Study on Cyclone Shelters at Cox Bazar Using R/S Technology and GPS System

Bangladesh ia a disastrous country having an approximate area of 147,570 sq.km. It has a close proximity with Himalayas and bounded between 20°34’ to 26°38’N latitude and 88°01’ to 92°41’E longitude. It has alluvial deltaic plain faced natural disasters with increasing frequency and intensity. Due to the geographical location, the country frequently suffers from devastating natural disasters like floods, cyclones with accompanying storm surges, tornadoes, river-bank erosion, drought and earthquakes. Among them, cyclones and floods are the most common and  disastrous to mention. With its fragile state of economy, Bangladesh depends predominantly on agriculture that has strong linkage with seasonal weather system. Natural disasters disrupt the nation’s food supply and decimate the livelihoods of the many Bangladeshis who work with agriculture. Large-scale disasters in such a small country can negate poverty-reduction efforts and divert development  resources from more productive uses. The colossal losses of lives and properties caused by natural disasters with repeated frequency in short intervals make Bangladesh as one of the most disaster prone countries in the world. It  hampers the socio-economic condition of the country. Disaster management and preparedness is thus necessary to  mitigate the losses due to them, to save the people of coastal areas and their properties.  Cyclone shelters play an effective role in this regard. Disaster Management Bureau (DMB) as well as Ministry of Food and Disaster Management are responsible for this work .They have been constructing a large number of multipurpose shelters, meeting both educational institutions and emergency needs. Despite considerable progress by the Disaster Management Bureau (DMB) in this regard , future disaster risk investments still remain low. The study on such disasters and its management over the country is thus very important too. The result of this study and prepared map will help the policy makers as well as the people at the vulnerable areas to take necessary steps and measure in the field of disaster management, food security etc. for sustainable development Study on cyclone shelters and mapping of their locations will be presented in this paper.