ABSTRACT
The socioeconomic impact of periodic floods in Bayelsa State, Nigeria, was investigated in this study, with the Southern Ijaw Local Government Area serving as the case study. Understanding the physical characteristics of Bayelsa State in general and the southern Ijaw Local Government Area in particular, as well as the people's economic activities, were the study's main goals. The goal of this project is to determine how much the area's geographic position influences the frequency of flooding that occurs there on a regular basis. In addition, the type and severity of the local flood disaster and its effects on people's socioeconomic conditions. As they considered potential solutions to the crisis, they conducted a detailed analysis of the government's actions to battle the flood disaster in the Southern Ijaw region.
According to the study, flooding is typically a transient event characterised by partial or whole inundation of a normally arid area of land, resulting from tidal or inland waterways overflowing, or by unusually rapid accumulation or run-off.1 According to T.R. Odubo, one of the Niger Delta region's most severely hit areas is Bayelsa State.2 There are several types of floods: flash, coastal, urban, pluvial (ponding), and riverine (riverine). River water overflows its banks during fluvial floods, which are typically caused by extreme rainfall. Conversely, pluvial floods happen when there is so much rainfall that the natural drainage channels get saturated and can no longer release water. When water unexpectedly and quickly rises to dangerous levels with little to no notice, flash floods happen. It frequently happens when there is a lot of rain in a confined space. Most often in metropolitan settings, improper drainage caused by land development results in urban floods. In place of permeable soil layers, impermeable paved surfaces are created, which prevent water from penetrating and result in increased runoff that floods parks, roads, and rivers. A coastal flood is simply when the sea floods a strip of land that touches the shore. When there is a strong storm (storm surge), high tide, a tsunami, or a combination of two or more of these, the sea may overrun or overtop flood defences such sea walls.
In general, floods have two main causes: natural factors like climate change and human activities like urbanisation and vegetation removal.3 Floods are mostly caused by climate change, particularly by rainfall. Flooding is known to be most frequently caused by prolonged rainfall worldwide. The way rivers are caught up by humans affects how floods behave. Floods' intensity and behaviour are directly impacted by changes in land use, in particular. Increased runoff and frequently a decline in channel capacity as a result of higher sedimentation rates are the outcomes of deforestation. In reference to global warming, Giddens, A. contended that the possible outcomes are reflected in the increasing sea levels brought on by climate change. This might lead to the melting of polar ice caps and the warming of the oceans, which would cause the oceans to expand and produce overflow or rising sea levels.4 This suggests that cities in low-lying locations or close to the shore may flood and become uninhabitable. The numerous floods that happened in most of Nigeria's coastal regions, including Southern Ijaw in Bayelsa State, may have also been brought on by this.
