Below, we present a preliminary visualization of cyclone shelter coverage gaps in one of Jameel Observatory-CREWSnet study sites – Baradal Union, located in Assasuni Upazila of Satkhira District. Some post-processing was applied to survey data collected by BRAC in 2024 to generate these displays.
Baradal Union Formal Shelter Capacity Summary
| Population: Households Residing In Union | 27,484 |
| Average Household Size | 4.22 |
| Population: Total Formal Shelter Capacity | 3,570 |
| Population: Homes With Strong Construction (Informal Shelter) | 9,521 |
| Population: Living Near Formal Shelter But Above Capacity | 19,818 |
| Population: Living Further than 1.5 km from Formal Shelter | 4,097 |
| Population: Unserved By Formal Shelter | 23,915 |
We highlight the location of existing formal cyclone shelters in the union in blue, as well as the 1.5 km radius around them. This radius represents the maximum distance that shelter-goers typically travel from their home. The checkered layer underneath shows the distribution of the population presently under-served by formal shelters in each grid, due to distance of the nearest existing shelter and its capacity. Across Baradal, the total shelter capacity is approximately 3,500 people, but the union population is about 28,000. The population layer reveals a larger under-served population in the north and north-east. A higher resolution population layer can be viewed by navigating to the layer panel on the left, and hiding the 0.5 km grid result. This layer reveals that although shelter-goers might travel up to 1.5 km during cyclone emergencies, shelters may not have enough space for all people living within 1.5 km distance.
Three locations, marked in green , represent sites at which a new shelter construction might have high impact. Site 1 was identified visually as a location near several significantly under-served areas. Site 2 is the location whose maximum service radius encompasses the greatest underserved population in Baradal. Site 3 is the location with the smallest spread of its serviced population, assuming the population capacity of the largest existing shelter in Baradal. These sites illustrate different impact prediction approaches, the utility of decision support maps for capacity building, and the kinds of analysis that hyper-local shelter and population data enable.
Future visualizations aim to incorporate factors such as barriers to shelter use and resilience of present shelters to future climate.