The research team, led by Nusrat Jahan with colleagues including Abdul Muqit, Md. Monirul Islam, Md. Mostafizur Rahman Sabim and Abdullah Al Kafi, set out to answer a deceptively simple question: which diseases dominate bush bean fields in Sylhet, how severe are they, and do different varieties respond differently? They compared two genotypes during the Rabi season of 2022–2023: BARI Bush Bean-1, a variety released by the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, and a local line whose seed is commonly saved or purchased in local markets. The trials were conducted in pots under a complete randomized design with three replications, each replication comprising eight pots and sixteen plants, with disease observations recorded at seven-day intervals for sixty days after transplanting.

Three diseases emerged as the dominant threats. Anthracnose, caused by the fungus Colletotrichum lindemuthianum, announced itself through dark, sunken circular lesions on pods and stems. Alternaria leaf spot, driven by Alternaria alternata, produced round brown spots with concentric rings, often ringed by yellow halos, that could coalesce into large necrotic patches. Common bacterial blight, attributed to Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. phaseoli, began as tiny water-soaked spots or pale green areas on leaves that enlarged into brown necrotic lesions with a characteristic lemon-yellow halo. The fungal pathogens were confirmed through laboratory isolation on potato dextrose agar and microscopic examination of hyphae, conidiophores, conidia and acervuli, while the bacterial disease was diagnosed on the basis of its distinctive field symptoms.

The numbers revealed a consistent pattern: the local variety was substantially more susceptible across the board. Common bacterial blight showed the highest incidence, reaching 50 percent in BARI Bush Bean-1 but 70 percent in the local line. Anthracnose incidence climbed to 33 percent in the released variety versus 58 percent in the local one, and Alternaria leaf spot was the most dramatic contrast of all, at roughly 29 percent in BARI Bush Bean-1 against nearly 71 percent in the local variety. Disease severity ranged from about 17 to 30 percent depending on the disease and variety. Statistical analysis using a binomial generalized linear mixed-effects model for incidence and a cumulative link mixed-effects model for ordinal severity scores confirmed that variety had a significant effect in most cases, with analysis of variance showing, for example, a highly significant variety effect on Alternaria leaf spot incidence (F = 50.00, p = 0.0021).

Timing mattered as much as magnitude. The researchers tracked when each epidemic began and peaked. Alternaria leaf spot appeared earliest, initiating just fourteen days after transplanting and peaking at forty-two days, a rapid onset that the authors suggest may reflect seed-borne inoculum or swift colonization under favorable microclimatic conditions. Common bacterial blight began at twenty-eight days and peaked at fifty-six days, while anthracnose was the latest starter, appearing at thirty-five days and reaching its maximum at sixty-three days. In every case, the local variety showed both a higher peak and a steeper climb, reaching incidences as high as 70.8 percent for Alternaria leaf spot compared with 29.16 percent in the improved variety at the same time point.

To capture the full trajectory of each epidemic rather than just its peak, the team calculated the area under the disease progress curve, or AUDPC, a standard epidemiological metric that integrates disease intensity over time. Higher AUDPC values indicate not only more severe outbreaks but also more prolonged disease pressure, which is often more damaging to final yield than a short, sharp peak. For BARI Bush Bean-1, AUDPC values were 513.31 for anthracnose, 605.26 for Alternaria leaf spot and 626.50 for bacterial blight. For the local variety, the corresponding values were dramatically higher: 838.26, 860.85 and 887.1 respectively. By this measure, common bacterial blight proved the most virulent disease overall, followed by Alternaria leaf spot and then anthracnose.

The laboratory work added important diagnostic detail. Colletotrichum lindemuthianum colonies grown on potato dextrose agar developed a white, creamy, cottony appearance after three to six days of incubation at 25 degrees Celsius, with septate, branched hyphae and unicellular, hyaline, curved conidia borne on cushion-shaped acervuli studded with dark brown setae. Alternaria alternata colonies started white and turned brown, producing septate, unbranched conidiophores and single ellipsoidal conidia that generated germ tubes characteristic of dictyospores. Both fungi sporulated optimally at 25 degrees Celsius and a pH between 6.5 and 7.0. These morphological profiles, matched against standard identification keys, anchored the field observations to named pathogens.

