Socio-economic determinants of women’s livelihood time use in rural Bangladesh

Achieving gender well-being and equality is one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. A close examination of female livelihood time allocation can reveal gender inequality in livelihood choices between males and females. Using the feminist political ecology framework, this paper examines how gendered knowledge, roles, and responsibilities influence female livelihood time use in a patriarchal society like Bangladesh. We use a nationally representative household survey data to create Multiple Linear Regression Model to understand the association between economic, cultural, and environmental shocks with the total time allocation toward livelihood activities by women. Our results suggest that use of ‘Purdah’ by Muslim women acts as a negative detrimental factor towards their livelihood time allocation, thus affirming the complex role of culture and gendered economic activities. Women also allocate less time toward livelihood activities during pregnancy and/or breastfeeding. We find that female livelihood time use also depends on their ability to speak in public, their autonomy in livelihood decision processes, and their ownership in business enterprises. This research suggests creating more robust and gender sensitive policies in Bangladesh that can help achieve the United Nation’s goals of Sustainable Development.

     

Remote sensing for change detection in the Sunderbands,Bangladesh

Abstract

Change detection study has been made for the mangrove forest of the Sunderbans (Bangladesh) using remote sensing and other ancillary data (1933–1987). At the advent of the British rule the forest was double their present extent. Its present area is about 6000.0 Sq. Km. The productive land area has been increased from 1960. Gewa (Excoecaria agallocha)‐Sundri (Heritiera fames) cover type areas have been increased at the expense of pure Sundri type. Height classes of the forest have been changed, basal area/ha has decreased. It is observed that there is a net decrease in Sundri standing volume of the order of 40% and that of Gewa 45% over the past 25 years (1960–1985). Total timber volume for all of the species has been reduced to near about a half. Timber volume/ha and basal area/ha for Gewa have increased in the Sharankhola Island of the forest. Sundri tress are being replaced by Gewa. CIR aerial photographs have been found most suitable for cover type analysis and other change detection study. Regular monitoring of the changes of the forest using remote sensing technique has been suggested.     

Monitoring Mangrove forest landcover changes in the coastline of Bangladesh from 1976 to 2015

Abstract

This study used multi-date Landsat images to quantify mangrove cover changes in the whole of Bangladesh from 1976 to 2015. Images were pre-processed with an atmospheric correction using Dark Object Subtraction (DOS) and Relative Radiometric Normalization (RRN) using Pseudo-Invariant Features (PIFs). Land Use/Land Cover (LU/LC) classification map was generated using Maximum Likelihood (MaxLike) algorithm, indicating the areal extent of mangroves increased by 3.1% between 1976 and 2015, where 1.79% of this increase occurred between 2000 and 2015. Though mangrove areas remained almost constant in the Sundarbans, Chakaria Sundarbans has almost disappeared between 1976 and 1989. The overall accuracy of Landsat MSS, TM, ETM+, and L8 OLI classified images were 80%, 80%, 87%, and 97% respectively. The study also found deforestation, shrimp & salt farm, coastal erosion and sedimentation, and mangrove plantation could be responsible for mangrove changes in Bangladesh.     

Future change in the frequency of warm and cold spells over Pakistan simulated by the PRECIS regional climate model

Climate change caused by anthropogenic activities has generated a variety of research focusing on investigating the past climate, predicting the future climate and quantifying the change in climate extreme events by using different climate models. Climate extreme events are valuable to evaluate the potential impact of climate change on human activities, agriculture and economy and are also useful to monitor the climate change on global scale. Here, a Regional Climate Model (RCM) simulation is used to study the future variations in the temperature extreme indices, particularly change in frequency of warm and cold spells duration over Pakistan. The analyses are done on the basis of simulating two 30 years simulations with the Hadley Center’s RCM PRECIS, at a horizontal resolution of 50 km. Simulation for the period 1961–1990 represents the recent climate and simulation for the period 2071–2100 represents the future climate. These simulations are driven by lateral boundary conditions from HadAM3P GCM of Hadley centre UK. For the validation of model, observed mean, maximum and minimum temperatures for the period 1961–1990 at all the available stations in Pakistan are first averaged and are then compared with the PRECIS averaged grid-box data. Also the observed monthly gridded data set of Climate Research Unit (UK) data is used to validate the model. Temperature indices in the base period as well as in future are then calculated and the corresponding change is observed. Percentile based spatial change of temperature shows that in summer, increase in daily minimum temperature is more as compared to the increase of daily maximum temperature whereas in winter, the change in maximum temperature is high. The occurrence of annual cold spells shows significantly decreasing trend while for warm spells there is slight increasing trend over Pakistan.     

