Abstract. Floods are devastating natural disasters with a significant impact on human life and the surrounding environment. This paper analyses historical and recent flood (2012 extreme) peak flow at strategic locations, land use activities and Floodplain Vulnerability Index analyses of the Niger-Benue River Floodplain. The 2012 peak flow at Jederbode on the Niger River was about 50 % above the long term average. At Jebba (Niger), the 2012 peak flow of 1567 m 3 s −1 was also far higher than the long term mean annual peak flow of 1159 m 3 s −1 . The 2012 peak flow at Lokoja was also about 50 % above the historical average. The Benue River at Makurdi had peak flow of 16 387 m 3 s −1 which was also unusually higher than the historical average while Wuroboki (Benue) had peak flow of 3362 m 3 s −1 which was also much higher that the historical average (694 m 3 s −1 ). The mixed land use which supported diverse ecosystem services has the largest cover of 5654 km 2 (36.85 %) of the Niger-Benue floodplain. The flood vulnerability of the various land uses within the floodplain include; medium, high and very high levels. A four levels hierarchical implementation adaptation strategy for sustainable agricultural practices along the rivers flood plain was proposed. The implementation hierarchy includes: Community Concern, Local Authority Concern, State Concern and National Concern.
Understanding the role of ecosystem services (ESs) within environmental management has become a critical issue of the twenty-first century. This is because scientific study of ES interactions can aid effective planning and management of ESs, thus curtailing degradation and enhancing restoration. In this study, ES interactions of the climate-sensitive West African Sokoto-Rima basin were quantified using land cover and a series of GIS-derived data as inputs into the InVEST model. Crop production (CP), seasonal water yield (SWY), habitat quality (HQ), and nutrient retention ratio (NRR) between 1992 and 2015 were assessed. Climate change assessment was based Mann-Kendall trend of precipitation and temperature for both past and future climates. The climate dynamics present a drying-warming trend with localised cooling-warming spells in some locations and a general future wetting-warming trend. Areas dominated by cropland and CP exert significant influence on the spatiotemporal dynamics of ES interactions contributing to the manifestation of substantial trade-offs and synergies across the past ( 2015) and the future ( 2050) climates. This also regulates the overbearing pattern of multiple ES interactions such that the relationship CP > SWY > HQ > EVI > NRR was observed over the study area. The persistence of these diverse relationships will stimulate the possible degradation of natural regulating ESs. Improvement of existing crop cultivation clusters, cultivation of flood-resistant crop varieties, and agroforestry expansion were proposed as climate and ESs interaction-based restoration measures. When adopted, these measures will douse the increasing ES pressures within this semi-arid zone. KeywordsEcosystem service interactions • InVEST model • Climate change • Ecological restoration • Sokoto-Rima basin * Saheed A. Raji
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