Members’ Publication

Work trips constitute about 44% of the daily trips in Dhaka according to the Dhaka Structure Plan (2016- 2035). The increasing trend of registered automobiles over the past decade warranted for a closer insight into the mode choice decisions made by working people. The study attempted to identify the factors influencing the modal choice for work trips using the Household Income Survey (HIS) data. Binary logit models were used to explore the impact of socio-economic and built environment factors on choosing nonmotorized, private vehicle and public transport. The study revealed that vehicle ownership status, income, and driving license is likely to influence the modal choice of all three modes. Other variables like the size of the areas, fare, mode preference and availability of alternate modes also impacted the model. Income plays a major role in mode selection and vehicle ownership is connected to it. With the increase in income, people tend to own cars and change their mode choice behavior and this issue has a massive impact on the sustainability of the environment of the city. Since Dhaka is a populous city, the available public transport system can be a sustainable medium for working trips. However, for this, the public bus has to overcome the issues of safety, comfort and improper service provision which are just some of the factors deterring the majority of female passengers. According to the findings of the study, private automobiles have almost 2.5 times higher carbon emission than the public bus at per person per kilometer and thus, are likely to have a high impact on the sustainability of the transportation system of Dhaka. Since work trips constitute a noticeable share of the daily trip, these results may aid in planning upcoming strategies and management of sustainable transportation systems in the cities of developing countries like Dhaka.

The “Case Studies: CDI2WASH Program” depicts the benefits and lessons learnt by the beneficiaries and change agents in CDI2WASH program during the last 4 years. The document has contained the success of the project and accumulated learning have been documented in the publication. It upholds the achievement of the process and will remain as the supportive document help while taking any types of WASH development interventions by any stakeholders.

This article aims to develop a Web-GIS based landslide early warning system (EWS) for the Chittagong Metropolitan Area (CMA), Bangladesh, where, in recent years, rainfall-induced landslides have caused great losses of lives and property. A method for combining static landslide susceptibility maps and rainfall thresholds is proposed by introducing a purposely-build hazard matrix. To begin with, eleven factor maps: soil permeability; surface geology; landcover; altitude; slope; aspect; distance to stream; fault line; hill cut; road cut; and drainage network along with a detailed landslide inventory map were produced. These maps were used, and four methods were applied: artificial neural network (ANN); multiple regressions; principal component analysis; and support vector machine to produce landslide susceptibility maps. After model validation, the ANN map was found best fitting and was classified into never warning, low, medium, and high susceptibility zones. Rainfall threshold analysis (1960–2017) revealed consecutive 5-day periods of rainfall of 71–282 mm could initiate landslides in CMA. Later, the threshold was classified into three rainfall rates: low rainfall (70–160 mm), medium rainfall (161–250 mm), and high rainfall (>250 mm). Each landslide was associated with a hazard class (no warning vs. warning state) based on the assumption that the higher the susceptibility, the lower the rainfall. Finally, the EWS was developed using various libraries and frameworks that is connected with a reliable online-based weather application programming interface. The system is publicly available, dynamic, and replicable to similar contexts and is able to disseminate alerts five days in advance via email notifications. The proposed EWS is novel and the first of its kind in Bangladesh, and can be applied to mitigate landslide disaster risks.

Importance of tea industry in the economy of Bangladesh is immense. In 2017, the industry produced 79.95 million kg tea contributing an amount of BDT. 18.25 billion to GDP. This industry, directly and indirectly, employed about 0.5 million people. At present, the number of registered tea gardens are 164 - of which 156 are considered as mainstream or traditional gardens who employ residential workers. They are mostly located at Maulovibazar, Hobiganj, Sylhet, Chattogram and Rangamati districts, employing a total of 122,840 workers of which 21997 are working on temporary basis. Garden owners are supposed to give workers shelters and other facilities that are closely connected to their livelihoods. The Constitution of the country protects the rights and entitlements of left behind people including tea workers. Besides, the Labour Policy of the country, the Labour Law, the Labour Rules, the bilateral agreement between garden owners and workers, and the 2014 election manifesto of ruling Awami League etc., made various provisions and commitments for tea garden workers. In recent years, the government and garden owners have taken a number of initiatives to improve the working environment and rights of tea workers that have eventually contributed to bringing in positive changes in their lives. Specific areas where positive changes are noted include workers' wage, number of people having access to pure drinking water, enrollment in schools etc. Despite these positive changes, however, it is evident in different researches, media reports, and seminars/workshops etc., that livelihood status of tea garden workers remain very dismal yet. On the other hand, there is a dearth of comprehensive research to identify governance challenges to improving their working environment and rights. The Building Integrity Blocks for Effective Change (BIBEC) project taken up by Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) has emphasized conducting research and advocacy on governance challenges to improving the livelihoods of marginalized and left behind people. In line with this TIB has undertaken the present research to identify governance challenges to improving livelihoods of tea garden workers. TIB sponsored Committee of Concerned Citizens (CCCs) located at Sreemongal – a major tea growing location of the country -also requested to undertake the present study so that they could conduct evidence based local level advocacy to improve the livelihood of tea garden workers along with TIB’s advocacy at national level on the same.

This study aims to deepen our understanding about local climate change trends, adaptation approaches and strategies of the government, NGOs, and other actors, and emerging adaptation practices in key impacted sectors in the Lower Teesta basin in Bangladesh. This region, regarded as one of the important food baskets of the country, has been experiencing varied changes in climate variability (including temperature rises, heat stress, low and erratic rainfall, and prolonged droughts), falling groundwater levels, and climatic extremes such as frequent and devastating floods, riverbank erosion, and thunderstorms. These climate change and other stressors are hurting sectors such as agriculture, water, sanitation and health, fisheries, food security, regional infrastructure, housing, and the livelihoods of common people in general.