Bangladesh is the most densely populated country with 1188 people per square kilometers. It has a total population of 160 million people and among which more than 16 million people lives in the capital, and that makes it one of the most densely populated cities in the world. Consequently there are huge needs for high rise housing to accommodate all those people or otherwise shift them to other place. But our country, at present, does not have enough resource to build up a newer city so that they can solve accommodation, infrastructure and unemployment problems. Thus, the only option is privatization of the housing which also has started in our country and this scenario is appearing to be more devastating. These buildings does not respect nor reflect our culture, history, society, religion, norms, behavior or community. Additionally, these housing units at final level of finishing are out of reach for the low and middle income people even though it was intended to be built for the low income group. Urban poor is a problem and an also an opportunity for this City. They are actively taking part in the economy and they are the server of the 4th class services of the society. But they don’t have proper place to live and facilities to lead their life style. Thus they sometimes choose different path of life leaving behind community values. However, they have lots of potential in the city and can easily make them useful to contribute to the culture and the society of the city. With a better place to live that will support their life style, they can easily become the keeper of their culture and crafts. With proper housing they can produce income and support their families. We can easily rely on their craftsmanship to retain our culture. Architecture should be sustainable and for all. So I have decided to work on the housing for mid and low income group so that they can stay and serve the city. It’s not only the design strategy but also the complete systematic process so that it can ensure that the end user can afford it. Our country is rich in culture, festivals, history and religion. So the design process should be sophisticated and ingenious to keep it in place. Also in our country still it’s a common scenario that most of the house wives doesn’t add to any income for the family. From my perspective a sustainable design can make that happen too. Thereafter my thesis intends to develop an architectural solution that can revive this city of Dhaka through ideas sustainable for the city and dweller as well as systemize the infrastructure to manipulate their passive income strategy and ensure a healthy communal and social life for them.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / The core objectives of the study are: i)to choose an appropriate methodology to evaluate the performance of public enterprises, such as the sugar mills of Bangladesh; ii) to empirically measure the performance of these mills; iii) to build a model to explain the variation in the performance of these enterprises; iv) to measure managerial performance thereform, adjustment having been made for variables beyond the control of the manager; and v) to recommend measures to improve the performance of the sugar mills. / 2031-01-01

A computer model for use in predicting the impact of various improvement options on command area expansion of a deep tubewell irrigation system has been developed. A field study was conducted on 11 selected deep tubewells located at two sites, namely Dhamrai and Thakurgaon, in Bangladesh to collect necessary physical data to provide irrigation engineering insight and a basis for testing and application of the model. The results of the investigation revealed that the actual discharge of most of the deep tubewells was lower than the design or rated capacity. The duration of pump operation in the majority of the study deep tubewell areas was extremely low. The conveyance losses in all of the study systems were very high. Even though a portion of those losses was reused in the system, particularly in rice growing areas, they caused serious difficulty in delivering water to remote fields, thus, restricting the command area. The overall irrigation efficiencies in all of the wheat growing areas of Thakurgaon were low. Considerable losses and waste of water after it was diverted from the field channels due to lack of leveling and poor water control were mostly responsible for the low efficiencies . Excessive percolation losses due to inadequate puddling of the soils during land preparation and frequent drought conditions resulted from poor distribution of water in some of the rice growing areas of Dhamrai caused relatively low overall irrigation efficiencies. The overall efficiencies of the pumps both driven by diesel engine and electric motor were found to be much lower than the recommended values. The developed model was applied to predict the expected command area under both existing and modified physical conditions. The model predicted command areas were compared with the actual field observed values and necessary adjustments were discussed. The impact of each of the improvement alternatives considered in the study was determined by comparing the predicted command area under the modified conditions with that under the existing physical settings. An economic analysis was performed to determine the cost effectiveness of most of the alternatives. Application of the model in evaluating the farmers' pump operation practices was demonstrated. Use of the model to assist the farmers in planning the command area and delivery schedule was also indicated. Although the model was developed to use in a deep tubewell irrigation system, it can also be used in the system served by a low-lift pump or by a turnout in a large irrigation project.

