Tropical Cyclones (TCs) Risk Assessment in South Asia: Focusing on the Coastal Areas of Bangladesh

Abstract

Tropical cyclones recurrently batter the coastal regions of Bangladesh. It causes a lot of damage in the less resilient regions, especially the cities. This study aims to pinpoint the areas that are both physically and socially susceptible to tropical cyclones using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), Principal Component Analysis (PCA), and various geospatial techniques. The results indicated higher social vulnerability in the western and central regions of coastal Bangladesh. In addition, the areas near the Bay of Bengal exhibited higher overall social and physical risk than others. However, throughout time, the central coast showed the maximum risk level among all. Additionally, the Sundarbans mangrove forest located in the Indian territory showed poor health and degraded forest, which suggests that tropical cyclones might have disrupted the forests. The findings obtained in this study will be beneficial to the emergency responders and policymakers in coastal area management and disaster risk reduction.