Keywords

FormalPara Key Messages

  • From the perspectives of coastal areas of Bangladesh, location-specific learning effects have a strong connection with socially heterogeneous coastal population’s climate resiliency efforts in terms of their gradual investments toward storm-resistant homes.

  • Location-specific learning effects are more evident among the socially heterogeneous coastal households that are located close to government-sponsored embankments and cyclone shelters, nearest vehicular road, primary school, and a natural capital, such as the mangrove forest.

  • Targeted policies on post-disaster relief and rehabilitation efforts for most vulnerable coastal households living in high storm-risk zones should be supported with policies to ensure access to external finance for home improvements, access to natural capital through extensive mangrove forest coverage along the coastlines, and dissemination of information on best practices to build cost-efficient storm-resistant homes.

1 Introduction

Climate adaptation and climate risk literature reveals that social heterogeneity plays a big role in determining the measures taken by households against natural disasters (Cutter & Finch, 2008; Cutter et al., 2013; Haer et al., 2017; Koks et al., 2015; Smith et al., 2006). Households’ capacity to adapt and respond to natural hazards is largely a function of their socio-demographic status that is related to their social vulnerability (Cutter et al., 2013; Koks et al., 2015; Smith et al., 2006). Hence, social heterogeneity in terms of differences in social characteristics of households living in high climate risk areas can be considered an important factor in determining the feasibility of climate mitigation and adaptation policies. Given this observation, this chapter explores how social heterogeneity and location-specific learning shapes the adaptation strategies of coastal households in Bangladesh. Findings from our study not only reveal the factors influencing the capacity of coastal households to adapt and respond to major cyclone events but also develop a better understanding of the policy implications on individual and community risk mitigation, and evacuation plans. We hope our findings might lead to adoption of insurance coverage against natural disaster risks, currently non-existent in developing economies and help government shape other policies to support community-based mitigation of climate change.

Coastal areas around the world are experiencing increasing frequency and severity of tropical storm events (Knutson et al., 2013; IPCC, 2014; Vitousek et al., 2017; Walsh et al., 2016). It is expected that the resiliency of vulnerable coastal communities will be severely tested in future (IPCC, 2014, 2019; World Bank, 2011). Governments which act as insurers of last resort against natural disasters in developing countries with weak catastrophe insurance markets also do not have sufficient funds to support climate-resilient programs to protect coastal communities (IPCC, 2014, 2019; World Bank, 2011). Given such constraints, coastal communities are now investing their time and resources on private defensive strategies (IPCC, Mahmud & Barbier, 2016; World Bank, 2011). However, effectiveness of private defensive strategies, a form of individual and community-based adaptation strategies, might be influenced by a host of factors. They are: (i) publicly sponsored climate-resilience programs, such as embankments and cyclone/storm shelters (Kunreuther et al., 2016; Lewis & Nickerson, 1989; Mahmud & Barbier, 2016); (ii) access to a natural capital, such as a mangrove forest (Das, 2021; Mahmud & Barbier, 2016; Chap. 17 of this volume) and asset ownership (Prowse & Scott, 2008; Vatsa, 2004); (iii) access to financial and social capital (Adger et al., 2003; Mahmud & Barbier, 2016); and (iv) access to domestic and foreign remittances (Clarke & Wallsten, 2003; Yang & Choi, 2007). Our literature review reveals that there are few comprehensive studies that identify the most important factors influencing private adaptation strategies of vulnerable poor coastal communities in developing countries. To fill this research gap, we performed a more inclusive empirical analysis using cross-sectional household survey data collected from twelve villages in three south-western coastal districts of Bangladesh that were exposed to two severe cyclonic storm events: 2007, Cyclone Sidr and 2016, Cyclone Roanu..Footnote 1 Besides information on household demographics, consumption, and socio-economic information, our household survey data include information on damages inflicted by each storm event, households’ perception of their homes being exposed to future storm event, domestic and foreign remittances, access to external finance and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), migration, household loans, and land ownership. In addition, the survey data includes information on household home structure before each storm event (i.e., before 2007, Cyclone Sidr and before 2016, Cyclone Roanu) and during the survey period of October–November 2016. Our data allowed us to construct an asset index and separate home index before each storm event for every household.