Why does the local line fare so badly? The authors point to inherent genetic variability in host resistance. BARI Bush Bean-1 likely carries partial resistance traits, which may include structural barriers that reduce pathogen penetration and enhanced biochemical defenses such as the production of phenolic compounds and pathogenesis-related proteins. The local variety, by contrast, appears to lack or weakly express these mechanisms, leaving it vulnerable to rapid pathogen spread. The finding has practical consequences beyond plant physiology: farmers who save or purchase unimproved seed are effectively cultivating susceptibility, raising the risk of epidemic outbreaks and larger yield losses in smallholder systems. Because Xanthomonas species are seed-borne and can persist on contaminated seed lots, seed health emerges as a critical control point, reinforcing the case for certified clean seed and seed-treatment methods.

Sylhet’s agro-ecology amplifies every one of these risks. The region receives roughly 5,048 millimeters of annual rainfall with an average temperature of 23.6 degrees Celsius, and its sandy loam soils are acidic, with pH values between 4.9 and 6.1. Frequent rainfall and prolonged leaf wetness facilitate spore germination, bacterial multiplication and infection, while high humidity simultaneously enhances pathogen survival and can weaken plant defense responses. Globally, fungal pathogens cause the greatest losses in common bean, followed by bacterial and viral infections, and anthracnose alone has been reported to cause up to 100 percent crop damage in susceptible lines under favorable conditions. The Sylhet data align with this broader picture while adding region-specific quantitative evidence that had been missing.

The authors are candid about the study’s limitations. Bacterial blight was diagnosed primarily on symptoms and colony appearance, without molecular confirmation by PCR or pathogenicity testing, so precise species-level determination remains outstanding. The trials covered a single growing season at one location, and only two varieties were tested, which narrows the scope of inference about varietal resistance. Still, the work establishes an essential baseline: anthracnose, Alternaria leaf spot and common bacterial blight are the principal diseases of bush bean in Sylhet, and the local cultivar is consistently the more vulnerable of the two genotypes examined. The researchers call for follow-up experiments in farmers’ fields, molecular pathogen characterization, wider geographic sampling and evaluation of control measures. For a crop with genuine export potential and a growing role in Bangladesh’s food security, converting this epidemiological baseline into integrated disease management, resistant breeding lines and clean seed systems may determine whether Sylhet’s bush bean boom flourishes or withers under pathogen pressure.

Subject of Research: Disease incidence, severity and epidemiology of major bush bean pathogens in Sylhet, Bangladesh

Article Title: Disease incidence, severity, and AUDPC-based evaluation of two bush bean varieties

Article References: Jahan, N., Muqit, A., Islam, M. M., Sabim, M. M. R., & Kafi, A. A. (2026). Disease incidence, severity, and AUDPC-based evaluation of two bush bean varieties. Discover Plants, 3(1), Article 459. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44372-026-00944-y

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s44372-026-00944-y

Keywords: bush bean, Phaseolus vulgaris, anthracnose, Colletotrichum lindemuthianum, Alternaria leaf spot, common bacterial blight, Xanthomonas, AUDPC, plant pathology, disease resistance, Bangladesh, Sylhet

The team set out to answer a deceptively simple question: how much of the cadmium, lead, nickel, zinc, copper, chromium, iron, and manganese found in peri-urban soils around Sylhet ends up in the edible parts of the vegetables grown there, and what does that mean for the people who eat them? To find out, the researchers collected a total of 60 composite soil and vegetable samples from 21 locations surrounding the city during the Rabi season, the dry winter cropping period running from January to March 2024. Sampling during a single, well-defined season helps ensure that the measurements reflect comparable growing and harvesting conditions across all sites, reducing the confounding effects of monsoon-driven dilution or flooding that complicate studies in tropical climates.

