Abstract
The aim of this paper was to determine the relative contributions of climatic elements and environmental factors to urban flooding in Awka urban area of Anambra State. Towards achieving this aim, 10 year (2000-2009) meteorological data of temperature and rainfall of the study area were collected from synoptic meteorological station in Awka and data on environmental factors were obtained from both the Anambra State Ministry of Environment and responses were gathered from the administered questionnaire to the respondents. Khosla’s formula was employed to estimate flood discharge in the urban area and analysis was carried out with the use of multiple linear regression (MLR). Result of the regression shows that 12 variables exhibited positive signs showing that there is a direct relationship between them and flooding in the town. Also, it was found that both climatic and environmental factors contributed 60% to the explained variation, with the climatic elements alone having 33.7%. Finally, policy and planning implications of the study were discussed, while it was concluded that urgent necessary steps need to be taken to achieve goal 7 of the MDGs in the study area, which is to ensure environmental sustainability by the year 2015.
Highlights
Urban areas especially those in the developing countries experience various types of disaster in most periods of the rainy season as a result of flooding
Out of this 26.3% contributed by environmental factors, only five variables out of twelve namely; GRAD with 11.3%; PAVE with 6.9%; DRAIN with 3.0%; SLOP with 2.2% and REFU with 1.9%, contributed meaningfully to the observed variation in flooding
We have tried in this paper to determine the relative contributions of climatic elements and environmental factors determining urban flooding in Awka town
Summary
Urban areas especially those in the developing countries experience various types of disaster in most periods of the rainy season as a result of flooding. The destructive effects of floods in urban areas have been widely recognized in Nigeria (Muoghalu and Okonkwo, 1998; Odemerho, 1993, 2005; Offiong and Eni, 2008; Abaje and Giwa, 2008) and other developing countries in general (Smith, 1999; Obote, 2005; Sithole, 2009). The causes of such urban flooding has been linked to climate factors especially rainfall (Gray, 2005; Sadat, 2009), topography (Eze, 2008; Offiong and Eni, 2008) urban sprawl (Sule, 2004), poor urban planning (Goudie, 1981; Slamaker, 2000) and other environmental factors (Onokerhoraye, 1995). The volume of water associated with each flood event in some of these urban areas is of such magnitude that it always results in the destruction of lives and property
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