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Assessment Of Climate Change And Variability In Coastal Region
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This coastal city is situated within latitude 6°23’N and 6°41’N and longitude 2°42’E and 3°42’E (Fig 1).
Figure
1: Lagos Coastal City (Source: Vulnerability of Poor Urban Coastal
Communities to Climate Change in Lagos, Nigeria. Fifth Urban Research
Symposium 2009
Lagos State is situated in south western Nigeria,
bordered in the north and east by Ogun State, in the west by the
Republic of Benin and in the south by the Atlantic Ocean. The state has
an area of approximately 3,345 square kilometres, which is about 0.4%
of the total area of Nigeria (Fig 1).
Lagos State has a coastline of
approximately 180km, underlined by sedimentary rocks; the state is on a
coastline plain characterized by predominantly flat terrain, with an
average elevation of less than 1.5m above sea level (BNRCC, 2012a). The
land slopes gently from the interior to the sea. Water bodies and
wetlands cover over 40% of the total land area of the state and an
additional 12% is subject to seasonal flooding (BNRCC, 2012b). The
coastal areas consist of a complex belt of barrier islands with active
ocean, beaches, lagoon and lagoon beaches, lagoon inlets, creeks,
rivers, swamps and sandy uplands and plains. The importance of the
coastal zone lies in the fact that it is not only already heavily
urbanized but rapid urbanization is continuing, exposing people,
infrastructure and tourism industry to greater risk of climate change
impact, particularly seal level rise (Okude and Ademiluyi, 2006).
1.4.2: CLIMATE.
The
climate of Lagos state is the wet equatorial type due to its nearness
to the equator and the Gulf of Guinea. Lagos is located partly in the
swampy mangrove and partly rainforest regions of West Africa with annual
maxima bi-modal rainfall. It receives mean annual rainfall of about
2000mm (Ojo et al., 2004). Lagos has a tropical savannah climate that is
similar to that of the rest of southern Nigeria. There are two rainy
seasons, with heaviest rains falling from April to July and a weaker
rainy season in October and November. There is a brief relative dry
spell in August and a longer dry season from December to March. The
main dry season is accompanied by harmattan winds from the Sahara
Desert, which between December and early February can be quite strong.
Lagos state has consistently high temperatures, with the mean monthly
maximum temperature of about 30°C (Iwugo et al., 2003).
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