Impact of Climate Change-Induced Coastal Erosion on Infrastructure in Ilaje Local Government Area, Nigeria

Abstract

The study appraised the impact of climate change-induced coastal erosion on infrastructure in Ilaje Local Government area, Nigeria. The study investigated the trend of climate variability, as it focuses on temperature and rainfall data. It adopted mixed method of qualitative and quantitative approaches. Questionnaire, personal observation, Geographic Information System (GIS) and archival climatic data were used. Using Systematic Sampling Technique, 338 copies of questionnaire were administered and analyzed using SPSS 8.1. Mann Kendall Trend Analysis was adopted to analyze the temperature and rainfall data for a period of 35 years; between 1980 and 2015, whileLandsat TM 2008 and OLI 2023 of Ayetoro community in Ilaje LGA were adopted. All geo-processing operations and analyses were carried out in ILWIS 3.1 and ArcGIS 10.4 software. The variability of temperature and rainfall pattern, is an evidence of climate change menace in the study area. Findings revealed that, in 2008, Ayetoro, a prominent coastal community in Ilaje, experienced sea incursion induced by climate change, as this resulted to coastal erosion. Buildings were and people were displaced while Ayetoro city hall and the community primary school were almost affected. While in 2023, a total number of 260 houses, the city hall and the community primary school were already submerged into the sea. The study recommends theadoption of an Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) framework for coordinated coastal planning and implementation of nature-based and hybrid coastal protection strategies