ASSESSMENT OF FLOODRISK AND VULNERABILITY OF COMMUNITIES ALONG LOWER NIGER RIVER BASIN, ANAMBRA STATE, NIGERIA

Nigeria as a nation suffers the effect of Climate Change majorly through flood events. Anambra State is often one the most affected states due to its location along one of the country's major rivets and its major tributary (River Niger and River Anambra). In an effort to support the government's long term plan to mitigate the associated damages and casualties of flood disaster, this study assessed the floodrisk and vulnerability of communities along the Lower Niger River Basin in Anambra State, Nigeria. Digital Elevation Dataset from ASTER 1-arc second resolution, base map of Anambra State, past flood records and GPS coordinates of communities were integrated to map the flood vulnerability of one-hundred (100) communities to river Niger and river Anambra using ArcGIS 10.1. 18% of the communities were found to be highly vulnerable, 23% were vulnerable while 59% were marginally vulnerable. Communities in Ogbaru and Anambra West LGAs were found to be the mostly exposed to flood risk while those in Idemili south and Ihiala were the least. Urgent Evacuation of People during floods and permanent relocation of all the villages to higher terrain areas was recommended for the highly vulnerable zone.