Climate migration and urban planning system: a study of Bangladesh

Abstract

Amid rising global temperatures and a changing physical environment, climate change has led to the development of a new social group called “Climate Migrants or Climate Refugees.” In 1995 approximately 25 million people worldwide were considered to be environment or climate refugees; it is anticipated that this number will increase to 200 million by 2050. Over the last decade rising sea levels, tropical cyclones, flash floods, soil salinity, and river erosion have emerged as the environmental or climatic push factors that have forced highly exposed and vulnerable coastal communities to migrate. In most cases people abandoned their settlements in rural and coastal areas and moved to towns and cities. Such push factors lead to chaotic and overwhelming levels of urbanization with attendant congestion, poor housing, and pollution choking urban areas. Planning systems in developing countries like Bangladesh have found it difficult to accommodate climate change-related migration and uncontrolled urbanization. Climate change is a major challenge for most coastal countries and this issue has to be addressed at various levels of planning including national, regional, and urban contexts. Consequently planning policy and practice need to evolve a vertically integrated decision-making framework linking national, regional, and local planning to address climate migration.