The state of climate change adaptation research in Bangladesh: a systematic literature review

Climate change is severely affecting livelihoods, especially in developing countries, where adaptation strategies are becoming crucial. While the body of empirical research on adaptation is steadily growing, the status of such research in Bangladesh has received little attention. This paper reviews 106 articles on adaptation research in Bangladesh between 2007 and 2024, applying the social-ecological systems (SESs) approach. We see a significant annual increase in publications since 2014. Priority research topics and themes, such as community-based adaptation, ecosystem-based adaptation, gender, livelihood, adaptive capacity, governance, and mainstreaming, are gaining prominence in the literature. Only 5% of the studies we reviewed framed climate change adaptation as a system or applied any systematic approach. Most considered it a standalone process without identifying the bidirectional relationships between adaptation strategies and the encompassing SESs. There are only a few comprehensive studies on the outcomes or effectiveness of livelihood adaptation strategies implemented at the household level. Only a few studies mentioned the importance of the SESs approach without providing the system’s structural components or conceptualizing adaptation as a social-ecological system. Therefore, introducing SESs-specific variables and conceptual relationships could bring a much-needed holistic analytical perspective to climate adaptation research.