A local-scale analysis to understand differences in socioeconomic factors affecting economic loss due to floods among different communities

Flood Vulnerability Assessment of Settlements in the Niger-benue Trough, Central Nigeria

“…Besides, it was observed during fieldwork that most of the people built close to the river or in unplanned areas. This is same with a related study by De Silva and Kawasaki [23] who revealed that households in Sri Lanka were scattered everywhere without city planning; lands privately owned and people choose where they live based on affordability, therefore tend to be more exposed to the ravaging impact of floods. Also, from Table it is obvious that when water exceeds 300,000 cu.m/sec and a water level of 35masl, more than half of the communities along the floodplain and particularly after the confluence are expected to be inundated.…”

“…The people depend heavily on natural assets and the physical assets are often times exposed to the feedbacks gotten from the damages done to natural resources which in turn affect the social basis of the people. Although, the SVI values for all assets put together indicates moderate vulnerability of the community to flooding and SVI values for human and financial assets of the communities are below 2.8, it should be noted that where the people are better educated, employed in industries that do not depend on natural resources and labouring in farms will suffer less impact on their natural, physical and social resources as their resilience will be more robust [23]. On the other hand, poor households who are faced with flooding tend to be much more vulnerable: recouping properties and assets is more difficult from a position of financial hardship [23,19].…”

“…This implies that there exist a significantly strong, positive relationship between level of communities' vulnerability and the impact of flood on their livelihoods in the entire Niger-Benue Trough. To add to this, the study of De Silva and Kawasaki [23] also noted that economic and financial loss due to floods, especially for nonpoor households in Rathnapura, Sri Lanka was directly affected by inundation depth. Also, it was noted by De Silva and Kawasaki [23] that households located far from the river and at higher elevations, better living conditions, educated, that depended little on the natural assets tend to be less vulnerable to flood disasters or climate-related disasters.…”

“…To add to this, the study of De Silva and Kawasaki [23] also noted that economic and financial loss due to floods, especially for nonpoor households in Rathnapura, Sri Lanka was directly affected by inundation depth. Also, it was noted by De Silva and Kawasaki [23] that households located far from the river and at higher elevations, better living conditions, educated, that depended little on the natural assets tend to be less vulnerable to flood disasters or climate-related disasters. Also, the study of De Silva and Kawasaki [22] in another Sri Lankan community, faced with drought and flood had a positive correlation between disaster damage, poverty and vulnerability, as the author maintained that poor households often depend solely on agriculture to make a living; have no capacity to cope with or resist and recover (quickly) from the impact of hazards.…”

“…Although, many studies [17], Nasiri & Shahmohammadi-Kalalagh [18,19,20,21], De Silva & Kawasaki [22,23], have embarked upon vulnerability of different groups to disasters, especially flooding, it is pertinent to note that Exposure (i.e. the predisposition of an area or individuals to flood event), Susceptibility (i.e.…”