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Spatial and Temporal Changes of Climatic Variables and Its Impact on Natural Disasters in Bangladesh

Received: 11 May 2014     Accepted: 28 May 2014     Published: 20 June 2014
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Abstract

Bangladesh is confronted with a big challenge to mitigate the significant impact of climate change. Due to the climate change, Bangladesh has already experienced average maximum temperature rising, minimum temperature decreasing, rainfall, relative humidity and cloud coverage decreasing resulting frequent and severe floods, tropical cyclone, extensive river bank erosion and drought. This paper focuses mainly to identify the spatial and temporal changes of climatic variables namely temperature, rainfall, humidity and cloud coverage of Bangladesh using data from Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD), Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) and Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARC) at 32 stations and also find out the adverse impacts of climate change especially on natural disasters of Bangladesh. To determine the climatic variability an inclusive meteorological estimation was carried out for the period of 2007-2011 and the results were compared with the period 1987-1991. The results of the climatic variability show that the average maximum temperature is increasing at a rate of 0.03°C per year but the annual minimum temperature is decreasing at a rate of 0.003°C per year. On the other hand, the annual rainfall, relative humidity and cloud coverage decreased by 0.63 mm, 0.013 percent and 0.007 respectively per year. For these climatic changes during the period 1970 to 2013, one hundred thirty four (134) major and minor cyclones hit the coastal regions of Bangladesh and almost two-third (88) of them hit in the period of 1992-2013 which is very alarming for our survival. On the other hand, it shows that the intensity and frequency of extreme flood events have significantly increased and the most extensive floods in the period 1954-2012 occurred after 1986 (1987, 1988, 1998, 2004, 2007) are considered by hydrologists to be at a size expected only once in every 20 years. The floods of 1987, 1988, 1998, 2004 and 2007 and cyclones of 1991, 1997, 2007 and 2009 are direct impact of climate change in Bangladesh.

Published in American Journal of Environmental Protection (Volume 3, Issue 3)
DOI 10.11648/j.ajep.20140303.13
Page(s) 122-130
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2014. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Climate Change, Temperature, Rainfall, Humidity, Cloud Coverage, Disasters

References
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[13] Khan, H. R. 1991. ‘‘Impact of flood control and drainage projects on agricultural production in Bangladesh’’, paper presented at a seminar jointly organized by the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh, and American Society of Civil Engineers, Bangladesh, Dhaka.
[14] Brammer, H.1990. “Floods in Bangladesh: Flood mitigation and Environmental aspects”, The Geographical Journal, 156(2), Jul.
[15] ADPC, 2007. Climate variability and change: adaptation to drought in Bangladesh. FAO, Rome, Italy
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  • APA Style

    Meher Nigar Neema, Md. Azit Siraj. (2014). Spatial and Temporal Changes of Climatic Variables and Its Impact on Natural Disasters in Bangladesh. American Journal of Environmental Protection, 3(3), 122-130. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajep.20140303.13

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    ACS Style

    Meher Nigar Neema; Md. Azit Siraj. Spatial and Temporal Changes of Climatic Variables and Its Impact on Natural Disasters in Bangladesh. Am. J. Environ. Prot. 2014, 3(3), 122-130. doi: 10.11648/j.ajep.20140303.13

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    AMA Style

    Meher Nigar Neema, Md. Azit Siraj. Spatial and Temporal Changes of Climatic Variables and Its Impact on Natural Disasters in Bangladesh. Am J Environ Prot. 2014;3(3):122-130. doi: 10.11648/j.ajep.20140303.13

