LAGOS – Dr Shakirudeen Odunugam, a lecturer with the University of Lagos, on Wednesday urged the state government and its councils to provide funds for flood mapping and environmental protection.
Odunuga said this at the stakeholders’ workshop on Transformation and Resilience of Urban Coast (TRUC), Lagos Mega – City held in Lagos.
He said there was the need for governments at all levels to provide funding to assist in gathering data for global flood mapping, saying it would assist in physical and environmental transformation.
Odunuga said such data would be fed into the global flood risk indepth flood mapping.
He said cities involved in the global flood mapping included London, New York, Tokyo, Calcutta, India and Lagos.
Odunuga said the result of such effort would be used for proper planning of urban cities, to reduce the negative effects of flooding and for environmental sustainability.
“Flood mapping is an exercise that defines those areas which are at risk of flooding under certain conditions.
“The primary aim is to reduce the impact of flooding through enhanced understanding and awakening on flood and its risk.
“It also improves preparedness for future flood event and flood risk management,” he said.
Odunuga said there was the need for guidelines for flood mapping in order to pursue the process of establishing flood hazards maps.
He called on all relevant agencies to also provide the necessary data needed for development.
In his presentation, Dr Julius Agboola, a research scientist with Land Ocean Interaction in Global Zones, said that the initiative was aimed at creating the ability to make use of flood data in order for users to be more resilient.
Agboola said it would also bring about the development of the aquatic system.
“The major problem we have in Lagos coastal zone is the sea level rise and ocean surge. And we want to learn how to cope with it as done in Tokyo and to generate data for change in Lagos,’’ he said.
The aim of the workshop was to create awareness on the need to build database to contribute to global flood mapping. (NAN)
