Evaluating the Flood Control Measures and Resilience Employed by Communities Along the New Calabar River Catchment

Abstract

Floods are one of the most frequent and dangerous natural disasters, affecting human lives and resulting in significant economic damage throughout the world. It is known that future flood threats won’t go away, and the start of climate change will increase flood strength and frequency, endangering many parts of the world. It is the most commonly recorded catastrophe in the world continues to result in the susceptibility and adaptability of New Calabar Riverbank towns to floods, inundation, and erosion, which has had a persistent impact on the morphology of riverbanks and villages. These alterations, particularly in the New Calabar River, can be linked to the influence of the river’s human and natural influences. This has also prompted communities along the new Calabar Rivers banks to experience unstable environmental circumstances. As a result, this study assessed how well these communities have adapted to floods, inundation, and erosion. The Time-Series/Longitudinal study design was chosen as the methodology for this investigation. The Taro Yamanne formula was employed for the studies in deriving the sample size which was 400. Findings revealed that community-driven solutions were the last options in the mitigation of floods especially in the use of early warning systems. Therefore, the study suggests that institutional frameworks be implemented to improve resilience and catastrophe risk reduction.