Living on the Edge

Mohammad Zaman is an international development/resettlement specialist and advisory professor, National Research Center for Resettlement, Hohai University, Nanjing, China. He carried out extensive ethnographic research on disaster and displacement in the Brahmaputra-Jamuna floodplain. For many years, his core research has been on char settlement, their economies and social organizations and how these have been historically shaped by the colonial and post-colonial land tenure and administration with regard to alluvial and diluvial lands. He is a Fellow of the Society for Applied Anthropology, and advisor to the Administrative Staff College of India, Hyderabad, India.Mustafa Alam, a Professor (Retired) in Economics, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh, has a rich background in research on issues relating to integrated water resources management. He participated as a professional team member in several Flood Action Plan study components in Bangladesh, where hisinvolvement in the multidisciplinary Charland Study figured prominently. Prof. Alam gained valuable experience about char life in the country through this study, whereby he carried out extensive fieldwork in numerous chars spread around all the major river systems of the country. Apart from miscellaneous reports he produced on issues relating to chars in Bangladesh, he has a number of valuable publications to his credit on the subject. Given this background, Prof. Alam’s role as an editor of this volume certainly adds value to the discourses contained in it.

“This book will serve well those who seek to know what it is like for these dwellers to live in chars in the middle of our mighty rivers on their estuaries, and what it will take to improve their conditions.” (ATM Nurul Amin, The Daily Star, thedailystar.net, May 16, 2022)

• The Delta and Charland in Historical and Comparative Perspectives.- Chars as Destabilizers.- Char Dwellers’ Right to Development.- Morphologic Instability and Erosion Problems in the River Systems of Bangladesh.- Use of Remote Sensing Data to Study the Behavior and Dynamics of Riverine Chars in Bangladesh.- Geomorphological Evolution of Riverine Chars.- The Dynamics of Coastal Chars in Bangladesh.- The Soils of  Bangladesh’s Charlands.- Evaluating Future Risk: Quantifying the Effects of Climate Change on Riverine and Coastal Chars.- Charland Colonization and Settlements in the Floodplains and Delta.- Dynamic Land and Adaptive People of Bengal Delta: A Spatio-Temporal Perspective.- Coping Strategies and Future Resettlement Options of People Displaced by Riverbank Erosion in the Lower Meghna Estuary.- Floods, Charlands Erosion and Settlement Displacement in the Ganges-Padma River Basin.- Flood Proofing Measures for Char Communities in Bangladesh.- Char Development for AddressingRiverbank Erosion related Displacement.- Understanding Char Economy: Household Perspective and the National Context.- Vulnerability to Natural Hazards and Community-based Adaptation in Agriculture: A Case Study.- Coping of Char Agricultural Marketing System to Hydro-meteorological Hazards.- Role of NGOs in Post-Flood Rehabilitation in Chars in Gaibandha District, Bangladesh.- Gender Issues and Social Development Challenges in Char Environments.- Out Migration as a Survival Strategy for Char Dwellers: Findings from Three Selected Chars.- The Chars Livelihoods Program: Experiences and Learnings.- Livelihood Development in Coastal Chars in the Meghna Estuary: The Danida Experience.- Char Development and Settlement Project: Reflections of Experiences.- Transforming Lands, Transforming Lives: Sandbar Agricultural Technology and Innovations.- Alluvial and Diluvial Land Laws and Administration: A Paradigmatic Shift Necessary to Benefit Displaced People.- Char Development Authority and Governance Issues.