Engineering and flood risk through a gender lens

Requesting party (en partners):

Instituut voor Water- en Overstromingsbeheer (IWFM) van de Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET)

Consortium partners Q-point:

HKV consortium
Google Earth Engine (GEE)

The involved institutions

Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET)

Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) plays a crucial role in engineering education in Bangladesh. It offers high-quality research and education to more than 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students under five faculties, producing excellent engineers and planners that can work successfully both in Bangladesh and abroad. To focus on research, BUET established the Institute of Water and Flood Management (IWFM), which pursues interdisciplinary research, postgraduate education and capacity development in the field of water and flood Management.

BUET and IWFM

BUET’s overall goal is to contribute to the national policy-making in the area of engineering and technology and, in this way, to enhance socio-economic development of Bangladesh.
BUET’s and IWFM’s goal is to develop professionals in water management and provide expert advisory services. It’s key mission are to promote integrated water resource management by generating and sharing knowledge and expertise through basic and applied research, together with other organizations.

Context

In Bangladesh, gender inequalities still exist and are reflected in the enrolments in (higher) education. BUET is aware that socio-cultural values can act as constraints to gender equity in education. They aim to promote gender equality by encouraging women to pursue engineering careers and set examples for others to follow, by including social perspectives in their education. Bridging disciplines is particularly important in a field like flood risk management where policy decisions are often based on rather technical analyses that do not pay much attention to the specific vulnerabilities that exist at the local level in communities. While both women and men are affected by flood disasters, the burden of coping often falls due to traditional gendered roles onto women’s shoulders.

Project goal and outputs

Approach

Therefore, this project focuses on several areas for improvement among which are the following:

Increasing the inclusion of women in engineering positions and enhancing their skills for the labour market;
Raising awareness among IWFM’s staff and students for the implications of gendered roles for people’s choices, opportunities and vulnerabilities, especially regarding pursuing engineering careers and the impact of floods and other disasters;
Training the staff regarding practical knowledge provision (e.g., case studies, use of relevant software);
Providing education that is inclusive and aligned to the needs of Bangladesh’s water and food security sector;

Final goal

Together with the consortium, we provide training including capacity building in the field of remote sensing for flood risk management and discussions around the topic of gender and flood-induced vulnerabilities. The acquired skills will be beneficial for promoting gender equality as well as for future research and work in the water sector and beyond.
In this way, IWFM empowers women in engineering careers and, at the same time, achieve a great leap forward towards improved flood protection measures and overall water safety in Bangladesh. These skills can then be beneficially utilized and further developed in a wide range of associated areas in the fields of water management, climate change adaptation and agriculture which are key to a prosperous future of Bangladesh.