoyant Foundation. Buoyant Foundations are a type of Amphibious foundation that allow an otherwise fixed structure to float on rising floodwater and prevent it from getting damaged due to the forces of floodwater. By conducting this study, we can understand the benefits of implementing buoyant foundations in areas prone to intense floods such as Leeville and encourage further use of this technology as a method of flood mitigation.

This paper explores the adverse environmental impacts of cyclone and its adaptive techniques using questionnaire survey and participatory rural appraisal (PRA) tools in a most vulnerable coastal community at Nijhum Dweep in Hatiya, Bangladesh. The study revealed that the loss of livestock, spread out of skin diseases, salinity intrusion were the most dominant impacts on the community during the cyclones. Besides, there was a dramatic change in the occupation of livelihoods and source of palatable water for various purposes. It was found that people shifted their livelihood option after the cyclones from farming (25.6 % to 12.2 %) to fishing (48.9 % to 61.1 %). On the other hand, water sources for various purposes were shifted from pond to tube-well after cyclones. The most popular adaptive techniques were planting wind protection efficient and fast growing tree species, practicing multi-occupation and community based constructions. However, people of Nijhum Dweep are well-adapted to...

Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change due to high population density with immense poverty, its geographical location near the Bay of Bengal and flat deltaic topography. It’s high level of poverty and depleted ecosystem increase the vulnerability to the climate change, which has hindered the sustainable development goal of the country. Sustainable development in Bangladesh requires ensuring equitable economic growth, which is built upon a solid foundation of ecological and socio-economic resilience and key to this is an effectively managed and integrated Protected Area (PA) network of forests and wetlands. The Nishorgo Network brings government and community stakeholders together to conserve a large number of forest and wetland PAs across Bangladesh through co-management. Co-management shares the roles, rights and responsibilities of PA conservation between government and PA-dependent communities, ensuring broad benefits of climate change adaptation and...

Smart economic frameworks and policies to inform investments in resilience and disaster risk reduction are receiving increasing attention. In an era of accelerating risk, communities need expanded sets of economically viable options to reduce risk and promote adaptation. Amphibious architecture utilizes low-cost buoyant foundations to provide existing structures with the ability to "float when it floods" rather than suffer repetitive loss or be required to implement an approach such as permanent static elevation that may be both culturally and economically objectionable. Amphibious construction offers significant cost savings in comparison to permanent static elevation. This paper will discuss the potential for measurable savings that accompanies the implementation of amphibious retrofit construction, by describing 1) the installation process and why it can be so inexpensive, 2) two loss avoidance studies that were performed for amphibious retrofit installations and the range of high loss avoidance ratios that resulted, and 3) analysis of the wind vulnerability of permanent static elevation and consequent increases in expected annual loss compared to amphibious retrofit construction. Amphibious construction is shown to be an innovative and economical approach to reducing flood risk and adapting to climate change.

Today, many older coastal, riverine, and deltaic communities are faced with increasing flood risk, often combined with a rise in sea levels or land erosion. Until now, the options available to owners of heritage properties have been limited. Buoyant foundation retrofits offer under-resourced communities a viable and affordable adaptation alternative to buy-outs, tear-downs, and “displacement by climate change”. Amphibious strategies will not solve all challenges related to the increased impacts of climate change on heritage architecture, but offer a resilient option for communities to protect their physical history and cultural identity. This paper will provide an overview of amphibious retrofit construction and its application to the preservation of historic buildings and neighborhoods. It will provide several case study examples, namely, retrofits of heritage buildings in the historically significant African-American community of Princeville, North Carolina; for a low-income neighborhood of freedman’s cottages in Charleston, South Carolina; and a creative approach for amphibiating architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s iconic Farnsworth House in Plano, Illinois. It will connect to larger themes of developing innovative and practical methods for providing flood protection to heritage structures, using an approach that emphasizes sensitivity and adaptability to the cultural values of existing communities.