Once back in the laboratory, the samples were analyzed using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, or ICP-MS, a technique widely regarded as the gold standard for trace element analysis. The method works by ionizing the sample in an extremely hot plasma torch, typically exceeding temperatures of several thousand degrees Celsius, and then separating and detecting the resulting ions according to their mass-to-charge ratio. This allows scientists to quantify metals at concentrations down to parts per billion or even lower, a level of sensitivity that is essential when dealing with elements like cadmium and lead, which are toxic to humans even at very low doses. The precision of ICP-MS matters here because the entire risk assessment hinges on small differences in concentration between sites and between crop types.

The results revealed a clear hierarchy of contamination. In both the soils and the vegetables, iron and manganese were the predominant metals, which is not unexpected given that both elements are abundant in the Earth’s crust and are natural constituents of most soils. At the opposite end of the spectrum, cadmium and lead occurred at the lowest concentrations. That pattern might sound reassuring, but the study’s most striking findings concern exactly these two scarce but dangerous elements, because their toxicity per unit of exposure is far higher than that of the more abundant metals. Low concentration does not mean low risk when the element in question is cadmium, a metal classified as a human carcinogen and a known cause of kidney damage and bone disease with chronic exposure.

To gauge how effectively each metal moves from soil into plant tissue, the researchers calculated the bioconcentration factor, or BCF, a dimensionless ratio obtained by dividing the concentration of a metal in the vegetable by its concentration in the corresponding soil. A BCF value above 1 means the plant has accumulated more of the metal than is present in the soil it grew in, a red flag for bioaccumulation. In the Sylhet study, cadmium BCF values exceeded 1 at three of the 21 sampling locations, reaching as high as 5.8. In practical terms, that means the vegetables at those sites contained nearly six times the cadmium concentration of their surrounding soil, a signal that something in the local soil chemistry, such as low pH or high organic matter, may be rendering cadmium unusually available for plant uptake. Copper, an essential micronutrient that becomes harmful in excess, showed a BCF greater than 1 at one location as well.

Among the vegetables investigated, brinjal, known internationally as eggplant and botanically as Solanum melongena, showed the highest accumulation capacity. This finding carries particular weight in Bangladesh, where brinjal is one of the most widely consumed and culturally central vegetables, appearing in countless daily dishes. The solanaceous crops, which include eggplant, tomato, and potato, are known from prior research to be relatively efficient at taking up metals from soil, and the Sylhet results are consistent with that broader pattern. For consumers who buy their brinjal from fields on the urban fringe, the study suggests that crop choice itself can meaningfully influence dietary exposure to heavy metals.

The heart of the study lies in its health risk assessment, which translated measured concentrations into estimates of potential harm. Using standard risk assessment frameworks originally developed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the researchers computed a hazard index for each vegetable at each site. The hazard index sums the ratios of estimated daily intake to reference doses across all metals, effectively asking whether the combined, additive exposure from a vegetable exceeds the level considered safe for a lifetime of consumption. A hazard index above 1 signals a potential non-carcinogenic health risk, meaning harm that does not involve cancer, such as damage to the kidneys, nervous system, bones, or cardiovascular system from chronic exposure.

The numbers were sobering. Hazard index values across the sampled vegetables and sites ranged from 0.44 to 2.02, and at seven of the 21 sampling sites the index exceeded the safety threshold of 1. The highest values were recorded in cabbage, which reached a hazard index of 2.02, followed by red amaranth at 1.89, with tomato and gourd samples from specific locations also showing elevated values. Red amaranth, a leafy green staple in Bengali cuisine, is particularly prone to accumulating metals in its leaves, and leafy vegetables generally show higher transfer factors than fruiting or root vegetables because of their large above-ground biomass and high transpiration rates. A hazard index of roughly 2 means the estimated combined exposure at that site is about double the safe reference level, a margin that could translate into real health consequences for people who eat locally grown vegetables over many years.

The authors attribute the contamination to a familiar trio of pressures: rapid industrialization, urban expansion, and inadequate waste management in the peri-urban belt around Sylhet city. As cities like Sylhet sprawl outward, agricultural land increasingly abuts workshops, brick kilns, roads, and informal waste dumps, all of which can release metals into soil through atmospheric deposition, contaminated irrigation water, and direct disposal. Previous studies in Bangladesh and neighboring regions have documented similar patterns, from wastewater-irrigated fields near Dhaka to industrial zones in Pakistan and India, but the Sylhet study fills an important gap because information on soil-to-crop metal transfer and associated health risks in this specific, fast-developing region had remained limited until now.

