P35.17 Analysis of disaster vulnerability for sustainable coastal zone management: a case of cyclone Sidr 2007 in Bangladesh Bishawjit Mallick , J Vogt University of Karlsruhe (TH), Institute of Regional Science (IfR), Karlsruhe, Germany People of coastal areas are vulnerable because they live in an extremely dynamic estuarine environment facing many natural threats. Besides, there are threats of climate change and upstream land and water uses. These threats affect almost every aspect of life and limit livelihood choices of the people. The coastal zone of Bangladesh, an area covering 47,211 km² facing the Bay of Bengal or having proximity to the Bay, and the exclusive economic zone in the Bay [1], is generally perceived to be a zone of multiple vulnerabilities. Records of last 200 years show that at least 70 major cyclones hit the coastal belt of Bangladesh and during last 35 years nearly 900,000 people died due to catastrophic cyclones [1]. The government of Bangladesh has already identified the zone as “vulnerable to adverse ecological process” [2] and as one of three “neglected regions” [3]. The opportunities and potentials of the zone have not received much attention, and also the disaster mitigation approaches are seen as curative measure rather than protective, which make questions for sustainable coastal belt planning and development. An attempt has been made in this document to understand those challenges in respect of the context of cyclone Sidr 2007 in Bangladesh. It is intended to analyse the households’ situation of a union (local administrative unit) in order to delve into a common view on coastal conditions during cyclone Sidr, especially challenges being faced and or to be faced by the coastal communities. This study provides a synthesized picture of the coastal conditions during cyclone and hints at issues and areas that need to be addressed for the sustainable well being of the coastal communities of Bangladesh. This study considered that knowledge of the local people and their perceptions [5] [6] regarding for the future planning are the sources of sustainable coastal zone development. Thus it combined both the qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection. A field survey was conducted in Baniasanta union of Dacope Upazila in Khulna district. Total area of the studied union is around 29 km² with a population of 17300 and total 3331 households [4]. The quantitative data i.e. household survey constituted with a sample of 124 households. The questionnaire concentrated on the respondents’ immediate initiatives for survival, success or failure, relief and rehabilitation opportunities, housing conditions, institutional and community involvement. 10 in-depth interviews with the victims of Sidr were conducted regarding their life experiences on disastrous situation. Results of questionnaire survey were also verified with the qualitative interviews. The study found that after having the news regarding Sidr, around two-thirds of the respondents took decision alone and could not implement their immediate action plan as well as faced problems. Most of them decided to stay at own house without taking shelter in cyclone centre, while a few of them had sent their old members and children to other safer places, like neighbours or relatives house. Do such decisions depend on the distances between cyclone centre and house? The temporal distance showed that one could reach to the cyclone centre during normal situation by an average of 20 minutes from any corner of their locality and the spatial distance was in an average of 1 Kilometre. Thus one must reach in cyclone centre before the beginning of cyclone, which strictly depends on their motivation and knowledge to handle the crisis with respect to their culture, norms, religion and social strata. Most of them also didn’t want to leave their house due to security and preservation of their resources. On the other hand, it also depends on the available supports and services in cyclone centre. It was reported that local politicians or rich people always dominated to have a position in cyclone centre, which hindered the poor people to go to the same, although most of them had no safer housing conditions. Field data showed, the average construction cost of a house was less than $145 (likely 10000 Bangladeshi Taka) and it was not durable for any calamities. Why they didn’t make any durable house that may be depend on their occupation and income. But this study reflected another issue of “dependency on relief and rehabilitation work”. Usually they didn’t care about their housing conditions, they were confident that somebody will repair their houses. They were busy for collecting relief goods as much as they could. The aged (over 50 years) and young (less than 15 years) as well as the women had better opportunities to receive more relief goods. But the middle income group, due to their social prestige didn’t want to wait at the line for collecting relief goods. Consequently, they sold their livestock, tress etc. for feeding their families, which made them more vulnerable to next disasters as well as led them to become poor. Such tendency of avoiding relief goods increased the wealth of local powerful groups. Further more, the poor service provision, poorly-developed institutional structure, social inequality, conflicts regarding resource uses, poor law and order situation, improper resource management and exploitation of Climate Change: Global Risks, Challenges and Decisions IOP Publishing IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 6 (2009) 352029 doi:10.1088/1755-1307/6/5/352029 c  2009 IOP Publishing Ltd 1