Flood proneness and coping strategies: the experiences of two villages in Bangladesh Shitangsu Kumar Paul Associate Professor, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh, 1 and Jayant K. Routray Professor, Regional and Rural Development Planning, School of Environment, Resources and Development, Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand This paper explores peoples’ indigenous survival strategies and assesses variations in people’s ability to cope with floods in two flood-prone villages in Bangladesh. It reveals that people con- tinuously battle against flood vulnerability in accordance with their level of exposure and abilities, with varied strategies employed at different geophysical locations. The paper reports that people in an area with low flooding and with better socioeconomic circumstances are more likely to cope with impacts compared to people in areas with high and sudden flooding. Similarly, households’ ability to cope varies depending on people’s socioeconomic conditions, such as education, income and occupation. Although floods in Bangladesh generate socioeconomic misery and cause damage to the environment, health and infrastructure, people’s indigenous coping strategies have helped them to reduce significantly their vulnerability. Such flood-mitigating strategies should be well recognised and emphasised further via proper dissemination of information through an early- warning system and subsequently external assistance. Keywords: Bangladesh, coping capacity, coping strategy, flood, indigenous knowledge Introduction In Bangladesh, flood is the most frequent natural hazard and is considered to be the main threat. Approximately 60 per cent of the country’s land mass is less than six metres above the mean sea level (USAID, 1988; GOB, 1992) and floodwater inundates around 20. 5 per cent of the country (3.03 million hectares) every year (Chowdhury, 2000 ; Mirza et al., 2001). In extreme cases it may cover 70 per cent of the country (Mirza, 2002), with varied effects. Normal floods are seen as a blessing because they bring economic and environmental benefits (Blaikie et al., 1994; Smith, 1996; Handmer, Penning-Rowsell and Tapsell, 1999) whereas high floods are viewed as disastrous (Paul, 1997). For example, normal flooding makes arable land fertile and leads to an augmentation of agricultural production (Brammer, 1990) while high-magnitude events inundate large areas causing widespread damage to crops, human beings, live- stock and property as well as devastation to life and livelihoods (Paul, 1984, 1997; Rasid, 1993; Few, 2003). The unique natural setting of Bangladesh on the South Asian subcontinent and its tropical-monsoon climate attract flood hazards to the country (Elahi, 1991). As the majority of the people live in the countryside, their live- lihoods are directly or indirectly dependent on the land (BBS, 2003). Therefore, flooding jeopardises the lives and livelihoods of people. doi:10.1111/j.0361-3666.2009.01139.x Disasters, 2010, 34(2): 489-508. © 2010 The Author(s). Journal compilation © Overseas Development Institute, 2010 Published by Blackwell Publishing, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK฀and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA