Abstract:
According to United Nation Environmental Program document of 2010, Climate Change is
one of the major challenges of our time; it adds considerable stress to our societies and to
the environment. From shifting weather patterns that threaten food production, to rising
sea levels that increases the risk of catastrophic flooding, the impacts of climate change are
global in scope and unprecedented in scale. This study focuses on the assessment of
vulnerability of coastal communities to sea level rise resulting from natural and
anthropogenic processes.
A Landsat satellite image of 2005 of the study area was classified, land cover map was
generated after which four classes of land cover was vectorized namely: Built-up, Light
forest, Mangrove forest and water body. Elevation data was generated from the Shuttle
Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM) of 2008. This was used to create a slope map of the
study area. Then, proximity map was generated using Euclidean distance from the water
body. The three parameters; land cover, Slope and Proximity maps were weighted and
overlaid to determine the vulnerability levels of the study area to coastal flooding.
The study reveals a predominant slope of 0 – 0.5 and elevation of 0 – 5m above mean
sea level. The tide analysis reveals two set of high and low water level per day with a
significant diurnal inequality. A highest tide level of 2.6m and lowest tide level of 0.10m
was observed. This suggests a likely incursion of water into areas of elevation 0 – 2m
above mean sea level. The study covers a total area of 35,408Hectares, 5,901Hectares
(16.7%) of the study areas are highly vulnerable, 20,851Hectares (58.9%) are moderately
vulnerable, 8,296(23.4%) are low vulnerable areas whereas just 360Hectares (1.0%) are
non vulnerable areas of the study.
The study suggested that State and Local government should collaborate to establish
sustained agencies, policies and initiatives for sea level rise adaptation.
