Bangladesh - Geoinformation for the implementation of a Climate Change-resilient Urbanization

Country / Region: Bangladesh / South Asia
Focal point: Georisks

Begin of project: January 1, 2023

End of project: December 31, 2025

Status of project: June 13, 2023

Aerial picture of Dhaka. Buildings are constructed in wetlands, smog is in the air Source: BGR

In Bangladesh, information on the geological subsurface is not sufficiently taken into account in urban development and planning. Industrial settlements and building land are designated in unsuitable areas due to a lack of geo-information. Earthquakes, flooding, soil liquefaction or subsidence cause damage to infrastructure and pose risks to the population.
These processes will occur more frequently due to climatic changes. Ongoing migration further increases the pressure on urban areas and intensifies the demand for settlement areas, which are already growing uncontrollably in width and height due to high population growth.
When taking geodata into account in strategic planning of urban areas, areas at risk can be identified and, with appropriate land use planning, the inclusion of geo-information can contribute to preventive disaster management.

Foundation failure, uninformed planning Source: BGR

The project partner is the Geological Survey of Bangladesh (GSB), which is subordinate to the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources (MPEMR). The GSB is the only authority in charge of the geosciences sector and therefore has a nationwide mandate in Bangladesh. The cooperation with the GSB builds on the achievements of previous projects and aims to enhance the capacity of the project partner's technical staff to professionally collect, analyse, interpret, systematically record and make available geospatial information.

In the current project phase, the focus lies on establishing structures for quality assurance of geodata in the GSB. Additionally, it is important to strengthen the inter-institutional exchange on the use of quality-assured geo-information. Therefore, staff in urban and spatial planning authorities and at universities needs to be trained in the use of quality-assured geo-information so that information on the suitability of building sites can be integrated into urban planning processes.
As pilot sites the six intervention areas from the previous project have been chosen for continuation, because data collection and results are available and ready for feeding into capacity building activities with their stakeholders.

Map with twin towns of Dhaka Source: BGR

The piloting for improved cooperation between the geo-information provider (GSB) and the respective planning authorities takes place in the partner cities as shown above: Barisal, Faridpur, Khulna, Kushtia, Satkhira, Sirajganj. The project office is at the Geological Survey of Bangladesh (GSB) premises in Dhaka.

This project is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) with EUR 3.8 million. It is assigned to the core theme Climate and Energy - Just Transition in the field of action Sustainable Urban Development and cooperates locally with projects of KfW and GIZ. On the part of the partner authority GSB, it is accompanied by a mirror project.

This bilateral project was preceded by "Geoinformation for Urban Planning and Adaptation to Climate Change" (2018-2022), which was also implemented with the GSB. In a previous cooperation, the Greater Dhaka Metropolitan Region was the subject of joint implementation with the project Geoinformation for Urban Planning (2013-2016). The Dhaka Urban Development Planning Authority, RAJUK, was the user of this successfully implemented project.

Literature:

• Geomorphologic Map of Greater Dhaka City (PDF, 2 MB)
• Infrastructure Suitability of Greater Dhaka City (PDF, 2 MB)
• Geoinformation for Urban Planning and Adaptation to Climate Change (GPAC), Bangladesh

Partner:

Geological Survey of Bangladesh (GSB)