Indigenous flood control and management knowledge and flood disaster risk reduction in Nigeria's coastal communities: An empirical analysis

Abstract

Flooding is one of the major global challenges today. The role of indigenous knowledge in offering an effective risk reduction strategy towards flood disaster disregarded for many decades is now gaining global recognition. There is a growing call for empirical identification of the effectiveness of indigenous knowledge in flood risk reduction. Consequently, this paper empirically examines indigenous flood control and management knowledge with the intent to identify its effectiveness in risk reduction of flood disasters in Nigeria's coastal communities. This is to provide empirical bases for the formulation of appropriate strategies for enhancing flood risk reduction in Nigeria's coastal communities. The research engaged focus group discussion and questionnaire methods to generate primary data. The research proceeds with principal component analysis to classify and measure the effectiveness of indigenous flood control and management knowledge in flood risk reduction. The result shows the existence of eight types of indigenous flood control and management knowledge in the coastal communities and they were 61.2% effective in flood risk reduction. This implies that indigenous flood control and management knowledge practiced in Nigeria's coastal communities is effective in flood risk reduction. This study proposed a sustainable approach to risk reduction in flood disasters based on the integration of indigenous knowledge systems and modern flood management strategies.