Flood Vulnerability Assessment of Communities in Akwa Ibom, Nigeria

Floods are natural events, however, due to various anthropogenic activities coupled with climate change, flooding tends to be both human-induced and natural events. Geographical Information Systems (GIS) techniques can spatially process different physical-environmental parameters in flood risk assessment and the present study determine the extent of vulnerability among the communities in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. From the analysis, spatial extent of 932.26 km2 (13.48%) showed low flood vulnerability level while a spatial extent of 3411.37 km2 (49.33%) and 2572.09 km2 (37.19%) indicated moderate and high flood vulnerability levels respectively. At the Local Government Areas (LGAs) level, the low vulnerability covers 932.27 km2 which represented 13.48% of the entire LGAs in Akwa Ibom State, the medium vulnerability covers a spatial extent of 3411.37 km2 which represented 49.33% of the entire state while the high vulnerability covers a spatial extent of 2572.09 km2 which represented 37.19% of the LGAs in the state. The outcome further revealed that Two (2) LGAs are found within the low vulnerability, nineteen (19) LGAs are found within the medium vulnerability while ten (10) LGAs are found within the high vulnerability. At the community level, the analysis indicated that among the 795 communities in the state, 138 of the communities which represent 17.36% of the entire communities have low vulnerability to flood hazards, 429 communities at 53.96% have medium vulnerability level while 228 communities which represent 28.68% of the entire communities in the state have high flood vulnerability level. The generated maps and identified LGAs and communities at different flood vulnerability zones are useful in all steps of disaster management (prevention, mitigation, preparedness, operations, relief and recovery) and should be considered during initial planning.