Flood-related challenges and impacts within coastal informal settlements: a case from LAGOS, NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

This study considers climate impacts and environmental challenges (flooding and sea-level rise) in one of the coastal informal settlements in Lagos, Nigeria. A mix of methods was used to generate data. First, 14 residents, selected through purposive sampling, were interviewed. A survey (sample size = 300) of residents was conducted as a follow-up to the interviews. To elicit information on spatio-temporal dimensions, GIS-based mapping showed change in land use/cover from 1990 to 2020 and simulates impacts with 0.5 m, 1 m, 1.5 m and 2 m sea level rise scenarios. The results illuminate negative corollaries at the intersection of informal urbanisation and climate change in coastal settings. Flood-related impacts on the built and natural environment were significant. Climate adaption and resilience will need to involve restoring the decimated natural ecosystem and integration of indigenous systems in the study area and similar low-income coastal urban communities.

KEYWORDS:

• Coastal flooding
• stormwater management
• slum upgrading
• flood risk management
• flood-proof built environment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Olumuyiwa Bayode Adegun

Olumuyiwa Bayode Adegun is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Architecture at Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria. He completed his PhD at University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (Wits), South Africa, with a thesis on ‘Just Sustainability at the nexus of Informal Settlement Intervention and Green Infrastructure’. He is also Visiting Research Fellow in the School of Architecture and Planning, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, and, since 2021, an Affiliate of the African Academy of Sciences; he was Guest Researcher at the Nordic Africa Institute, Uppsala, Sweden (2018), and Visiting Scholar at the Canada Centre for Architecture, Montreal (2016). Dr Adegun´s main scholarly interests focus on environmental sustainability in urban areas of Nigeria and other parts of sub-Saharan Africa, especially with respect to low-income housing, such as slums and informal settlements. His recent works have been supported through the Climate Research for Development (CR4D) Programme, Africa Academy of Sciences (AAS) and DAAD ClimapAfrica Programme.