Floods are natural events where a typically dry area or piece of land suddenly submerges under water [1]. Floods are one of the most common natural disasters worldwide [2]. They can occur in many different parts of the world and can be caused by a variety of factors, including heavy rainfall, melting snow, rising sea levels, and the failure of man-made structures such as dams or levees [3]. Floods can cause significant damage to homes, businesses, and infrastructure, as well as pose a risk to human safety.
About 2.8 billion people are affected by floods worldwide, which have caused over 200,000 fatalities over the past three decades [2]. According to the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030, four priorities for action to prevent new and reduce existing disaster risks were established to include: understanding disaster risk; strengthening disaster risk governance to manage disaster risk; investing in disaster reduction for resilience and enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response. Environmental dangers like flooding are not a recent occurrence. What is novel, though, is the growing severity of the harm done to people and property as a result of the large-scale and frequently occurring floods observed in developing nations like Nigeria. Studies on water, poverty, and flooding have noted an increase in flood frequency and intensity in recent years, which has had an impact on agriculture, health, and education as well as resulted in fatalities, injuries, and homelessness [4–6]. The devastation caused by flooding in Nigeria in recent years got so extreme that it was regarded as a national disaster. Akwa Ibom State was one of the 34 states out of the 36 in the nation to suffer the most from the flood [7].
In Nigeria, flooding is the most frequent disaster [8]. The majority of Nigeria's states experience annual flooding during the rainy seasons more frequently as a result of more precipitation connected to climate change [9]. Rainfall flooding, unlike some other natural disasters, may be managed with careful planning and the installation of the required infrastructure [10, 11]. The majority of Nigeria's flooding is caused by human activity, with current subpar urban planning techniques and a lack of or insufficient environmental infrastructure both contributing to and aggravating the problem. For instance, the lack of a national Flood Risk Management (FRM) plan or thorough flood risk maps are signs that the flooding issue in Nigeria is not being given enough attention [8]. This shows that developing and putting into practice suitable flood risk management techniques, which include sound spatial planning and infrastructure, would help control the floods that negatively affect Nigeria's sustainable development [12].
Urbanization, which led to significant alteration of the natural environment in an effort for man to achieve a particular level of comfort, can be blamed for the flooding in Uyo [13, 14]. Flooding has caused a number of environmental and health problems in Atan Offot and its neighboring settlements, including the loss of arable soils, a decline in soil productivity, deterioration of water quality, ground and surface water contamination, water and airborne diseases, and fatalities [15, 16]. The approach to this study is the frequency and severity of occurrence, and the ways in which communities have adapted to and managed them over time. The primary source used field observations, an interview schedule, and the administration of questionnaires. Data that was taken from journals and other secondary sources was used to create secondary data. The majority of the information used in the data analysis came from the copies of the questionnaire that were collected from the respondents and from the scheduled interviews with some stakeholders. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data, including percentage, frequency, tables, etc. The data was presented further using narratives as well. The socio-economic effects of the flood in the area were therefore thoroughly investigated in this study.
1.1.Study Area
The area of landmass covered by Uyo Local Government Area is roughly 606.1 square kilometers with coordinates 5o10’0”N 7o59’0”E. Geographically, Uruan Local Government Area borders Uyo on the east, Abak Local Government Area borders Uyo on the west, Ikono, Ibiono Ibom, and Itu Local Government Areas border Uyo on the north, and Nsit Ibom, Etinan, and Ibesikpo Asutan Local Government Areas border Uyo on the south.
Atan Offot is a village located in Uyo, Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, South-south, Nigeria. The actual area for this work lies within coordinates 5o01’12”N 7o53’58”E. This was measured utilizing a global positioning system (GPS). The pattern of rainfall is bimodal. Rainfall starts in mid-March and ends around mid-November, with a brief dry spell in August known as "the August break." The average annual rainfall during the rainy season is typically high, ranging from over 3500 mm by the coast to over 2000 mm inland. The mean annual temperature is between 26 and 28°C during the dry season, which begins in November and lasts until February or March. Between January and February, when the sun is directly overhead, the temperatures are at their maximum. 75 to 90% relative humidity levels are typical, which are relatively high. Over eighty percent (80%) of Akwa Ibom State is made up of alluvial deposited sands and clays, which together make up the Benin Formation, also referred to as "coastal plain sands."