The study’s conclusions point toward two practical imperatives. First, the researchers call for regular heavy metal monitoring in the soils and vegetables of the Sylhet peri-urban area, so that contamination hotspots can be identified before they become entrenched and so that consumers and farmers have accurate information about the food they grow and eat. Second, they emphasize the need for better soil management, which could include measures to alter soil chemistry in ways that reduce metal availability to plants, crop selection strategies that favor low-accumulating species in the most contaminated sites, and stricter controls on the industrial and municipal waste streams that feed the contamination in the first place. For the residents of Sylhet’s urban fringe who depend on locally grown vegetables, the message of the study is not alarm but attention: the risk is cumulative, it is measurable, and with sustained monitoring and improved soil stewardship, it is manageable.

Subject of Research: Heavy metal contamination of peri-urban agricultural soils and vegetables and associated human health risks in Sylhet, Bangladesh

Article Title: Heavy metal contamination in soil and vegetables: a health risk assessment from urban areas of Sylhet, Bangladesh

Article References: Talukder, R., Mandal, P., Shaon, A. H., Tasnim, J., Hur, D., Swarna, S. A., Hamal, H., & Singha, A. (2026). Heavy metal contamination in soil and vegetables: a health risk assessment from urban areas of Sylhet, Bangladesh. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 198(11), Article 1168. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-026-15996-6

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s10661-026-15996-6

Keywords: heavy metals, soil contamination, vegetables, food safety, health risk assessment, bioconcentration factor, hazard index, cadmium, Sylhet, Bangladesh, urbanization, ICP-MS

The research team, led by Shah Usama Hasan and Md. Shahoriar Sarker of the Department of Disaster Science and Climate Resilience, together with Shah Md Shajib Hossain of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department in Sylhet, combined three complementary lines of evidence. They analyzed climatological records, administered structured household questionnaires, and organized Focus Group Discussions to capture how local people identify hazards, perceive seasonal variability, and prioritize evolving risks. The survey covered 200 household representatives across the study unions, with men making up 77 percent of respondents and women 23 percent, reflecting the gender composition of those available and willing to participate in household-level interviews.

To move beyond perception alone, the researchers applied two established hazard-evaluation frameworks. The first was the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, framework, which assesses hazards according to criteria such as probability, impact, and the spatial extent of potential damage. The second was the SMUG model, which scores each hazard on four dimensions: Seriousness, Manageability, Urgency, and Growth. Both models are widely used in disaster risk reduction practice because they convert qualitative judgments into comparable quantitative rankings, allowing planners to allocate limited resources to the threats that matter most. Notably, the results derived from the FEMA and SMUG assessments showed strong consistency with the community’s own perceptions, a convergence that strengthens confidence in the hailstorm finding.

The technical core of the study examined cloud formation patterns and hailstorm frequency across the Sylhet region to characterize the physical basis of the risk. Hailstorms develop in severe convective storms where strong updrafts repeatedly lift supercooled water droplets above the freezing level, allowing ice layers to accumulate until the hailstone’s weight overcomes the updraft. The pre-monsoon months in northeastern Bangladesh provide favorable conditions for this process: intense surface heating, abundant moisture from the nearby wetlands and the Surma River basin, and orographic influences from the neighboring Meghalaya plateau that can enhance atmospheric instability. The authors analyzed these cloud formation patterns alongside historical hailstorm occurrence to assess how the regional risk is evolving.

The consequences on the ground have been severe. News reports cited in the study document hailstorms hammering Sylhet and Golapganj in early April 2024, with storms damaging roughly 1,000 houses in Golapganj alone. For a rural economy built on agriculture, the timing and intensity of hail events matter enormously. Hail can shred rice paddies, destroy vegetable crops, and damage fragile roofing structures within minutes, and the losses ripple through household incomes and food security. Previous research from northern Bangladesh has documented how rapidly emerging hailstorms pose a potential threat to sustainable agriculture among smallholder farmers, and the new study suggests the northeastern region is following a similar trajectory.

