From relief shelters to self-organized communities: Building disaster resilience in coastal Bangladesh

In disaster studies, crucial gaps remain in understanding how micro-level sheltering strategies influence long-term resilience. This study empirically examines the various risk reduction measures, including sheltering strategies implemented by GOs and NGOs, as well as local communities, over the past fifteen years. It examines how these interventions have transformed the landscape and spatial order of coastal settlements while assessing their role in reducing disaster risks. Focusing on a cyclone and salinity-prone coastal village in Bangladesh, the study employs a longitudinal analysis (2010 and 2025) of social and spatial aspects, revealing an evolving nature of coastal settlements, driven by both internal and external interventions that catalyze morphological change. Fieldwork reveals that the self-help approach enables local communities to incrementally reorganize their homesteads, thereby strengthening their disaster resilience. The study identifies self-organization as a dynamic process through which coastal communities recalibrate their socio-spatial patterns and settlement morphology in response to varying disaster risks and socio-economic opportunities. The dynamic interplay between community self-organization and long-term resilience offers key insights for sustainable adaptation to growing environmental challenges. This study thus contributes to the broader discourse on resilient shelter planning and adaptive strategies for coastal regions in an era of climate uncertainty. • The study offers Longitudinal insights into self-recovery and resilience. • It positions self-organization as a bridging concept to explore self-recovery and resilience. • It shows self-help housing reconstruction can foster community self-organization. • Resilience grows when autonomy, needs, and resources align. • Lack of institutional supports hinder effective self-organization process.