Nature, the built environment and perennial flooding in Lagos, Nigeria: The 2012 flood as a case study

Flooding as a problem often associated with the built urban environment is well established. Large scale impervious surfaces reduce the land area available for water to seep into the ground to augment ground water. But often, flooding is induced or exacerbated by man's interference in nature's way of draining its catchments or basins, thereby upsetting the balance. This paper examines the recurrent flooding in Lagos with the June 27, 2012 episode as a case study in order to project similar occurrences into the future and determine how interfering with the landscape has contributed to this and other flood events. It was noted that developments along major natural water pathways create bottlenecks which may be transmitted upstream along tributaries, especially if those also have been interfered with via development, or waste dumping. Among others, this paper suggests that fixing the city to restore its ecological balance, and adopting modern technology for surfacing by utilizing absorbent concrete will restore some sanity to the flooding situation even in the face of single, high-volume rainfall events.