Speaker: Dr. Susmita Dasgupta, Lead Environmental Economist in the Development Economics Research Group of the World Bank, Washington DC

Susmita Dasgupta is a Lead Environmental Economist in the Development Economics Research Group of the World Bank with a specialization in empirical research. Her research focus is on environmental management in developing countries. Dr. Dasgupta has done extensive analysis on health hazards of pollution, poverty/environment nexus, setting priorities in pollution control, deforestation, biodiversity loss, impacts of climate change on coastal zones and climate extremes, adaptation to climate change, cost effective regulations, monitoring and enforcement of regulations. She has conducted research activities in Bangladesh, Brazil, Cambodia, China, Colombia, Cuba, India, Iran, Lao PDR, Madagascar, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Vietnam and Yemen, and has published numerous articles on issues related to development and environment.

Worldwide, densely populated coastal areas continue to grow in both, numbers of people and levels of economic activity. Yet, climate change directly threatens the lives and livelihoods of inhabitants of low-lying coastal regions. The impacts of sea-level rise, increasing soil and water salinity, intensified storm surges and urban flooding from extreme rainfall risks are already damaging, and will continue to grow in the coming decades. Bangladesh is an extremely useful case study for identifying and measuring these worldwide threats as the families in Bangladesh are already on the “front line” of climate change and how families in Bangladesh adapt foretells future decisions by hundreds of millions of families worldwide that will face similar threats by 2100. In this presentation, seven years of multidisciplinary research on climate change impacts, livelihood threats, and adaptation possibilities for the inhabitants of coastal Bangladesh will be summarized.