Building contraventions and incidence of flood in the Lagos Metropolis, Nigeria

Abstract

Frequent floods have led to loss of lives and destruction of property in both coastal and landlocked cities across the globe, particularly where floodplains have been developed without recourse to space standards. This paper investigated the contributions of contravention of building codes to flooding in flood-prone areas in the Lagos metropolis. Global Positioning Systems (GPSs) were used to determine the location and elevation above sea level of 1,025 buildings situated in 211 streets that were prone to flooding. The distance of buildings from drainage channels/the lagoon was determined in ArcGIS 10.2 environment. Findings revealed that building code contravention contributed significantly to flooding (r = 0.926). About 63.5% and 63.3% of sampled buildings contravened building-plot ratio and statutory setbacks from drainage channels/the lagoon, respectively. Proactive urban planning, strict enforcement of building codes and development control regulations are required to reduce flooding and its consequences in cities of developing nations where flooding has become an annual occurrence.

Keywords:

• building contravention
• setback, flood, Lagos metropolis

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) for financing this study through the Coastal City at Risk Project (CCaR) Lagos and Dr Ibidun O. Adelekan, Department of Geography, University of Ibadan for her extensive review of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Coastal City at Risk Project (CCaR) with [grant number 106372-011].