Integrated approach to cyclone wind analysis and disaster planning for the Bangladesh coast

Date

2006-12

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Texas Tech University

Abstract

Tropical cyclones present the most serious natural hazard in the coastal areas of Bangladesh. In the past century, two of the deadliest tropical cyclones in modern history hit the coast of Bangladesh and each caused more death counts than the total number of casualties from all of the past U.S. hurricanes. Being a developing country, government and a majority of people in Bangladesh cannot afford to prepare for natural hazards and there is lack of research and mitigation measures to reduce the impact of damage from tropical cyclones. The purpose of this study is to understand the characteristics of landfalling tropical cyclones in Bangladesh and the associated risk and vulnerability in the coastal areas, which can help taking proper mitigation measures and would contribute towards effective disaster planning.

Wind and storm surge are crucial factors in the determination of how much damage occurs in the coastal areas in association with any tropical cyclone. It is also important to delineate the regions based on cyclone risk and vulnerability for planning considerations.

In this dissertation, the wind and storm surge from the tropical cyclones along the coast of Bangladesh are analyzed using the Monte Carlo simulations and cyclone risk and vulnerable regions of the coastal areas are identified. A reliable and comprehensive climatological database for the landfalling tropical cyclones, first of its kind for Bangladesh has been developed in this purpose for a 127-year period (1877-2003).

Description

Keywords

Risk and vulner, Climatology, Geographic information systems (GIS), Holland wind model

Citation