Assessment of coastal vulnerability in the era of sea level rise along the coast of Bangladesh

Riffat Mahmood (), Sanjoy Roy (), Md Belal Hossain () and Li Zhang ()
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Riffat Mahmood: Jagannath University, Department of Geography and Environment
Sanjoy Roy: Department of Geography and Anthropology, Louisiana State University
Md Belal Hossain: Oklahoma State University, Department of Sociology
Li Zhang: Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, 2025, vol. 121, issue 20, No 17, 24067-24099

Abstract: Abstract Sea level rise (SLR) has emerged as one of the most critical hazards in Bangladesh’s coasts. The present study is an assessment of Coastal Vulnerability Index (CVI) that could prioritize the impacts of SLR and facilitate practical mitigation and adaptation measures through the evaluation of 10 physical vulnerability indicators based on field and secondary data with a geospatial perspective. The thematic layers of each parameter have been mapped on a grid of 1,384 cells and were ranked according to their vulnerability from 1 to 5. As a result, five categories such as very high, high, moderate, and very low were developed as per the cumulative scores of vulnerabilities. It was observed that the eastern shoreline is less vulnerable in comparison to the western coastline. Some of the variables that are associated with high vulnerability include fragile geomorphology, shallow slope of the coast, increasing water level, restricted tidal range, bathymetry, strong tidal surge, absence of coast barriers, and high salinity of groundwater. The robustness of the proposed geospatial framework, such as the CVI, for assessing the sea-level rise vulnerability could thus be an important decision-support tool in managing the coastal zone of low-income countries like Bangladesh. While the current study is focused on physical vulnerability to sea level rise, subsequent studies need to look at how to integrate socioeconomic and governance factors into constructing a more comprehensive vulnerability assessment framework.

Keywords: Coastal vulnerability index; Shoreline change; GIS; Remote sensing; Coastal management; Sea level rise (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1007/s11069-025-07724-z

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