Flood Knowledge and Management in Bangladesh: Increasing Diversity, Complexity and Uncertainty

• Published in: Geography compass 2010-07, Vol.4 (7), p.750-767
• Main Author: Cook, Brian R.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1749-8198; 1749-8198
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1749-8198.2010.00327.x

The purpose of this paper is to review and discuss the relationship between government publications and academic studies of flood management in Bangladesh. The paper reviews these literatures while also emphasizing the assumptions, objectives and national issues that have influenced modern flood management. This approach aims to engage with the evolving knowledges used to inform and to criticize flood management in one of the most flood‐prone nations on earth. The analysis suggests a disconnection between government and academic knowledge, particularly concerning the characterization of government objectives within the academic discourse. The paper is divided into four periods in which the objectives, methods and understandings were fundamentally reoriented, contributing to the current discrepancy between government and academic approaches to flooding and flood management. The paper concludes with discussion of three issues related to the competing assumptions of flood risk management in Bangladesh and raises the issue of growing complexity in relation to hazards management.