Assessing the socio-economic impact of gully erosion in Chikun Local Government Area, Kaduna State, Nigeria

Abstract

The earth’s landforms are closely inter-related and some of the observation which has been made with the passing of time shows that these landforms are acted upon by the processes of erosion causing the landforms to undergo a progressive change from initial forms sequentially to ultimate forms. The aim of this study is to assess the adverse social and economic implications of gully erosion hazards in Chikun local government area, Kaduna State, Nigeria. The study intends to identify the percentage of the residents according to localities that have suffered socially and economically from gully incidents. It also intends to determine the relationship between adverse social and economic effects suffered by the affected people in the various localities of the study area. The settlements studied are in Chikun local government area, Kaduna State Data for the study was collected from two major sources; primary source and secondary source. Primary source of data are direct observation from fieldwork and the use of questionnaire while the secondary source include topographic map and library materials. Descriptive statistical tools were applied to deal with the techniques of summarizing and describing data collected. Percentages, proportion and mean were applied to get other parameters such as expected frequencies. Pearson’s co-efficient of correlation was used to analyze the relationship between the social and economic effects of gully erosion in the area. The study recommended that an integrated catchments drainage system is lacking in the study area and this can be controlled. The control is surface run off and maintenance of stable soil slopes in gullies involves engineering schemes.

Keywords: Gully Erosion, Social, Economic, Impacts, Environment, Soil