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This paper reports doctoral research that explores grassroots technologies as an asset for poor coastal communities of Bangladesh, how local knowledge contributes to the creation of such technologies, and how they can be useful to build a community’s trust in its own adaptive capacity. Bangladesh is one of the most disaster vulnerable countries in the world due to its deltaic morphology and frequent climate-induced hazards (storm surge, annual flooding, salinity intrusion, frequent cyclones, etc.). Southwestern coastal settlements are especially vulnerable because people considered among the poorest in the world inhabit them. To cope with climate extremes under severe resource limitations, grassroots technologies evolve over generations from autonomous decision-making processes and creative experimentation. However, communities often fail to recognize the value of these technologies and may have little trust in their innate capacity for climate change adaptation. A conceptual framework will be presented that identifies the interactions among grassroots technology, local knowledge, community trust and climate change adaptation. The framework will be validated in case studies of specific grassroots technologies identified through field observations, and explored through qualitative methods to understand the importance of indigenous knowledge to the development of community-based climate coping strategies.

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-25814-0_21 openalex: W2291411804 mag: 2291411804