Abstract
Nigerian cities have experienced great physical development in the last three decades in terms of building, construction and reconstruction of roads, offices, markets and stores, manufacturing industries and others without any appreciable infrastructures such as drainages for roads and canals to safely drain storm waters. All these have made floods to be a serious seasonal challenge that plague many communities in Nigeria including communities in Anambra West Local Government, Anambra State, Nigeria. Hence, this research assessed the socio-economic effects of flooding in some selected communities of Anambra West Local Government Area South-East Nigeria and the imperative steps taken by the government and host communities to reduce the effects of this flood menace for sustainable development. The objectives are: to examine the socio-economic activities of the inhabitants of the study area; to determine the incidence of flood in the study area communities; to determine the socio-economic effects of flooding and the coping strategies for resilience adaptation to flood incidence in the study area. Principal component analysis, Chi-square, Linear regression and analysis of variance techniques were employed in the data analysis. The study revealed the significant pattern and the critical socio-economic effects of flooding on the communities which includes: animal production, crop production, fishing, food availability/affordability, employment, health/loss of human resources, loss of infrastructures and household properties. The study found that, there is significant relationship between flood incidence (frequency) and the socio-economic effects in the study area which implies that, an increase in the flood incidence has an increasing socio-economic effects on the study area. The study further revealed that, a significant difference exists in the socio-economic effects of flooding across the communities in the study area.
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Ajiboye, O., Orebiyi, E. Assessment of socio-economic effects of flooding on selected communities of Anambra West Local Government Area, Southeast, Nigeria. GeoJournal 87, 3575–3590 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-021-10400-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-021-10400-x