Intensification of future heat waves in Pakistan: a study using CORDEX regional climate models ensemble

Future trends in the occurrence of heat waves (HW) over Pakistan have been presented using three regional climate models (RCMs), forced by three different global climate models (GCMs) runs under RCP8.5 scenarios. The results of RCMs are obtained from CORDEX (Coordinated Regional climate Downscaling EXperiment) database. Two different approaches for the assessment of HWs are defined, namely Fixed and Relative approaches. Fixed approach is defined for a life-threatening extreme event in which the temperature can reach more than 45 °C for a continuous stretch of several days; however, Relative approach events may not be directly life-threatening, but may cause snow/ice melt flooding and impact on food security of the country in summer and winter seasons, respectively. The results indicate a consistent increase in the occurrence of HWs for both approaches. For the Fixed approach, the increase is evident in the eastern areas of Pakistan, particularly plains of Punjab and Sindh provinces which host many big cities of the country. It is argued that the effect of HWs may also be exacerbated in future due to urban heat island effect. Moreover, summer time HWs for Relative approach is most likely to increase over northern areas of the country which hosts reservoirs of snow and glacier, which may result in events like glacial lake outburst flood and snow/ice melt flooding. Furthermore, the increase in winter time HWs for Relative approach may affect negatively on the wheat production, which in turn can distress the overall food productivity and livelihoods of the country. It is concluded that this study may be a useful document for future planning in order to better adapt to these threats due to climate change.     

Near surface lithology and spatial variation of arsenic in the shallow groundwater: southeastern Bangladesh

This study investigated the relationship between near-surface lithology and the spatial variability of As concentrations using sediment grain-size analysis and electromagnetic induction survey in the southeast Bangladesh. It has been observed that the aquifers overlain by finer sediments have higher concentrations of As in groundwater, whereas As concentrations are remarkably low in aquifers having permeable sandy materials or thinner silt/clay layer at the surface. The near-surface lithology acts as a controlling factor for spatial distributions of groundwater As within the very shallow depths (<15 m). Shallow alluvial aquifers can provide low-As drinking water in many areas of the country when tube wells are properly installed after investigation of the overlying near-surface sediment attributes and hydraulic properties.     

Flooding and its relationship with land cover change,population growth,and road density

Bangladesh experiences frequent hydro-climatic disasters such as flooding.These disasters are believed to be associated with land use changes and climate variability.However,identifying the factors that lead to flooding is challenging.This study mapped flood susceptibility in the northeast region of Bangladesh using Bayesian regularization back propagation(BRBP)neural network,classification and regression trees(CART),a statistical model(STM)using the evidence belief function(EBF),and their ensemble models(EMs)for three time periods(2000,2014,and 2017).The accuracy of machine learning algorithms(MLAs),STM,and EMs were assessed by considering the area under the curve-receiver operating char-acteristic(AUC-ROC).Evaluation of the accuracy levels of the aforementioned algorithms revealed that EM4(BRBP-CART-EBF)outperformed(AUC＞90％)standalone and other ensemble models for the three time periods analyzed.Furthermore,this study investigated the relationships among land cover change(LCC),population growth(PG),road density(RD),and relative change of flooding(RCF)areas for the per-iod between 2000 and 2017.The results showed that areas with very high susceptibility to flooding increased by 19.72％between 2000 and 2017,while the PG rate increased by 51.68％over the same period.The Pearson correlation coefficient for RCF and RD was calculated to be 0.496.These findings highlight the significant association between floods and causative factors.The study findings could be valuable to policymakers and resource managers as they can lead to improvements in flood management and reduction in flood damage and risks.     

Potential of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Micranthemum umbrosum</Emphasis> for phytofiltration of organic arsenic species from oxic water environment

Arsenic (As) is a toxic and carcinogenic metalloid that causes various hazards to human health. Phytofiltration is a more eco-friendly and green approach than chemoremediation, or other traditional technologies, for removing As from aquatic environments. Recently, Micranthemum umbrosum was shown as a promising candidate for phytofiltration of inorganic As species. This work examines the potential application of M. umbrosum to phytofiltration of organic As species, such as monomethylarsonic acid (MMAA, CH₅AsO₃) and dimethylarsinic acid (DMAA, C₂H₇AsO₂), from oxic water environments. M. umbrosum plants were grown in two test concentrations of MMAA and DMAA, or a control, in a hydroponic experiment. After seven days, leaves accumulated 90 ± 3.2 and 48 ± 1.6 µg As g^?1 (oven dry basis) from 1 µg As mL^?1 of water added from MMAA and DMAA, respectively. Bioconcentration factor values and translocation factor values were always greater than 1.0, indicating that M. umbrosum was a good As accumulator and that leaves accumulated significantly higher amounts of As than stems and roots. Analysis of macro- and micronutrient data showed that M. umbrosum had higher resistance to organic As treatments than the control. These results confirm the potential application of M. umbrosum for phytofiltration of organic As from contaminated oxic water environments.     

沉积岩数据库:计算机的应用

岩石学数据在许多地质统计分析中是相当有用的。为了得出焦伊布尔哈德地区的焦因蒂亚布尔区和锡尔赫特地区焦伊布尔哈德灰岩区的构造、地层和沉积作用情况，已作了大量的详细的野外工作和室内分析。已对锡尔赫特地区和焦伊布尔哈德地区的灰岩作了化学分析，且对Ｔｉｐａｍ砂岩作了矿物分析。所获取数据可应用于ＳＥＤＢＡ。用于ＳＥＤＢＡ的参数必须是精确的和沉积成因的。