“Reconstructing innovative trajectories for sustainable management of coastal zone of Bangladesh” a joint research project of CEGIS, IHE Delft, BUET and KU [Position: Research Assistant]

Many urbanized deltas face development challenges due to growing economies, populations and climate change. This paper explores the extent an innovation can swing a delta into a particular development direction. For the Bangladesh delta, tidal river management is studied as a strategic innovation to address problems of congested rivers and water logging in the southwest. A strategic innovation is a fundamental reconceptualization of business as usual strategies, reshapes existing markets by rule braking, results in value improvement for local livelihoods, and fits in a longer term perspective what a delta is or should be. The case analysis reveals that tidal river management is a completely different strategy for managing the tidal rivers and polder systems in the southwest Bangladesh, and that it is vehemently demanded by local people for its leaps in livelihood improvement. However, tidal river management should be further evolved, a.o. linkage to aquaculture, emphasis on ecological benefits, to become an innovation that effectively reshapes the markets with dramatic value improvements for livelihoods. Through positioning tidal river management against mainstream strategies in a strategic perspective, this paper contributes to a novel understanding on tidal river management in Bangladesh, and the importance of rethinking silt strategies in deltas in general.   

Project Goal: How does TRM as strategic innovation processes from influencing on polder management (soft implementation) to practices in the Bangladesh deltas (hard implementation)?

• Research Project