We selected the Bangladesh coastal area for our analysis due to its extreme vulnerability to tropical storm (cyclones) events which are expected to increase in frequency and severity (IPCC, 2014; Rawlani & Sovacool, 2011; World Bank, 2011), and, also, the authors’ familiarity with the terrain. In addition, there is well-documented evidence of indigenous private defensive strategies adopted over generations by the coastal communities of Bangladesh. (Garai, 2017; Hasan et al., 2017; Mahmud & Barbier, 2016). Examples of individual and community-based adaptation behavior include converting a mud house to a brick house (to resist storm and tide-related erosion of walls and floors), raising both the plinth-height, increasing the number of floors, refurbishing the walls, installation of tube well for water, modernization of toilets, improvement of animal sheds, ponds, the boundary of the house, raising the plinths, etc.Footnote 2

Using household investments for home improvements, which is an important adaptation mechanism to cope against severe cyclones in coastal areas in developing countries and considering the importance of building climate-resilient communities along the Bangladesh coast, we address the following research questions in our study.

  1. (1)

    Do government-sponsored climate resilience programs, such as embankments, access to vehicular roads, primary schools in the event of cyclones, and cyclone shelters, have significant influence on household decisions to invest more on private adaptation to reduce damages from a major cyclone (storm) event?

  2. (2)

    Does asset ownership significantly influence household investment on private defensive strategies against storm-inflicted damages?

  3. (3)

    Does access to external financing through private and public donations (charities), and non-government organizations (NGOs) play a major role in household defensive expenditures to reduce storm-inflicted damages?

  4. (4)

    Does total remittance from home and abroad lead to higher private defensive expenditures for households?

  5. (5)

    Do households living close to a natural forest, such as mangroves, invest less on private defensive strategies against major storm or cyclone events?

These are very timely questions since climate risk vulnerabilities are expected to rise for Bangladesh and other coastal communities around the world (GOB, 2008; IPCC, 2019; World Bank, 2011). By finding patterns of private defensive behavior and its relationship with key identifiers, this study would help establish effective coastal adaptation policies for Bangladesh and other developing nations.

The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section 20.2 discusses the scope of our research. Section 20.3 reports the results based on our empirical analysis. Section 20.4 outlines conclusions and policy recommendations.

2 Scope of the Study and Social Heterogeneous Nature of the Study Area

For our study area, we considered Bhola, Barguna, and Patuakhali districts of the Barisal division since the Disaster Management Bureau (DMB) of Bangladesh identified these districts as the zones most affected by frequent cyclones.Footnote 3 From each district, we selected an upazila (sub-district). Our selected upazilas are Monpura from Bhola, Amtoli from Barguna, and Kapara from Patuakhali. After selection of the upazilas, we selected two affected unions (the lowest tier of administration in rural communities) from each upazila based on the available data from the DMB on number of households by exposure to the most recent severe storm events, Cyclone Sidr and Cyclone Roanu, which made landfall on November 15, 2007, and May 23, 2016, respectively. Applying the two-stage sampling methods, we selected 600 households for our survey from twelve villages covering three coastal districts. Figure 20.1 shows our study area along with the tracks of Cyclone Sidr and Cyclone Roanu.

Fig. 20.1
figure 1

Study area along with the tracks of Cyclone Sidr and Cyclone Roanu

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We employed structured questionnaires to conduct interviews as part of our household survey. Prior to the main household survey, a pilot survey was conducted to improve the final version of the questionnaire. Table 20.1 summarizes the distribution of the sample households. For details on demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the respondent households in the survey, please see the supplementary table (Table S20.1).

