ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the role of anthropology in adapting to sea-level rise in Southwestern Bangladesh. It proposes to establish the conceptual credentials and assemble the appropriate toolkit needed to understand how changes in the natural system will revise current terms of engagement at the level of communities and households. More significantly, however, the rise in sea level in the northern Bay of Bengal combined with warmer sea surface temperatures will likely result in more severe storm and cyclone activity with accompanying high water extremes, surges and salt intrusion. In the case of the beel systems of coastal Bangladesh, anthropology can assess the distribution of local resource access, use and livelihood profiles, identify institutional relationships that link communities to broader systems, and facilitate the process of local resource management and problem solving. Sea-level rise will likely result in a much larger volume of saline water moving into the canals that feed the beel hydrology, contaminating water resources and eroding gher embankments.
