Climate variability has increased rainfall intensity resulting in floods and storms which have aggravated environmental and land degradation problems globally. Land degradation problems such as gully erosion happen to be a big threat to agricultural development and rural livelihood in developing countries. Gully erosion affects lands, soils, and vegetation, water and landscape resources in areas where it is prevalent. This study therefore, investigated changing climate and the effect of gully erosion on Akpo community farmers in Anambra State, Nigeria. The field survey and Remote Sensing and GIS techniques were employed in this study. The survey approach involved questionnaire distribution, observation, interviews and photography. 95 questionnaires were randomly sampled to Akpo farmers. Remote Sensing/ GIS techniques were used for detecting and mapping gully erosion prone areas. The gully characterization was carried out using Digital Elevation Model (DEM) as a prerequisite for assessing the relationship between field topography and gully occurrence. The geometry of the eroded channels especially their width (W) and depth (D) was characterized through its cross section width and maximum depth.The hypotheses were was tested using chi-square (x 2). The results showed that a large proportion of (94%) farmers were below tertiary education and the land could be their only means of livelihood. Also, majority of the farmers (63.2%) agreed that rainfall has exacerbated gully activities and is majorly responsible for the large degradation of farm lands. Also, 40% indicated that gully erosion has affected their crop production levels. Findings also indicated that gully erosion in Akpo community is dendritic and has a network of branches. Gully erosion characterization indicated a V-shape representing that the surface soils are more erodible than the subsurface soils due to surface runoff producing concentrated overland flows that cut channels. Further, the gully length (563m), maximum elevation (226m), and elevation gain (0.9m) and maximum slope (2.2%) which happens to be responsible for the large distribution of the gullies on the spots along farmlands aiding the generation of sufficient volume of runoff. Farmers revealed that gully erosion has the most significant effect on farmlands, poor growth/harvest of crops (especially
Hundreds of millions of urban dwellers in low-and middle-income nations are at risk as 4-5 of the global weather-driven disasters experienced are consequent of a changing climate. Studies have shown that residents in least developed countries have ten times more chances of being affected by these climate disasters than those in wealthy countries. Further, critical views have it, that it would take over 100years for lower income countries to attain the resiliency of developed countries. Unfortunately, global South is surrounded by a myriad of socio-economic and environmental factors limiting their fight against climate crisis. It is this germane reality that provoked the cause of this review. Hence, this paper reviewed the developing world's contribution to global warming and the resulting consequences of climate change with focus on Nigeria. This purposive approach adopted an analysis of secondary data related to climate information. The findings from the paper affirmed that impacts of climate change in developing countries include loss in agriculture/forestry resources, water shortage, food insecurity, biodiversity loss, health risks among others. Finally, it identified the major factors that exacerbate climate crisis, the human actions that trigger global warming and adaptive and mitigation approaches to minimize climate change related disasters.
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