The primary objective of this thesis is to differentiate between the risk factors for pre-and post-monsoon cholera epidemics in rural Bangladesh by analyzing the complex interaction between select environmental, cultural/behavioral, and socioeconomic variables over space and time. In rural Bangladesh, cholera epidemics correspond with the annual monsoon: the first, and smallest, occurs between March and June, while the larger cholera peak occurs between September and December. The differences between the spatial and temporal patterns of seasonal cholera are analyzed, and the risk factors are calculated for pre-and post-monsoon cholera epidemics. The theoretical approach that underlies this medical geographical study is disease ecology, which espouses that risk of disease is caused by an interaction between people and their environment. This thesis is structured around a holistic understanding that human-environment interactions are inseparable. In Bangladesh, the monsoon season typically starts between May and June. The 1992 and 1993 cholera peaks occurred just before the monsoon in April and March respectively, while the 1994 cholera peak occurred between April and June. In 1992 and 1993 cholera incidence increased in the post-monsoon period, and peaked in October. The 1994 post-monsoon cholera peak occurred in November. There is a regular temporal pattern to cholera, as the peaks followed a seasonal pattern with the smaller epidemic occurring in the pre-monsoon period and the larger epidemic occurring in the post-monsoon period. This study shows that there are different risks associated with pre-monsoon cholera epidemics and post-monsoon cholera epidemics. The two main risk factors associated with cholera incidence pre-monsoon were bari population (i.e., crowding) and a house located within the flood controlled area. These two variables were even more strongly associated with post-monsoon cholera incidence to a greater degree, along with a number of other variables including water use, sanitation practices, and socioeconomic status.

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Bangladesh's ready-made garment industry and its harsh working conditions have been the center of intense scrutiny for the past decade, especially following the massive death tolls of the Tazreen Fashions factory fire in 2012 and the Rana Plaza building collapse in 2013. While lauded by many for its tremendous contributions to the Bangladeshi economy and its employment of primarily women, the garment industry is responsible for causing harm both to the women who work there and the local environment. Women workers are physically and verbally abused in the workplace for little pay, while the factories emit pollutants that contaminate the drinking water in surrounding areas and destroy crops. The global North, while being the main destination for exports from Bangladesh, refuses to intervene in a meaningful way to help the people who supply cheap goods for them, even in spite of highly publicized agreements to help improve factory safety, like the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh. This paper will examine the Bangladeshi garment industry using an ecofeminist lens. Doing so helps to illustrate the various power relations involving gender, capitalism, and the environment that characterize the industry. These axes of power, all stemming from the same mindset of superiority, reinforce one another both ideologically and materially. Seeing how these different issues – including harassment, pollution, crop loss, and forced displacement – are connected will help to determine how to best solve each of these individual issues.

Thesis advisor: Marilyn Cochran-Smith / Changes in climate are being experienced by people globally, and increasingly pushing into school science. Educators struggle to make sense of the critical thinking and agency youth will need to face such changes. To this end climate change curriculum, teaching and learning in schools has garnered significant attention in educational research in the last decade. This is particularly important given that formal education is viewed as an important canvas for building the capacity of young people. However, curriculum materials are mostly understudied and taken for granted. In addition, there is also a paucity of scholarship from the global South with respect to climate change education. To address the need for climate change education as well as inclusion of international perspectives, this dissertation presents an analysis of climate change content in select textbooks and supplementary educational materials from Bangladesh, California & Ghana, and three widely different jurisdictions. Using a cultural politics framework, I explored the following questions related to climate change content in textbooks and supplementary materials: (1) How is climate change portrayed in select official/state approved textbooks (2) How is climate change portrayed in supplementary materials? (3) What are the similarities and differences the textbooks and supplementary materials? Using a classical content analysis approach, I show that the content in all three textbooks acknowledged the contributions of human activity to climate change, for example discussing the primary role of human activity to the warming of the planet. However, there were some distinct differences when it came to discussions around the scientific consensus on climate change. While Bangladesh fully noted the scientific consensus, California presented mixed messaging and Ghana did not reference the scientific consensus at all. The textbooks from the three jurisdictions included local and global climate change impacts and policy solutions. My analysis also showed that the two supplementary materials from the United States used different frames to challenge each other’s messaging. And while Heartland Institute cast doubt on the scientific consensus, the Paleontological Research Institution embraced it. Lastly, the United Nations, as an exemplar of content intended for an international audience, was constructed similar to the textbooks in attempting to balance local and global perspectives on climate policy solutions. Importantly, I argue that textbooks and supplementary materials need to provide robust content that attends to the context-specific complexity of climate change. I discuss cultural influences on climate change education. Finally, I conclude with recommendations for the inclusion of more localized ideas on climate change impact and policies / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2022. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

