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Date of Award

5-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Landscape Architecture

College

Arts and Sciences

Department

Landscape Architecture, Disaster Resiliency & Emergency Management (LADREM)

Faculty Advisor

Juncheng Lu

Studio Coordinator

Jay Kost

Faculty Chair

Dominic Fischer

Publisher

North Dakota State University

Rights

NDSU policy 190.6.2

URI

https://www.ndsu.edu/fileadmin/policy/190.pdf

Abstract

Bhasan Char is a newly formed, unstable silt island in Bangladesh which is home for more than one million Rohingya refugees—an ethnic Muslim minority from Myanmar who have fled decades of systematic persecution and violence—suffering from an ecological and humanitarian crisis. This community faces extreme vulnerability from cyclones and sea-level rise on a landscape of profound precarity.

Traditional hard-engineered defenses are costly, ecologically damaging, and ineffective against the island’s dynamic geomorphology. This research proposes a regenerative "Living Shorelines" model, intersecting coastal resilience with refugee empowerment through Blue-Green Infrastructure. Drawing on successful global precedents in Vietnam and the USA, the study employs a qualitative case study methodology to develop a design framework that embraces natural processes and layered ecological systems.

The primary outcome is an "Island as a System" proposal, synthesizing a protective mangrove buffer with a "Shoreline Stewardship Cooperative." Findings indicate that technical solutions must be paired with social frameworks to be effective. By integrating natural infrastructure with community-based management, this model offers a scalable approach to humanitarian crises. It concludes that designing landscapes to empower displaced communities is the most profound way to achieve lasting ecological, economic, and social resilience in precarious coastal environments.

Living Shorelines: A Regenerative Landscape Approach to Coastal Protection and Community Resilience in Bhasan Char, Bangladesh

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