Table 20.1 Distribution of ample households
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For adaptation against major storm events, the majority of the households increased the number of floors (25%), sank new tube wells for water (24%) and improved their pond areas (12%) after Cyclone Sidr. The same adaptation strategies were applied post-Cyclone Roanu. Survey results show that income, savings, and donations were the major sources of funds for adaptation after these two major storm events. On perceptions of public (government-sponsored) adaptation measures implemented by the government, around 22% of the households think building embankments with stone and cement blocks is the most effective strategy.

The next most effective strategy is raising the height of the embankment (16.46%) followed by building new cyclone shelters or expanding the existing ones (14%), building raising floors or heights of the house (13.44%), and raising plinths (11.55%). Interestingly, other public adaptation measures, such as building clay embankment (9.15%) and afforestation (7.86%), did not get much approval from the survey respondents. Our survey data tells that 93.44% of the households experienced flooding or water logging affecting their houses. For more detailed information, please see the supplementary table (Table S20.2).

Table 20.2 summarizes the sources of funds to support private adaptation measures for home improvements post-Cyclone Sidr and post-Cyclone Roanu. In both cases, we find external finance through public and private donations to be the second most important source of funds followed by household savings.

Table 20.2 Sources of funds for adaptation
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To understand household investment on different adaptation initiatives, we collected information on adaptation costs for the households based on their location. Table 20.3 shows that houses that are built outside the embankment (31.15% of the total households surveyed), spent Bangladesh Taka (BDT) 6169 more on average on adaptation costs compared to houses that are built outside the embankment. Interestingly, houses that are protected by the natural forest (11.94% of the total households surveyed) spent on average BDT 5272 less on adaptation costs than the houses that are not protected by the natural forest. Among the households that are located in lowland areas (33.45% of the total surveyed), average spending on adaptation costs is BDT 3227 more compared to households located in mid- and highland areas. We also report household perception on their homes being affected by tidal surge from a major cyclone event.

Table 20.3 Differences in adaptation costs based on household location
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Table 20.4 reveals household perceptions on their homes being affected by flooding and tidal surge. More than 95% of the total households surveyed felt their homes are at risk of being exposed to flooding and tidal surge from major cyclones.

Table 20.4 Households perception on flooding and tidal surge from major cyclones
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3 Survey Results and Discussion

For empirical analysis, our econometric estimations are based on households’ response to private storm-protection actions on home improvement after Cyclone Sidr and Cyclone Roanu. All our results are reported as supplementary materials under Tables S20.3, S20.4 and S20.5. Table 20.5 presents the results of ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analyses using the full sample of our survey. Our exact OLS regression specifications are included in the supplementary materials. The household adaptation costs on storm-resistant home improvements are as follows:

Table 20.5 Adaptation costs using OLS estimates
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The dependent variables are the adaptation costs for home improvements after Cyclone Sidr, and the adaptation costs for improvements for Cyclone Roanu, in Bangladesh Taka (Tk.). To capture the influence of social networks, we included household access to external finance for home improvement and if any household member has connections with at least one non-governmental organization (NGO) that is actively operating within the community. To capture the influence of household psychology behind their adaptation behavior on home improvements, we incorporated household perception of being exposed to damages from future major storm events (cyclones bearing Category 8 or 9 signals), and whether the households experienced loss of assets from 2007, Cyclone Sidr and 2016, Cyclone Roanu events. Lastly, to capture the influence of asset holdings, we created an asset index based on household ownership of farmland, livestock, pond, orchard, poultry, mechanized vehicle and boat, rickshaw or van, shop, rental home, etc. We also created a separate home index before Cyclone Sidr and a similar home index before Cyclone Roanu. These home indices comprised the quality of home structures for wall, roof, and floor materials. A greater value of the home indices indicates that the home structure has improved in terms of its ability to withstand the wrath of a cyclone. We added controls to deal with exogenous sources of variations on households’ location preferences, which is the distance of the household from the nearest primary school, vehicular road, embankment, and the cyclone shelter, respectively. For robustness checks of our results, we applied full information maximum likelihood (FIML) of the sample selection model using Heckman (1979).

