Earthen embankments have been used since the ancient times for flood protection in the Bengal plains. Mud is abundant, less expensive and it takes only manual labor to construct. It acts as a wall to protect the land and have become part of the cultural landscape. It disintegrates over time mixing with its surrounding. But a sudden collapse of it brings disasters. The coastal embankments in the southwestern region of Bangladesh were constructed in the nineteen sixties to lessen damages from cyclonic storm surges. Though it acts as protection, poor maintenance of it often fails to give security.
This paper searches the parameters of security the embankments provide to the settlements. The historical sequence is probed here and related with the present state.
Over time embankments have created associated environmental degradations. Sea level rise is becoming prominent for the sedimentation on the other side. The ecology is changing into salinity intrusion water character for the changed river patterns. Holes in the embankments to bring in saline water for shrimp cultivation degrade it more. It became more prominent after cyclone Aila of 2009, a massive natural disaster, in terms of economic and environmental damages. In a short-term mind-set it seems that this practice cannot be changed. But it is being realized that embankments are on the contrary disintegrating the habitations and changing the environment which had been artificially changed in the first place. This paper also tries to understand the traditional practices as alternatives.