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ajep.20140303.13,
      author = {Meher Nigar Neema and Md. Azit Siraj},
      title = {Spatial and Temporal Changes of Climatic Variables and Its Impact on Natural Disasters in Bangladesh},
      journal = {American Journal of Environmental Protection},
      volume = {3},
      number = {3},
      pages = {122-130},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ajep.20140303.13},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajep.20140303.13},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajep.20140303.13},
      abstract = {Bangladesh is confronted with a big challenge to mitigate the significant impact of climate change. Due to the climate change, Bangladesh has already experienced average maximum temperature rising, minimum temperature decreasing, rainfall, relative humidity and cloud coverage decreasing resulting frequent and severe floods, tropical cyclone, extensive river bank erosion and drought. This paper focuses mainly to identify the spatial and temporal changes of climatic variables namely temperature, rainfall, humidity and cloud coverage of Bangladesh using data from Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD), Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) and Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARC) at 32 stations and also find out the adverse impacts of climate change especially on natural disasters of Bangladesh. To determine the climatic variability an inclusive meteorological estimation was carried out for the period of 2007-2011 and the results were compared with the period 1987-1991. The results of the climatic variability show that the average maximum temperature is increasing at a rate of 0.03°C per year but the annual minimum temperature is decreasing at a rate of 0.003°C per year. On the other hand, the annual rainfall, relative humidity and cloud coverage decreased by 0.63 mm, 0.013 percent and 0.007 respectively per year. For these climatic changes during the period 1970 to 2013, one hundred thirty four (134) major and minor cyclones hit the coastal regions of Bangladesh and almost two-third (88) of them hit in the period of 1992-2013 which is very alarming for our survival. On the other hand, it shows that the intensity and frequency of extreme flood events have significantly increased and the most extensive floods in the period 1954-2012 occurred after 1986 (1987, 1988, 1998, 2004, 2007) are considered by hydrologists to be at a size expected only once in every 20 years. The floods of 1987, 1988, 1998, 2004 and 2007 and cyclones of 1991, 1997, 2007 and 2009 are direct impact of climate change in Bangladesh.},
     year = {2014}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Spatial and Temporal Changes of Climatic Variables and Its Impact on Natural Disasters in Bangladesh
    AU  - Meher Nigar Neema
    AU  - Md. Azit Siraj
    Y1  - 2014/06/20
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    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajep.20140303.13
    DO  - 10.11648/j.ajep.20140303.13
    T2  - American Journal of Environmental Protection
    JF  - American Journal of Environmental Protection
    JO  - American Journal of Environmental Protection
    SP  - 122
    EP  - 130
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2328-5699
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajep.20140303.13
    AB  - Bangladesh is confronted with a big challenge to mitigate the significant impact of climate change. Due to the climate change, Bangladesh has already experienced average maximum temperature rising, minimum temperature decreasing, rainfall, relative humidity and cloud coverage decreasing resulting frequent and severe floods, tropical cyclone, extensive river bank erosion and drought. This paper focuses mainly to identify the spatial and temporal changes of climatic variables namely temperature, rainfall, humidity and cloud coverage of Bangladesh using data from Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD), Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) and Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARC) at 32 stations and also find out the adverse impacts of climate change especially on natural disasters of Bangladesh. To determine the climatic variability an inclusive meteorological estimation was carried out for the period of 2007-2011 and the results were compared with the period 1987-1991. The results of the climatic variability show that the average maximum temperature is increasing at a rate of 0.03°C per year but the annual minimum temperature is decreasing at a rate of 0.003°C per year. On the other hand, the annual rainfall, relative humidity and cloud coverage decreased by 0.63 mm, 0.013 percent and 0.007 respectively per year. For these climatic changes during the period 1970 to 2013, one hundred thirty four (134) major and minor cyclones hit the coastal regions of Bangladesh and almost two-third (88) of them hit in the period of 1992-2013 which is very alarming for our survival. On the other hand, it shows that the intensity and frequency of extreme flood events have significantly increased and the most extensive floods in the period 1954-2012 occurred after 1986 (1987, 1988, 1998, 2004, 2007) are considered by hydrologists to be at a size expected only once in every 20 years. The floods of 1987, 1988, 1998, 2004 and 2007 and cyclones of 1991, 1997, 2007 and 2009 are direct impact of climate change in Bangladesh.
    VL  - 3
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    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka-1000

  • Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka-1000

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