What makes the study distinctive is its integration of institutional assessment with lived experience. The researchers found that community members were not simply reacting to the most recent disaster; their hazard prioritization reflected a genuine shift in the local risk landscape. Hailstorms, once considered a secondary concern compared with the region’s chronic flood exposure, have become the hazard residents fear most for settlement safety and agricultural sustainability. This reordering of priorities carries practical implications, because disaster management strategies in Bangladesh have historically been organized around flood and cyclone preparedness, with early warning systems, shelters, and relief mechanisms tailored to slow-onset and forecastable events rather than sudden convective storms.

The study identifies institutional response gaps as a key part of the problem. Hailstorms strike with little warning, typically lasting minutes, which makes evacuation and protective action difficult even when forecasts are available. Unlike riverine floods, which unfold over days and allow staged responses, hail events demand rapid, localized mitigation such as hail nets for high-value crops, reinforced roofing, and community-level warning dissemination through mobile networks. The authors argue that these sector-specific vulnerabilities, combined with climatological trends and the documented gaps in institutional response, justify recognizing hailstorms as a priority hazard in northeastern Bangladesh rather than an occasional footnote in national disaster planning.

The broader context reinforces the urgency. Bangladesh is consistently ranked among the most disaster-prone countries in the world, and climate change is expected to intensify extreme convective weather across South Asia. Regional studies of cloud characteristics during the Indian summer monsoon, along with climatological analyses of hail in other parts of Asia, indicate that understanding the behavior of deep convective systems is essential for anticipating future hail risk. In Bangladesh specifically, researchers have begun mapping housing vulnerability to hailstorms as a decision-support tool for disaster risk reduction, signaling a growing recognition that the built environment must be adapted to a hazard that national frameworks have largely overlooked.

The methodological approach of the new study offers a template for other hazard-exposed regions. By triangulating household surveys, focus group discussions, and formal risk-scoring models, the researchers demonstrated that community perception and quantitative assessment can reinforce rather than contradict each other. This alignment matters because risk communication is most effective when official warnings match what residents already experience. Where communities perceive a hazard that institutions ignore, preparedness suffers; where institutions prioritize hazards that communities discount, resources are wasted. The Golapganj case shows both frameworks converging on the same conclusion, giving planners an unusually clear mandate.

The authors conclude that integrating hailstorm risk mitigation into regional planning and disaster management strategies is now essential to enhance community resilience and protect agricultural sustainability in northeastern Bangladesh. That integration, they suggest, should span improved climatological monitoring of convective storm development, targeted structural measures for housing and crops, and disaster management protocols that treat hailstorms with the same seriousness long reserved for floods and cyclones. As climate patterns continue to shift, the study stands as a reminder that hazard landscapes are not static: the disaster that defines a region’s future may not be the one that defined its past, and listening to the people who live with that risk is the first step toward managing it.

Subject of Research: Community risk perception and hazard prioritization of emerging hailstorm hazards in northeastern Bangladesh

Article Title: Emerging hailstorm hazards in Northeastern Bangladesh: integrating recent impacts and community perception

Article References: Hasan, S. U., Sarker, M. S., & Hossain, S. M. S. (2026). Emerging hailstorm hazards in Northeastern Bangladesh: integrating recent impacts and community perception. Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 157(10), Article 612. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-026-06556-6

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s00704-026-06556-6

Keywords: hailstorms, Bangladesh, Sylhet, risk perception, hazard prioritization, FEMA framework, SMUG model, climate change, agriculture, disaster risk reduction, community-based assessment, convective storms

The study rests on an integrated theoretical framework combining three established models. The Job Demands–Resources model explains how excessive workloads, environmental hazards, and psychological strain erode well-being when they are not balanced by adequate resources such as protective equipment, supervision, and social support. Reason’s Accident Causation Theory contributes the distinction between latent failures, which are systemic weaknesses embedded in organizational processes, and active failures, the unsafe acts committed by frontline workers. Human Capital Theory completes the picture by framing education, training, and skill acquisition as determinants of productivity and safety. Together, these lenses allowed the researchers to trace how structural conditions, managerial decisions, and worker capacities interacted to produce harm during the crisis.

