Climate change, sea level rise and coastal inundation along part of Nigeria Barrier Lagoon Coast

Abstract

The phenomenon of ocean surges and other morphological processes  along the Lagos coastline have generated serious public concern on the vulnerability of infrastructures and coastal services along the entire stretch of the Barrier-Lagoon coastline of Lagos State. This study examines  Badagry coastal environment inundations that arise from sea level rise. The study uses an iterative GIS-based simulation that mapped area  inundated based on Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (IPCC –SRES) classification (A1, A1T, B2, A1B and A2) and Locally Oriented Economic Development Scenarios  (LOEDS). The results of IPCC-SRES scenario analysis show that area  inundated at the high emission and worse case sea level rise is less than 0.13% of the study area while the LOEDS inundation area starts having significant impacts as from 4 meter rise in sea level. Since it is only environmental catastrophism and anthropogenic activities that can attain such serious dimension at local, regional and global scales in sea level, it is recommended that coastal protection infrastructures should be   integrated in any major developmental activities