Geography

Abstract This article examines drivers of waste recovery and recycling in the informal waste sector in Nsukka urban area of Enugu State, southeastern Nigeria. Data on socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of waste pickers and waste dealers in the area were obtained using questionnaire survey, ethnographic interviews and field observations. Analyses of the data indicate that waste pickers play a crucial role in the waste recovery and recycling process.

Abstract Climate change is a major issue around which global development policy is being framed over the past few years. Because of low adaptive capacities and the projected impacts of climate change, a consensus has emerged that developing countries are more vulnerable to climate change than developed countries. This is due to the predominance of rain-fed agriculture in their economies, the scarcity of capital for adaptation measures, their warmer baseline climates and their heightened exposure to extreme weather events.

In Nigeria there is a glaring absence of formal recycling of municipal waste. As a result, the informal sector has taken up the role of “critical but unacknowledged gap filler” in the waste recycling system, achieving low but significant recycling rates. This policy note deals with what can be done to improve recycling performance in Nigerian cities.

The paper presents the result of a vulnerability assessment of urban dwellers to a major flood hazard in Abeokuta, southwestern Nigeria in July 2007. This was achieved by means of questionnaire survey administered to 248 flood area residents. Flood vulnerability was assessed by examining exposure, susceptibility, and coping indicators in the study area. Findings of the study show that although about 50% of respondents had experienced floods, in Abeokuta or elsewhere in the past, majority (66%) did not anticipate a flood event of such magnitude to occur despite its location on a flood plain and, therefore, were unprepared for such hazard. Pre-warning of the flood event was generally lacking among flood area residents as only 8% of respondents indicated pre-warning, which was based on personal observations. Response to the flood hazard was mainly reactive for both private and public agents as flood risk reduction measures were not in place.

The study analysed the effects of flooding on household meal frequency in agrarian communities of Anambra and Imo States in the Southeastern region of Nigeria. The study was questionnaire-based and descriptive statistics was used to analyse the normal (before flooding) meal frequency and the after-flood meal frequency of female-headed and male-headed households in order to capture the influence of flooding on households' daily meal frequency. The results show that flooding caused a 60.8% reduction in the number of households with the apparent standard meal frequency of thrice daily (three square meal) and increased households that ate twice daily to 23.5%, invariably leading to malnutrition. Additionally, there was an observed gender-based disparity in the proportions of households affected with the female-headed households affected the most as it recorded the largest percentage of households that were forced to eat once or twice daily after flood events. The reasons for the reduction in daily meal frequency after flooding have been associated with destruction of farmlands, disruption of livelihood sources, seasonal displacement and hike in food prices. Efforts to facilitate access to food by flood victims and off-farm income are recommended to curb the effects of flooding.

The study focused on eight (8) agrarian communities that are vulnerable to flooding in the south eastern region of Nigeria known for its comparative advantage in the production of yam, sweet potatoes and cassava which are also staples. The negative effects of flooding on food security in the study area were measured on a likert scale and the calculated Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient of 0.8 shows a relatively high consistency of all measured items. However, ten (10) significant negative effects of flooding on food security were analysed and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) extracted three components of eigen values >1 explaining 68.02% of the total variance, thus summarizing these negative effects of flooding on food security in three (3) aspects namely; food supply and distribution; household income and investment; and farm labour and facilities.

Flood is a natural phenomenon but human activities and interventions such as uncontrolled urbanization coupled with increased population have increased the damages and losses caused by floods. Urbanization aggravates flooding by limiting where runoff can flow and the increased impervious layers in urban areas obstruct the natural channel thereby shortening the time taken by flood water to flow into river. This study focused on analyzing the determinants of flooding in Port Harcourt metropolis, Nigeria and it revealed nine factors as being responsible for flooding in the study area. Simple percentages were used to analysed these nine factors; absence of/inadequate drainage facilities and heavy rainfall were ranked the first and second (15.74% and 15.59%) respectively. Further classification of these causes of flooding into meteorological factors, topographical factors, human factors and others, shows that human factors represents more than 2/3 of the total identified causes of flooding. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was carried out and the nine factors responsible for flooding in the study area were reduced to four underlying dimensions (viz heavy rainfall, unplanned urban development, poor drainage quality and low-lying topography) which explain 83.20% of the total variance in causes of flooding in the metropolis. Recommendations such as implementation of the Greater Port Harcourt City Development Master Plan; instilling communal actions; demolition of illegal structures; sustainable drainage systems etc were made to curtail the perennial flooding that occur in the study area.

A comparative study of pre- and post-flood households’ food security statuses in South-Eastern Nigeria was performed to answer the question “Do floods affect food security?” Data were generated via a survey of 400 households in eight communities using stratified and random sampling methods. Households’ food security statuses were assessed using the Household Food Security Survey Module (HFSSM) and computed using a Rasch analysis, where households were divided into four categories, namely: food secure, food insecure without hunger, moderately food insecure with hunger and severely food insecure with hunger. The results show that flooding affects food security negatively by increasing the number of food insecure households to 92.8%, and the regression coefficient of −0.798 indicates a very strong negative effect of flooding on household food security. An odds ratio of 2.221 implies that households that have experienced flooding are 2.221 times more probable to be food insecure than ho...

The study analysed the effects of flooding on household meal frequency in agrarian communities of Anambra and Imo States in the Southeastern region of Nigeria. The study was questionnaire-based and descriptive statistics was used to analyse the normal (before flooding) meal frequency and the after-flood meal frequency of female-headed and male-headed households in order to capture the influence of flooding on households’ daily meal frequency. The results show that flooding caused a 60.8% reduction in the number of households with the apparent standard meal frequency of thrice daily (three square meal) and increased households that ate twice daily to 23.5%, invariably leading to malnutrition. Additionally, there was an observed gender-based disparity in the proportions of households affected with the female-headed households affected the most as it recorded the largest percentage of households that were forced to eat once or twice daily after flood events. The reasons for the reducti...

The evidence for the capacity of mangrove forests for coastal protection gained more importance within the recent decade because of important international agreements, such as the Sustainable Development Goals and Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. However, the degree to which researchers agree on the capacity of mangroves to reduce coastal hazards is not fully established. This study employed a multilevel review process that selected 45 peer-reviewed articles for detailed analysis. Significant findings revealed a strong agreement amongst scientific literature on the benefits of mangrove forests in reducing coastal hazards. However, findings also revealed the dominance of single-discipline research, and less representation of countries in Africa and South America. Limitations in sampled studies highlight the limited number of global studies conducted on mangrove forests’ effectiveness in attenuating coastal hazards, and the limited representation of development and disast...