On the physical health front, the interviews documented a striking rise in respiratory illnesses, including asthma, shortness of breath, and chest congestion, which participants linked to the absence of personal protective equipment, overcrowded sites, viral exposure, and environmental pollution. Workers with pre-existing conditions were hit hardest. One asthmatic worker described having to continue living in a tent on site to support his family, which worsened his condition. Skin diseases such as itching, eczema, and infections also surged, attributed to frequent contact with unclean tools and limited access to safe water. Notably, the study captured a sharp divergence in accountability: building owners held contractors responsible for worker protection, while contractors framed the illnesses as natural phenomena or the result of workers’ own poor hygiene practices, and a government official acknowledged that Bangladesh lacks a comprehensive occupational health framework tailored to construction, with no standardized injury reporting or emergency response protocols.

Mental health emerged as a second, less visible casualty. Fear of infection combined with income uncertainty imposed by movement restrictions created profound psychological strain. The researchers found that socioeconomic position shaped behavioral responses: some workers from relatively well-off families simply stopped working to protect themselves, while those without savings faced an agonizing choice between infection risk and family survival. One worker recounted being penniless during the pandemic and continuing to work despite fear and uncertainty because stopping meant no income for his family. This psychosocial tension, the authors argue, represents a persistent dilemma for informal laborers whose livelihoods depend on daily physical presence at hazardous sites.

Environmental conditions at the worksites compounded these risks. Participants described unsanitary sites lacking adequate water and soap, makeshift tents that were dirty and overcrowded, and waste scattered across working areas. Weak site organization and poor management amplified the hazards. Yet even here, narratives diverged: one contractor insisted that soap and water had been provided at every site under his contract, blaming workers’ lackadaisical attitudes for non-compliance, while workers pointed to the absence of basic facilities. The researchers interpret this gap between managerial claims and worker experience as evidence of both weak enforcement and uneven adherence, mediated by limited education and awareness.

Workforce management failures formed the study’s second major theme. Contractors, who often serve as the sole authority on Bangladeshi construction sites, were frequently absent during the pandemic. Their absence produced disorganization, communication gaps, and neglected site maintenance, with debris left scattered and workers receiving no clear guidelines or schedules. In the power vacuum, older workers, those with higher education, and relatives of contractors assumed informal supervisory roles, pressuring colleagues to complete tasks quickly to demonstrate performance to the contractors rather than to protect health and safety. Compliance with protective measures proved almost entirely externally driven: workers reported wearing masks and gloves only when the contractor or site owner visited, focusing otherwise on finishing quickly to secure their daily wage.

The pandemic also fractured schedules and supply chains. Lockdowns, transportation restrictions, and shop closures disrupted the delivery of construction materials, while contractors’ absences left workers uncertain about their next tasks and procedures. Irregular working hours, sometimes beginning before 9 a.m. or extending past 5 p.m. without consultation, spilled over into workers’ family lives and mental health. Building owners reported difficulties paying wages and meeting financial obligations to suppliers and subcontractors as cash flow constraints intensified. The study links these operational breakdowns directly to increased occupational risk, arguing that role ambiguity and disorganized activity translated managerial inefficiency into physical danger.

Perhaps the most culturally distinctive finding concerns religious belief. Many workers interpreted COVID-19 as a curse from Allah, a consequence of human sins that would affect only the guilty, and believed that ultimate protection came from God rather than human intervention. While such beliefs provided psychological comfort, they often reduced adherence to preventive measures. One building owner described advising a worker to refit a mask that had slipped beneath his lip; the worker refused, stating that infection happens according to Allah’s will. The authors emphasize that these fatalistic interpretations, particularly common among workers with limited literacy, underscore the need for health education that is culturally sensitive rather than dismissive of religious context.

Skill development, the third theme, revealed a structural failure long predating the pandemic. Formal training programs and vocational certification schemes for construction workers in Bangladesh remain limited, and most workers enter the trade without task-specific competencies in plastering, bricklaying, handling sharp tools, or working at heights. Skills are instead acquired through informal mechanisms: learning from mistakes, observation, peer mentoring, and occasional safety meetings held by contractors. One worker described progressing from material bearer to plasterer over nine years of gradual development, while noting that many newcomers lose their jobs before achieving proficiency. The pandemic severed these fragile learning pathways, as lockdowns and social distancing ended safety discussions and reduced contact with experienced workers, leaving novices confused, error-prone, and unsafe.

