Challenges in sustaining resilience in the coastal settlements of south-eastern Bangladesh: Achieving self-sustenance through architectural synthesis

The coastal settlements in Bangladesh experienced recurring tropical cyclones and tidal surges in recent history because of geographical influences and global climate change. Despite improved evacuation management and adequate cyclone shelters patronized by donors, lately resulting in a reduced mortality rate, the property and economic losses were still substantial due to vulnerability of the settlements. As the short-term adaptative approaches such as migrating to the closest cyclone shelters have failed to sustain resilience, comprehensive and inclusive mitigation planning should be implemented to achieve more resilience in the long term. The research aimed to revise the conventional culturally-void concept and propose a prolonged solution by planning a self-sustained model of the cyclone-resilient village for the south-western coastal communities of Bangladesh. Initially, it searched for the identification and analysis of socio-cultural, economic, and environmental challenges in sustaining community resilience and later synthesizing architectural interventions to achieve self-sustenance. The synthesis focused on reducing the vulnerability of the coastal communities by enhancing their preparedness, resistance, and recovery from the prolonged impacts of coastal disasters through designing structurally and environmentally resilient homesteads, defensive landscape plans, and socioeconomic-communal development. The ultimate proposal offers more flexibility in selecting homesteads according to suitable materials, affordability, and profession.

An integrated assessment of seismic hazard exposure and its societal impact in Seven Sister States of North Eastern Region of India for sustainable disaster mitigation planning

The Seven Sister States of the North Eastern Region of India, located on the complex seismotectonic belt, is characterized by high seismicity. A comprehensive seismic hazard exposure assessment is carried out by quantifying hazard using a probabilistic approach, vulnerability by factor analysis, and exposure mapping by integrating seismic hazard and vulnerability. Peak ground acceleration (PGA) values at bedrock are calculated with the help of ground motion prediction equations (GMPE) for 10% probability of exceedance in 50 years (475 years) and 100 years (950 years), and 2% probability of exceedance in 50 years (2475 years). The resulting spatial distribution of the PGA values considering return periods of 475, 950, and 2475 years are presented through seismic hazard maps. The social vulnerability analysis indicates that 21 districts covering 91.43% area of the state of Assam and the entire state of Tripura are under high vulnerability. With the help of spatial cluster analysis, it is found that 17.14% of the study area are having an average social vulnerability index (SVI) score of 0.329 and therefore can be considered as hotspots. Through seismic hazard analysis, it is observed that more than 50% of the area of North East India is under moderate to very high exposure class. The seismic hazard maps developed can help in disaster mitigation planning and execution leading to sustainable development goals and targets.

Estimating the Value of a Depository Collection

In the fall of 2018, I was asked to calculate the value of Grand Valley State University’s (GVSU) general collection (defined as everything except Special Collections and University Archives) as part of risk mitigation planning and updating insurance coverage. Records indicated that our collection’s value was last calculated 11 years earlier, and we lacked both written documentation and institutional memory regarding the process used to calculate that value. While there is a fairly significant body of knowledge around calculating the value of monographs, I struggled to find guidance on calculating the monetary value FDLP collections. There is a robust body of scholarship on promoting the intrinsic value of being a member of the FDLP to library administration and other stakeholders, but very few of them focus on detailed financial benefits of tangible collections.