Browsing by Author "Rahman, Mizanur"

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    Assessing the Relationship between COVID-19, Air Quality, and Meteorological Variables: A Case Study of Dhaka City in Bangladesh
    Islam, Md Sariful; Rahman, Mizanur; Tusher, Tanmoy Roy; Roy, Shimul; Razi, Mohammad Arfar (Taiwan Association for Aerosol Research, 2021-01-15)
    The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a serious health concern worldwide for almost a year. This study investigated the effects of selected air pollutants and meteorological variables on daily COVID-19 cases in Dhaka city, Bangladesh. Air pollutants and meteorological data for Dhaka city were collected from 8 April to 16 June 2020 from multiple sources. This study implied spearman’s correlation to see the correlation between daily COVID-19 cases and different air pollutants and meteorological variables. Besides, multiple linear regression and the Generalized Additive Model (GAM) were used to investigate the association between COVID-19 cases and other variables used in this study. Due to lockdown measures, significant differences between PM₂.₅, SO₂, NO₂, CO, and O₃ in 2019 and 2020 were observed in Dhaka city. We used lag-0, lag-7, lag-14, and lag-21 days on daily COVID-19 cases to look at the lag effect of different air pollutants and meteorology. The LRM results showed that the daily COVID-19 cases are significantly correlated with relative humidity (lag-0 days) and pressure (lag-14 days) (p < 0.05). Additionally, the GAM model results showed a significant nonlinear association among daily COVID-19 cases and meteorology and air quality variables on different lag days. Therefore, our results suggest that an effective public health intervention measures should be implemented to slowdown the spreading of COVID-19.
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    Resident perceptions of riverbank erosion and shoreline protection: a mixed-methods case study from Bangladesh
    Rahman, Mizanur; Popke, Jeff; Crawford, Thomas W. (Springer, 2022-07-28)
    Riverbank erosion is a common hazard in Bangladesh, posing a significant threat to homes, properties, and livelihoods. In recent years, the government of Bangladesh has intensified efforts to mitigate riverbank erosion by hardening shorelines, including the building of concrete revetments, but the local dynamics of these interventions are not well documented. To address this, we present results from a study of community-level response to a 2-mile long concrete revetment recently constructed in the administrative district of Ramgati, in the lower Meghna River basin of Bangladesh. Our study combines quantitative analysis of data from a household survey with qualitative data from semi-structured interviews to assess resident perceptions of the new revetment and its effect on the landscape of riverbank erosion hazard. The study finds, firstly, that hazard awareness is widespread but may be influenced by livelihood factors related to the dynamics of displacement and resettlement. Second, we find that that the negative impacts of riverbank erosion vary spatially. Hazard perception in Ramgati is significantly influenced by the physical location of the household, with those residing closer to the river and in unprotected zones north and south of the revetment expressing much greater worry that they will lose their homes, and believing that this will happen much sooner than residents further away or in the zone now protected by the embankment. As an empirically grounded case study, our findings add to the literature on riverbank erosion in Bangladesh and perception studies focused on water-based hazards in similar settings globally.