Use of ICT for adaptation to climate change

Mango buds, honeysuckle and muster-flower are blooming earlier in the winter. Foggy days are longer than in the past and northern part of Bangladesh is no more cooler. Cyclone and flood are becoming common and frequent every year. These are indications of a warming climate.
The Bangladesh is particularly vulnerable to the sea level rise (SLR) on account of its low-lying deltaic topography. The total area of the coastal belt is about 39,300 sqkm (27 percent of the country's total area), and more than 29 million people (22 percent of the national population) live in this vulnerable area. Climate change may influence erosion, accretion, floods, water logging, cyclones and tidal surges in the coastal region.
Sea levels rise because warmer water takes up more room than colder water, a process known as thermal expansion. Melting glaciers compound the problem by dumping even more fresh water into the oceans. Rising seas threaten to inundate low-lying areas and islands, threaten coastal populations, damage property and destroy ecosystems such as mangroves that protect coasts against storms and wetlands. Sea levels have risen between four and eight inches in the past 100 years. Current projections suggest that sea levels could continue to rise between 4 inches and 36 inches within the next 100 years. A 36-inch increase in sea levels would swamp all low-lying areas and islands around the globe including southern Bangladesh and also every city on the east coast of the United States, from Miami to Boston.
Sea level rise associated with other effects of climate change could displace tens of millions of people in low-lying areas -- especially in developing countries. Inhabitants of some small island countries that rest barely above the existing sea level are already planning to abandon their islands, some of the world's first climate change refugees.
Unfortunately, however, it is precisely this topography that makes Bangladesh particularly vulnerable to the effects of global climate change. If these environmental effects converge with the country's high population and widespread poverty, they will create a perfect storm of disaster.
Even if greenhouse gas emissions were to stop today, scientists believe that warming already underway will cause seas to rise two inches over the next century. If nothing is done to curb emissions, sea levels could climb more than three feet. If this happens, 15% of Bangladesh could be under water. The mangrove forests of the low-lying Sundarbans, a world heritage site, as well as its Bengal tiger and hundreds of bird species may disappear.
Mounting sea levels and loss of land will also create human disasters and dilemmas. Where will the tens of millions of internally displaced people go and how will they live? What will they drink when salt water contaminates fresh water supplies? Who will provide health care to combat the diseases that are sure to spread?
Bangladesh's food supply is already threatened by flooding due to melting glaciers in some areas and droughts due to heat in others. Moreover, the typhoons and monsoons that routinely pummel Bangladesh are intensifying because of climate change. Life in Bangladesh is already harsh. In an overpopulated Earth, millions of people may have no choice but to live on the fringes of habitable environments. This in turn can severely increase the human toll of environmental disasters.

ICT's contribution and mitigation
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have a critical role to play in combating climate change through the reduction of global green house gas (GHG) emissions. The increased use of ICTs contributes to global warming -- millions of television sets and computers are never fully turned off at night in homes and offices. But ICTs can also be a key part of the solution, because of the role they play in monitoring, mitigating and adapting to climate change.
The ICT sector itself (in this definition, telecommunications, computing and the internet, but excluding broadcasting) contributes around 2 to 2.5 percent of GHG, at just under one Gigatonne of CO2 equivalent. The main constituent (40 percent) of this is the energy requirements of personal computers and data monitors, with data centres contributing a further 23 percent. Fixed and mobile telecommunications contribute an estimated 24 percent of the total.
International Telecommunications Union (ITU) working in this area focuses on the use of ICTs (including weather satellites, radio and telecommunication technologies) in weather forecasting, climate monitoring and predicting, detecting and mitigating the effects of natural disasters.
Another important way in which ICTs can respond to climate change is in the area of disaster prevention and relief. In Bangladesh we can promote the use of telecommunications/ICT for disaster prevention and disaster relief. In many cases when disaster strikes, the 'wired' telecommunication infrastructure is significantly or completely destroyed and only radio communication services can be used for disaster relief operations -- especially radio amateurs and satellite systems. We had tremendous experiences during Cyclone Sidr (November 15, 2007) that Radio and Cell phone were engaged in direct missions to help affected people.
We can work in this field with standardisation of call priority in emergency situations, for example Recommendation E.106 on the International Emergency Preference System for disaster relief. ITU-T has also assigned a special E.164 country code (888) to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) for the purpose of facilitating the provision of an international system of naming and addressing terminals involved in disaster relief activities.

Adaptation
It is a high time to create enabling conditions in Bangladesh for promoting adaptation to climate change and climate variability in national policies and plans and also to create awareness of the phenomenon at the local community level with special focus on the residents of the north, south and eastern areas.
The impact of global warming on the world's climate will continue, even if the level of GHG emissions is stabilised. Further, the impact is likely to be highly uneven. With low-lying coastal areas (such as small islands states, the Bangladesh delta and the Netherland) at risk because of rising sea levels and food insecurity, health hazards, growing number of environmental refugees, and increased pressure on sources of fresh water and vulnerable ecosystems, adaptation to climate change is a key necessity for us and the global community at large.

Conclusion
The government alone cannot address the response measures to adaptation of ICTs for mitigation of climate change impact in Bangladesh. The civil societies, NGOs, local communities will have to be sensitised and prepared to work with the government agencies. Public awareness, education and training will be most critical tool to involve all sections of the public in the process.
Funding can be realised for capacity building and other measures, which will help implement parts of the national development plan. It will require the human resources development in ICT sector. The Ministry of Science and Technology can take the lead.

Dr. Shahriar Hossain is an ecologist and environmental journalist.