Welcome to a page focussed on Green Roads for Water in Bangladesh, serving as a reference source for capacity building. This webpage aims to function as a knowledge base for professionals and practitioners working in the fields of road infrastructure, water management, and climate resilience. It offers interdisciplinary insights and practical guidance on adopting Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) to enhance the sustainability and resilience of rural infrastructure, and is part of the capacity strengthening components under the “Consultancy Services for Increasing Resilience of Rural Infrastructure and Local Communities through Green Roads Concept” project implemented by MetaMeta and ADSL, in close collaboration with LGED and supported by the GFDRR administered by World Bank.
A key outcome of this initiative is the development of tailored Green Roads for Water Guidelines in Bangladesh. These guidelines translate project learning into actionable, context-specific recommendations and are intended to directly support planning, design, and implementation by practitioners.
The guidelines are available here.
Key documents
- LGED Climate Resilient Rural Road Manual
- LGED Road Design Standard 2021
- Guideline for implementatoin of rural roads and culverts maintenance program
- LGED guidelines on roadside tree plantations (in Bangla)
- LGED Asset Management Plan (Road)
- Bangladesh: Climate-Resilient Infrastructure Assessment (Gall, S.S., Adnan, M.S.G., Peard, A., Paszkowski, A., Adshead, D., Cançado, D., Diaz, S., Saha, C.R., Jain., N., Istiaque, T., Hall, J.W., Haque, S., Kohler, S., Rector, I. 2022. Bangladesh: Climate-resilient infrastructure assessment. University of Oxford, United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), Center for Environmental and Geographic Information Systems (CEGIS) and the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA)
A gated culvert to help manage water (levels)
The two sections below offer quick insights into Green Roads for Water, highlighting both key hotspots and various road components. For a combined overview of these insights in the context of Bangladesh – click here for the booklet on Green Roads for Water in Bangladesh.
Green Roads for Water in Bangladesh – Quick insights into different hotspots of the BDP2100
- Green Roads for Water Hotspot: Coastal Zone
- Green Roads for Water Hotspot: Flood Plains and Estuaries
- Green Roads for Water Hospot: Chattogram Hill Tracts
- Green Roads for Water Hotspot: Barind and Drought Prone Areas
- Green Roads for Water Hotspot: Haors
Green Roads for Water in Bangladesh – Quick insights into different road components
- Green Roads for Water Road Component: Bridges
- Green Roads for Water Road Component: Pavement and Construction Materials
- Green Roads for Water Road Component: Planning roadside vegetation
- Green Roads for Water Road Component: Selecting roadside vegetation
- Green Roads for Water Road Component: Cross drainage
- Green Roads for Water Road Component: Road embankments
- Green Roads for Water Road Component: Bioengineering and spring protection
Blogs
- Why the Government’s Roadside Tree Plantations programme is important for Bangladesh – TheWaterChannel (Andrew Zakharenka, World Bank, Environment, Natural Resources and Blue Economy Global Practice )
- Choking bridges: the death of tidal rivers – TheWaterChannel (Md. Saif Uddin, Lutfor Rahman and Frank van Steenbergen)
- Roadside social forestry: managing road side commons – TheWaterChannel (Kiran Sankar Sarker and Frank van Steenbergen)
- ‘Green Roads’ Are Plowing Ahead, Buffering Drought and Floods – Yale E360 (Ben Goldfarb)
- Coastal Bangladesh: Roads to the Rescue? – TheWaterChannel (Cecilia Borgia)
- Postcard from Rajshahi – Harvesting mangoes, harvesting water? – TheWaterChannel (David Mornout, Alamgir Chowdhury, and Enamul Huda)
- Women Drive Climate-Resilient Green Roads for Water in Bangladesh (GCA, MetaMeta, Socioconsult, WAVE Foundation)
Videos
- Insights from validation workshop on Green Roads for Water in Bangladesh – Channel 24
- Gated culvert to control water level for rice cultivation in Bangladesh – TheWaterChannel
- The Promise of Roads for Polder Water Management and Flood Protection – TheWaterChannel
- Bangladesh- Roads, Drainage, and Farm Output – TheWaterChannel
- Bangladesh-Strengthening Polder Embankment Roads – TheWaterChannel
- Roads to the Rescue: Harvesting Rainwater Through Improved Road Management, Adbdul Saleh, Bangladesh (Global Resilience Partnership)
Other useful outputs and reports
- Bangladesh Green Roads Profile – Developed by Asian Transport Outlook
- Vetiver Applications for Infrastructure Protection – Dr. Mohammad Shariful Islam (BUET)
- Bio-Engineering Operational Guidelines – Focussing on the Hill Tracts in Bangladesh (ADB)
- Standard Specifications for Bio-Engineering Works – Focussing on the Hill Tracts in Bangladesh (ADB)
- Bio-Engineering Training Manual for Managers – Training for LGED Policy and Management Level (ADB)
- Bio-Engineering Training Manual for Engineers & Bioengineering Nature-based Solutions for Linear Infrastructure Slope Stabilization and Protection – Training for LGED Engineers (ADB)
- Importance of Roadside Tree Planting in Bangladesh (Andrew Zakharenka, World Bank)
- The promises of roads for polder water management (MetaMeta & BUET)
- Polder 26 Model Study – Inundation due to Rainfall Floods Impact on Inundation due to Selected Culverts (BUET & MetaMeta)
- Recommended Good Practices-Road Development to Support Water Management and Flood Resilience in Coastal Zone (BUET, MetaMeta, LGED, BWDB, WARPO, DDM)
- Rural Road Safety Vision and Action Plan 2023-2030
A tree-lined road in Bangladesh. Trees block dust, reduce erosion, and absorb runoff.
This web page focusses on Green Roads for Water in Bangladesh. It has been prepared under the “Consultancy Services for Increasing Resilience of Rural Infrastructure and Local Communities through Green Roads Concept” project, implemented by MetaMeta and ADSL for the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) in Bangladesh and the World Bank, and aims to set the foundation for systematically integrating water management and climate resilience in road development.
Contact: Frank.vanSteenbergen@gopa.eu or David.Mornout@gopa.eu.
Last modified: August 12, 2025