Amphibious foundations are a cost-effective, resident-friendly alternative to permanent static elevation for housing in areas where rising flood waters are not accompanied by high flow speeds. There is growing awareness that homeowners in established neighborhoods are resistant to permanent static elevation, a strategy that disrupts a neighborhood's appearance and causes daily inconvenience, with no assurance of providing sufficient protection in an extreme flood event. Amphibious foundation systems retain a home's close proximity to the earth and relationship to the street by supporting the house at a slightly raised elevation under normal circumstances. When flooding occurs, the house floats to as high a level as is necessary to remain safely above water, then settles back into place as the water recedes. Successful amphibious foundation systems are functioning in Maasbommel, Netherlands, and at Raccourci Old River, Louisiana, where they provide flood protection that is both more reliable and more convenient than can be obtained from permanent static elevation. Two new amphibious houses have recently been completed in New Orleans, and a prototype amphibious house for slum dwellers has begun construction in Dhaka, Bangladesh. In urban areas, amphibious foundations help encourage the preservation of established neighborhoods and existing architectural character. Homeowners in South Louisiana in general and New Orleans in particular are facing difficult decisions about how to comply with new flood protection regulations that privilege permanent static elevation at the expense of accessibility and neighborhood character. The absence of substantial improvements to the levees means that in most neighborhoods the risk of flooding above typical permanent static elevation levels remains significant. The Buoyant Foundation Project is developing an amphibious foundation system for retrofitting traditional New Orleans elevated wooden "shotgun" houses, so that displaced residents will feel safe in returning home to rebuild their communities. Amphibious foundations are a proven, low-cost, low-impact flood protection strategy that gives a community or a region enhanced flood resilience and improves its ability to recover from disaster.

This paper explores the adverse environmental impacts of cyclone and its adaptive techniques using questionnaire survey and participatory rural appraisal (PRA) tools in a most vulnerable coastal community at Nijhum Dweep in Hatiya, Bangladesh. The study revealed that the loss of livestock, spread out of skin diseases, salinity intrusion were the most dominant impacts on the community during the cyclones. Besides, there was a dramatic change in the occupation of livelihoods and source of palatable water for various purposes. It was found that people shifted their livelihood option after the cyclones from farming (25.6 % to 12.2 %) to fishing (48.9 % to 61.1 %). On the other hand, water sources for various purposes were shifted from pond to tube-well after cyclones. The most popular adaptive techniques were planting wind protection efficient and fast growing tree species, practicing multi-occupation and community based constructions. However, people of Nijhum Dweep are well-adapted to this destructive natural event and this experience may be used in other vulnerable coastal communities of Bangladesh.

Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change due to high population density with immense poverty, its geographical location near the Bay of Bengal and flat deltaic topography. It’s high level of poverty and depleted ecosystem increase the vulnerability to the climate change, which has hindered the sustainable development goal of the country. Sustainable development in Bangladesh requires ensuring equitable economic growth, which is built upon a solid foundation of ecological and socio-economic resilience and key to this is an effectively managed and integrated Protected Area (PA) network of forests and wetlands. The Nishorgo Network brings government and community stakeholders together to conserve a large number of forest and wetland PAs across Bangladesh through co-management. Co-management shares the roles, rights and responsibilities of PA conservation between government and PA-dependent communities, ensuring broad benefits of climate change adaptation and...

Many developing countries are already affected by multiple stressors, which have increased their vulnerability to accelerated negative environmental change. Coastal erosion, deforestation and habitat fragmentation become even more serious problems in coastal locations when coupled with the projected impacts of climate change. However, anticipatory adaptation to such changes as increased coastal erosion and extreme events does not need to wait for specific climate sce- narios, but is more reliant on the examination of current vulnerabilities and the range of possible no-regret strategies. These need to, however, accommodate multiple stakeholder preferences. This study therefore examines coastal commu- nities’ perceptions of environmental change in northeast Zanzibar, Tanzania and their preferences for adaptive strategies, while simultaneously examining physical change processes through change analysis. The study suggests coastal forest buffer zones as an anticipatory adaptation measure, which is based on soft measures such as vegetation planting, awareness raising and stakeholder cooperation.