Introduction


Delta regions worldwide are in the focal point of large scale regional urbanization. Nearly 60 per cent of the urban world
population – a number that is continuously rising – is already living in cities in low elevation coastal zones. Consequently,
these urban questions have become truly global ones by the fact that these areas are extremely vulnerable due to the impact
of climate change: rising sea levels, flooding, increasing risk of peak-discharges of rivers and other results of these
changes such as extreme draughts in its hinterlands, land subsidence and an excess of population.

By having an overview in the global context of this topic, a country comes to attention which is already strongly affected
by these ongoing transformations: Bangladesh, an extreme example with its highly urbanized delta area where much of the
land is close to sea level. The overpopulated delta region of the rivers Brahmaputra, Meghna and Ganges forms the largest
river delta in the world. Due to the geographical location, the country frequently suffers from devastating natural hazards of
which floods, cyclones with accompanying storm surges, tornadoes, river-bank erosion, droughts and earthquakes are the
most disastrous to mention. Bangladesh with its fragile state of economy depends predominantly on agriculture that is
completely committed to the seasonal weather systems. Additional threats like salt water intrusion, arsenic contamination
of ground water and massive land loss in short time periods affect a country that is inhabited by more than 160 millions of
Bangladeshi with an average density of about 1.100 people living on one square kilometre of land – making this country
the most densely populated state in the world that will be mainly affected by global climate change.



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