Eleventh International Conference on Climate Change: Impacts & Responses

Abstract

Climate change is predicted to most negatively impact developing countries, those least able to adapt and respond. In Bangladesh, climate change is predicted to intensify seasonal droughts, floods and weather disasters. Pre-existing poor governance and institutional challenges have been shown to hinder the development of effective and accessible flood resilience for Dhaka’s slum settlements. An examination of the 1998 Bangladesh flood provides insight into the growing threat facing Dhaka’s urban poor. This work offers examples of successful flood adaptation methods in similarly vulnerable locations and explores how poor governance can explain Dhaka’s lack of effective adaptation. Application of Foucault’s power theories provides deeper understanding of the underlying power relations between the urban government “state” and slum settlements, and how these power relations manifest themselves as absent flood adaptation. Finally, a combination of critical theory and problem-solving theory provides a framework for conceptualizing inclusive flood adaptation in Dhaka and other climate change adaptation contexts.