Results from our empirical analysis using different regression specifications reveal that under a social heterogeneous framework, a household’s relative physical location and distance from government-sponsored programs, such as embankments, primary school, and vehicular road are important determinants of household adaptation expenditure for home improvements. In addition, a household’s location close to a forest, a natural form of storm-protection, is also an important determinant as it leads to lower adaptation costs for home improvements, and similarly, better-built houses (or higher home index value) had lower impacts. Estimation results from our analysis show that access to external finance through public and private donations positively influences household defensive behavior on converting existing houses to become more storm-resistant. Asset ownership, access to credit, and NGO membership are also influential, but they are not statistically significant in most of the regression specifications using different estimators. Same applies to the remittance variable regarding its insignificant influence on households incurring higher adaptation costs for storm-resistant homes.

Due to data limitations, we acknowledge the fact that there could be some missing variables that might be relevant for future analysis. For example, data on how much money allocated for private adaptation or defensive strategies against major cyclone (storm) events out of total remittance received as well as from different sources of external financing would further improve the analysis. There is also room for improvements by further working on the regression specifications that are considered for empirical analysis. Despite the limitations, we think our empirical findings have the potential to contribute to disaster-related literature on household-coping mechanisms and resiliency against climate change-induced developments. The results are consistent across the Cyclone Sidr and the Cyclone Roanu experiences; however, we see a clear recall problem related to Cyclone Sidr data because it had happened about 10 years ago.

4 Conclusion

Given that the influence of social heterogeneity on coastal households’ capacity to adapt and respond to climate change-induced natural disaster risks, our paper examines the major factors that might be influential on private defensive behavior of poor coastal households against major storm events. Our estimates show that households save nearly 6475 takaFootnote 4 or $75.2 dollar in terms of housing improvement costs due to the protection that the forests provide to them. It is 5875 taka or 68.3 USD per household living outside the protection of the embankment. Similarly, higher the home index value, lower is the cost of home improvement after the cyclone.

On policy implications, our empirical results support the influence of government-sponsored climate resilience programs on vulnerable and poor coastal households’ adaptation choices against major cyclone events. Having embankments and ensuring access to nearest vehicular road, primary school, and cyclone shelters, etc., reduce cyclone-inflicted damages to home and other properties. Although these government-sponsored initiatives allow the coastal households that are living near the public infrastructure to allocate resources in areas other than home improvements, these results also indicate that local and national governments should target their post-disaster relief and rehabilitation efforts for those households that could be identified as most vulnerable to disasters due to their locations away from the infrastructure. Considering the presence of location-specific learning effects, the government can coordinate with the local communities, non-governmental organizations, and donor agencies to impart information and knowledge on best practices in building storm-resistant homes at the least possible cost. By encouraging the coastal communities to pursue private defensive strategies or by developing mangroves along the coastline, the government can make its climate-resilient programs including post-disaster relief and rehabilitation programs more effective. Therefore, communities should be pursued to maintain the forests along the coastline to protect them against cyclones. This will reduce their private defensive costs on home improvement.

Since our findings also reveal the importance of access to credit, governments can streamline and simplify regulations for financial institutions and NGOs, so that they can lend credits to households willing to invest in storm-resistant homes and other adaptation strategies against major cyclone events. Although the influence of remittances on household adaptation costs for home improvements turned out to be somewhat weak in our estimation results, one cannot rule out its importance in shaping household private defensive behavior in future. Furthermore, our findings indicate that governments should reserve development funds by forming public–private partnerships with key stakeholders of the communities. Such development funds could be simultaneously coordinated with policies that encourage long-term adaptive capacities of the socially heterogeneous coastal households to develop more efficient and equitable climate-resilient programs along the Bangladesh coast.