Search

The article focuses on saline water intrusion in Bangladesh. It states that saline shrimp farming has resulted in saline water contamination of surrounding soils and destroyed the region's fertility with the exception of Polder 22 due to activists resisting efforts of the industrial shrimp farming industry's efforts to move onto the farm. It talks about the history of salinity intrusion in Bangladesh due to the construction of coastal embankments and India using more river water.

This article draws on a discussion of the differences between laboratory and field experiments to examine the practices and politics of rewilding. The analysis focuses on the Oostvaardersplassen, a flagship example that figures centrally in discussions about rewilding in Europe. The article reflects on the wider significance and potential o f this wild experiment for conservation practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After more than a decade of meeting the designated objective of increasing productivity in agriculture, the South West coastal polders of Bangladesh have ended up as different man-made disasters. The failure of the polders to deliver the intended outcome is basically attributed to the lack of understanding of their hydro-morphological characteristics, inadequacy in their operation and maintenance, and failure to take into account their social relationship and culture roles. Changes in socioeconomic settings have also forced changes in the designated functions of the polders, but now the emerging context of climate change has become a major issue in rationalizing the coastal polders. In this context, this study is an attempt to review the historical and ongoing process of rationalization of the South West coastal polders, revealing that it is essential to take an integrated view of the hydrologic cycle and the interactions of human interventions. Finally, this paper recommends that an extended cost--benefit analysis with a multi-objective focus or a multi-criteria analysis, if monetizing is not possible, should be an option in rationalizing this multi-functional infrastructure. Proper macro-planning would require development of an institution capable of dealing with a task which is multi-dimensional and multidisciplinary in nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inundation of the Ziltendorfer Lowland, a farmland polder with some villages, during the major flooding event in July 1997 in the Odra watershed, is simulated with the two-dimensional hydrodynamic model TRIM2D. Inflow and outflow through three consecutive embankment breaches make up a complex flow regime which governs the inundation and the water level in the Odra river. With reasonable assumptions for the dam breach genesis the inundation and depletion are simulated in good agreement with the observed flooding front positions. Simulations with a one-dimensional hydrodynamic model for "dam breach" and "no dam breach" scenarios confirm analytical considerations of an increase of the water level downstream in the main river for the "dam breach" scenario because of an outflow from the Ziltendorfer Lowland into the Odra river during the peak flooding period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]