Change in Housing Structure to Cope with Natural Hazards: A Statistical Analysis from Indian Sundarban

Abstract

Deltas are always being favourite destination for human due to rich biodiversity and abundant resources yet at the same time; they are highly vulnerable to the impacts of natural hazards. Despite their proneness to hazards, coastal people make relentless efforts to cope with severe impacts through ageold indigenous knowledge and practices. Dwelling structures are directly being influenced by extreme events. The purpose of this study is to assess the association between natural hazards and housing pattern to combat extreme consequences in the islands of Indian Sundarban Delta (ISD). The western boundary of the ISD is the major focus of this study specifically Sagar, Ghoramara and Mousani Islands which are prone to regular occurrence of erosion, cyclone, storm surges, saline water inundation and flooding. This study attempts to estimate the influence of particular hazard on the housing structure by means of multinomial regression using collected primary survey data from randomly selected households within these islands.