Integrated assessment of social and environmental sustainability dynamics in the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna delta, Bangladesh
This study presents a framework to analyse changing ecosystem services in deltas and implications for human well-being
Abstract
Deltas provide diverse ecosystem services and benefits for their populations. At the same time, deltas are also recognised as one of the most vulnerable coastal environments, with a range of drivers operating at multiple scales, from global climate change and sea-level rise to deltaic-scale subsidence and land cover change. These drivers threaten these ecosystem services, which often provide livelihoods for the poorest communities in these regions. The imperative to maintain ecosystem services presents a development challenge: how to develop deltaic areas in ways that are sustainable and benefit all residents including the most vulnerable.
Here we present an integrated framework to analyse changing ecosystem services in deltas and the implications for human well-being, focussing in particular on the provisioning ecosystem services of agriculture, inland and offshore capture fisheries, aquaculture and mangroves that directly support livelihoods.
This research was supported by the Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) programme
Citation
Nicholls, R.J., Hutton, C.W., Lazar, A.N., Allan, A., Adger, W.N., Adams, H., Wolf, J., Rahman, M., Salehin, M., Integrated assessment of social and environmental sustainability dynamics in the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna delta, Bangladesh, Estuarine Coastal and Shelf Science, vol.183, pp.370-381, 2016