Evaluating flood adaptation governance in the city of Calabar, Nigeria

ABSTRACT

The increasing demand for cities in developing societies to embed climate adaptation into policies and practices has implications for the governance system which mainly focus on governing by traditional hierarchical forms, and by network while neglecting other forms of governing. This raises fundamental questions concerning how governing arrangements support or constrain climate hazard management. The paper assesses existing approaches to adapting to climate hazards in Calabar metropolis in Nigeria, where flooding is a major hazard. The governance systems adopted in the context of flood adaptation and their implication for practice is further investigated, and the strategies necessary for an improved implementation of climate hazard adaptation at the local governance level examined. Data for the study is collected from a stakeholder workshop and document analysis. Despite calls for decentralized governance and prevalence of a hierarchical system, other forms of governing coexist alongside these systems in Calabar. Five key strategies which should form the basis of urban climate hazard adaptation in practice, as identified by stakeholders, are synergy of activities among stakeholders; enforcement devoid of politics and bureaucracy, capacity building and information/data availability; increased focus on international cooperation and funding; and consideration of connections between flooding and other urban processes.

KEYWORDS:

• Climate hazard
• cities
• developing countries
• informal interaction
• flood adaptation
• governance

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Olalekan Adekola is a Lecturer in Geography at York St John University, United Kingdom. His research interest lies at the intersection of geography, environmental science and developmental studies and encompasses many areas in the study of human–environment interactions including climate change governance and flood risk management.

Jessica Lamond is Professor in Real Estate and Climate Risk at the University of the West of England. She has over 15 years of research in the impacts of and adaptation to flooding and other climate hazards in the built environment. Recently she led theme D urban land planning and management and managed the climate resilient infrastructure project as part of the Urbanisation Nigeria Research Programme for DFID.

Ibidun Adelekan is a Professor of Geography at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Her research interests are in the areas of climate – society interactions and human dimensions of global environmental change, including urban risks and vulnerability/resilience of human–environment systems to climate variability and climate change.

Eze Bassey Eze is a Professor of Geography in the Geography and Environmental Sciences, University of Calabar, Nigeria. His interests lie in the area of Hydrogeomorphology. He has held various academic and administrative positions including as an external examiner to universities in Ghana and Cameroon.