The study’s integrative contribution lies in showing how these three domains reinforce one another. Limited skills made workers unable to understand or apply pandemic protocols, such as physical distancing or sanitizing shared tools, while managerial absence removed the guidance that might have compensated. The result was slower task completion, repeated errors, interrupted workflows, and reduced productivity, alongside heightened infection and injury risk. The authors propose a multi-level response: strict enforcement of the Bangladesh National Building Code, institutionalized safety audits, mandatory contingency planning with risk financing and insurance, continuous site-level supervision with quality protective equipment and digital communication tools, structured competency-based vocational training, and community-based mental health services and awareness campaigns delivered by NGOs and labor organizations. They acknowledge limitations, including the regional focus on Sylhet, purposive sampling, and self-reported data, and call for mixed-methods and post-pandemic research. But their central conclusion stands: the pandemic exposed how structural, managerial, educational, and cultural factors interact to produce occupational vulnerability, and only coordinated, evidence-informed action across all of them can build a resilient construction workforce in Bangladesh.

Subject of Research: Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on occupational health, workforce management, and skill development among construction workers in Bangladesh

Article Title: Impacts of COVID-19 on occupational health, workforce management, and skill development in the construction sector in Bangladesh

Article References: Ahmad, I., & Hossain, M. I. (2026). Impacts of COVID-19 on occupational health, workforce management, and skill development in the construction sector in Bangladesh. Discover Social Science and Health, 6(1), Article 94. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44155-026-00426-2

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s44155-026-00426-2

Keywords: COVID-19, construction industry, occupational health, Bangladesh, workforce management, skill development, informal workers, mental health, workplace safety, qualitative research, Sylhet, labor informality

The research, carried out by Muqit Ajmain Shahriyar of the Department of Geology and Mining at the University of Rajshahi, pits two established techniques against each other across the same landscape. The first is Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Analysis, or PSHA, the quantitative backbone of modern building codes worldwide. PSHA treats earthquakes as a statistical problem: it combines a catalogue of past events, a recurrence relationship describing how often quakes of each size occur, and an equation predicting how strongly the ground will shake at a given distance from a rupture. The second approach is the Analytic Hierarchy Process, or AHP, a multi-criteria decision-making method that weighs contributing factors, such as fault proximity and geological conditions, against one another to produce a susceptibility ranking. Because the two methods rest on entirely different assumptions, agreement between them carries real weight.

The probabilistic half of the study was built on a grid-based framework covering the entire corridor from Sylhet to the Chittagong hill districts. Shahriyar compiled a regional earthquake catalogue and fitted it with a Gutenberg-Richter recurrence analysis, the classic logarithmic relationship that links the frequency of earthquakes to their magnitude. Ground shaking was then estimated using the Ground Motion Prediction Equation developed by Sharma and colleagues in 2009, which draws on strong-motion data from the Himalayan and Zagros regions, tectonic environments broadly comparable to Bangladesh’s. The analysis was run for two standard hazard levels: a 10 percent probability of exceedance in 50 years, corresponding to a return period of roughly 475 years, and a more stringent 2 percent probability, corresponding to roughly 2,475 years, the level typically used for critical infrastructure design.

The numbers that emerged are striking. At the 475-year return period, predicted peak ground acceleration values range from 0.084 g to 1.53 g across the study area, where g is the acceleration due to gravity. At the 2,475-year level, the range widens to between 0.10 g and 1.89 g. For context, shaking above roughly 0.2 g is generally strong enough to cause damage to vulnerable buildings, and values approaching 1 g and beyond imply violent ground motion capable of devastating even well-constructed structures. The upper end of these estimates is concentrated in a specific location: Barkal Upazila in Rangamati District, in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, emerges from the PSHA as the single highest seismic hazard zone in the entire study corridor.

