Skip to content
Research Article Open access CC BY 4.0

Spatial Assessment of Elevation-based Flood Risk Level of Communities and Mitigation Measures in the Wetlands Areas of Rivers and Bayelsa States, Niger Delta Region, Nigeria

G. B. Horsfall, A. A. Obafemi, M. Ogoro

Asian Journal of Geographical Research · pp. 9–21 · Published 11 Aug 2023

10.9734/ajgr/2023/v6i3185

Abstract

The study examined the spatial assessment elevation-based flood risk level of communities and mitigation measures in the wetlands areas of Rivers and Bayelsa States, Niger Delta Region, Nigeria. The study made use of the elevation data from the Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission, flood height and tidal inundation data to determine the flood risk levels of communities in the study location. Similarly, 400 copies of questionnaire were administered to the residents from the wetland communities using random sampling technique. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for the analysis. Findings revealed that majority of the coastal region in the study area is generally low lying and highly exposed to flood event. Results also showed that most communities in the Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Areas are very highly exposed which included Ahoada, Azagbene, Eben, Kpopkie, Owenegbene, Bisagbene, Ekeni among others while the very risk exposed communities included Okpogo, Ebubu, Aboigbene among other. Findings showed that damage compensation and government relief funds were the major ways used to tackle the negative impact of flood. The popular methods of flood abatement in the study area were restoring meanders in brooks and rivers and coastal wetlands protection. The study concluded that many communities in the coastal parts of Rivers and Bayelsa States in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria are highly prone to flood risk. The study recommended among others that the use of dam for flood abatement and prevention should be adequately established in the study area; and apart from embankment, other flood defense and control measures such as flood barrier, mobile flood wall, coastal sand supply, bypasses to safeguard wetlands, connect rivers to existing lake, dredging rivers, and river bed widening should be adequately put in place to reduce the levels of flood impact in the study area.

Elevation-based flood risk mitigation Niger delta

References (25)

  1. 1 10.1080/02508060208686984 [DOI]
  2. 2 Kron W. Flood Risk-A Global Problem. In Proceedings of the ICHE 2014-11th International Conference on Hydroscience & Engineering, Hamburg, Germany, 28 September–2 October. 2014;9–18.
  3. 3 10.1007/s11069-010-9558-x [DOI]
  4. 4 Akinola, Suleiman, Francii. A review of flood risk analysis in Nigeria; 2015.
  5. 5 DOI:0.3844/ajessp.2015.157.166, American journal of environmental Sciences.
  6. 6 10.3844/ajessp.2015.157.166 [DOI]
  7. 7 10.1007/978-94-015-8404-3_2 [DOI]
  8. 8 10.1002/(SICI)1099-1085(199805)12:6<823::AID-HYP656>3.0.CO;2-Z [DOI]
  9. 9 Smith AB. 2017 U.S. billion-dollar weather and climate disasters: A historic year in context; 2018.
  10. 10 Available:https://www.climate.gov/news-features/blogs/beyond-data/2017-us-billion-dollar-weather-and-climate-disasters-historic-year
  11. 11 Shrubsole Dr. Dan. Flood Management in Canada at the Crossroads. Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction. 2000;5.
  12. 12 Hausmann P, Weber M. Possible contributions of hydroinformatics to risk analysis in insurance, In:Proc. 2nd International Conference on Hydroinformatics, Zurich, Switzerland. 1988;9–13 September, Balkema.
  13. 13 10.1002/(SICI)1099-1085(199708)11:10<1427::AID-HYP473>3.0.CO;2-S [DOI]
  14. 14 Menzinger I, Brauner C. “Floods are Insurable!,” Swiss Reinsurance Company, Zurich; 2002.
  15. 15 10.1023/A:1025018822429 [DOI]
  16. 16 Carter NT. Flood Risk Management: Federal Role in Infrastructure. CRS Report for Congress; 2005.
  17. 17 10.1201/9780203883020.ch52 [DOI]
  18. 18 10.1126/science.309.5737.1030 [DOI]
  19. 19 Duan M, Zhang J, Liu Z, Aekakkararungroj A. Use of remote sensing and GIS for flood hazard mapping in Chiang Mai Province, northern Thailand. In International Conference on Geospatial Solutions for Emergency Management and the 50th Anniversary of the Chinese Academy of Surveying and Mapping. Beijing, China. 2009;14–16.
  20. 20 Forkuo EK. Flood hazard mapping using Aster image data with GIS. International Journal of Geomatics and Geosciences. 2011;1(4):932–950.
  21. 21 Bapalu GV, Sinha R. GIS in flood hazard mapping: A case study of Kosi river basin, India. GIS Development Weekly. 2005; 1(13):1–3.
  22. 22 Fava PR, Fritz S, Castellano A. The use of geographic information systems for disaster risk reduction programmes in Africa -User Manual. 2010;94. Available:http://www.coopi.org/repository/pagine/gis.manual_26.04.2010.pdf.
  23. 23 10.1596/978-0-8213-8866-2 [DOI]
  24. 24 Umeuduji JE, Aisuebeogun A. Relief and Drainage. In C. U. Oyegun and A. Adeyemo, (eds.): Port Harcourt Region, Port Harcourt: Department of Geography and Environmental Management University of Port Harcourt; 1999.
  25. 25 Karwel KAEI. Estimation of the Accuracy of the SRTM terrain Model on the Area of Poland. Paper presented at the The XXI ISPRS Congress; 2008.

Cited by 0

No indexed citations yet.

Related research

Article metrics

Real usage data collected on this platform.

0

Page views

0

PDF downloads

0

Outbound clicks

0

Citations

Views by country

Approximate, from request IP at view time — not citizenship or institution. Countries with fewer than 5 views are grouped as "Other".

No views recorded yet.

Traffic sources

Referring site, by host.

No traffic recorded yet.

Views and downloads exclude known bots/crawlers. Citations combines this platform's own DOI-resolved index with each external source's own reported total — see Cited by above for individually listed citing works. Last refreshed 0 seconds ago.