Despite concerted efforts at agricultural development over many years, millions of people in developing countries still suffer from poverty and under-nutrition. New crop varieties, such as those released during the green revolution in Asia, increased farmers' income and reduced the level of under-nutrition. In recent years, while the speed of the development of conventional breeding technology has slowed, biotechnology has developed rapidly. In 2005, about 8.5 million farmers in 21 countries grew transgenic crops. Transgenic rice has not been commercially released on a large scale, but progress has been made in developing varieties with potential to increase yield and reduce input costs. In this context, this research aims to provide empirical evidence on the potential effects of introducing transgenic rice on farm households' income and nutritional well-being in Bangladesh, including the impacts on their current nutritional status and nutritional vulnerability over time. To this end, two econometric models are constructed and estimated. A farm household model is employed to project farm households' production and consumption responses to introducing improved rice varieties such as transgenic rice. The model estimates the profit effect of introducing transgenic rice. The influence of the profit effect on farmers' consumption decisions is then considered. Due to the ex ante nature of this research and data limitations, the effects of transgenic rice are assumed to be similar to that of previous high yielding varieties (HYVs), and the impact of transgenic rice on farm household profit is assumed to be similar to the effect of the percentage of rice area in HYVs and the yield effect of transgenic rice is the same as HYVs. On the production side, the supply of three outputs- rice, all other crops and animal products- and demand of labor and fertilizer were estimated. On the consumption side, both poor and non-poor households' demand for rice, wheat/other food, pulse, oil, vegetables/fruits, meat/egg/ milk, fish, and spices were estimated. Based on the parameter estimates, the calorie intake and protein intake elasticities with respect to introducing transgenic rice were computed. The results indicate that the total profit elasticity with respect to the percentage of rice area in HYVs is 0.08. The calorie elasticity with respect to the percentage of rice area in HYVs ranges from 0.062 in non-poor to 0.074 in poor households, and the protein elasticity ranges from 0.075 in non-poor to 0.084 in poor households. The results indicate that transgenic rice is likely to play a positive role in improving farm households' nutritional status in terms of total calorie/protein intake. The magnitude, however, is likely to be moderate, if only the profit effect is considered. A consumption forecasting model is used to examine farmers' nutritional vulnerability a probabilistic concept defined as having a high probability now of suffering a shortfall in the future. It is assumed that when exposed to risk, farmers' consumption decisions have already considered their risk coping strategies. The effect of transgenic rice is reflected by its impact on farm income. Farm households' calorie intake in the future (hunger season) was predicted by a multivariate regression function with the logarithmic daily per resident calorie intake as the dependent variable. The independent variables include variables that represent households' income, flood exposure, assets, and demographic composition. Farm households' nutritional vulnerability profiles, based on the estimation of ex ante mean and variance, indicate that vulnerability exists among surveyed rice farm households. The model also predicts that the income increase induced by introducing transgenic rice will reduce each individual household's probability of suffering a future consumption shortfall and subsequently will reduce its vulnerability. The overall vulnerability profile of farm households improves in Bangladesh. / Ph. D.