Barkal does not stand alone. The probabilistic maps also flag elevated hazard across surrounding parts of Rangamati, as well as in Chandpur, Cumilla, Sylhet, and Moulavibazar. This spatial pattern reflects the geometry of the underlying fault systems, particularly the active structures of the Tripura Fold Belt and the Chittagong-Tripura Boundary Fault, which thread through the region and accumulate strain as the plates continue their slow collision. The hazard values are not predictions of when an earthquake will strike, but statements about the level of shaking that has a defined probability of being exceeded within a given window of time, a distinction that matters greatly for engineers and planners who must translate the numbers into design requirements.

The second half of the study took a different route to the same question. Using the Analytic Hierarchy Process, first formalized by mathematician Thomas Saaty in the 1970s, the assessment assigned relative weights to the factors that control seismic susceptibility and combined them into a single index for each location. The AHP-based susceptibility map shows a distribution that is broadly comparable to the PSHA result but with subtle differences in where the highest categories fall. In this model, high-susceptibility zones cluster in parts of Sylhet, Sunamganj, Moulavibazar, Feni, Cumilla, and Chittagong. The differences between the two maps are instructive: PSHA is driven primarily by earthquake recurrence and ground-motion physics, while AHP responds to the weighted combination of susceptibility criteria, so each method illuminates aspects of the hazard picture the other may understate.

Where the two approaches overlap is where the findings become most consequential. Sylhet, Moulvibazar, Sunamganj, Chandpur, Cumilla, Rangamati, and Chittagong are all identified as areas of elevated seismic potential by both methods independently. That convergence is significant because these are not empty hinterlands. Sylhet and Chittagong are major urban centers with rapidly growing populations and building stocks of widely varying quality, and the intervening districts contain millions of residents. When two techniques with different theoretical foundations point to the same places, the case for prioritizing those areas in seismic risk mitigation and land-use planning becomes difficult to ignore.

The study arrives at a moment when Bangladesh’s seismic exposure is drawing increasing scientific attention. Previous work has applied the Gutenberg-Richter relationship and spectral analysis to national seismicity, updated probabilistic hazard assessments for the country as a whole, and used GIS-based AHP methods to assess earthquake risk in other tectonically active regions, such as Bitlis Province in Türkiye. The comparative approach taken here adds a layer of robustness that single-method studies cannot provide. It also highlights a practical challenge for a country whose building codes have been revised to address geotechnical earthquake engineering concerns: hazard maps are only useful if they are trusted, and demonstrating that independent methods converge on the same high-risk zones helps build that trust among the officials who must act on them.

For residents of the region, the practical message is that the earthquake threat is not evenly distributed, and the areas of greatest concern are now mapped with two independent lines of evidence. The highest modeled shaking, approaching 1.9 g in the most extreme scenario, is centered on the hill tracts of Rangamati, while a broad band of elevated hazard runs through the Sylhet region and the central districts along the fold belt. Translating these hazard levels into safer communities will require region-specific mitigation measures, from enforcing seismic design provisions in new construction to retrofitting vulnerable buildings and steering future development away from the most susceptible ground. The study’s author notes that the data generated and analyzed are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request, and the work was carried out with academic support from the Department of Geology and Mining at the University of Rajshahi, without external funding. As the plates beneath Bangladesh continue their inexorable convergence, maps like these, tested against each other and grounded in decades of seismological theory, offer one of the few tools available for looking ahead to the next great earthquake before it arrives.

Subject of Research: Comparative seismic hazard and susceptibility mapping in northeastern to southeastern Bangladesh

Article Title: Comparative seismic hazard assessment using PSHA and AHP-based susceptibility mapping in northeastern to southeastern Bangladesh

Article References: Shahriyar, M. A. (2026). Comparative seismic hazard assessment using PSHA and AHP-based susceptibility mapping in northeastern to southeastern Bangladesh. Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10518-026-02672-w

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s10518-026-02672-w

Keywords: seismic hazard, PSHA, Analytic Hierarchy Process, Bangladesh, peak ground acceleration, Gutenberg-Richter, ground motion prediction, Dauki Fault, Chittagong-Tripura Boundary Fault, Sylhet, Rangamati, earthquake risk