TITLE:
Flood Mitigation Parameters of Apiti Wetlands Soil in a Segment of Mamu River Basin, Nigeria
AUTHORS:
Nkiru A. Ezenwaji, Emma E. Ezenwaji, Anthony C. Okoye
KEYWORDS:
Component, Apiti, Basin, Flood, Mitigation, Wetland
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Environmental Protection,
Vol.6 No.2,
February
25,
2015
ABSTRACT: Wetlands are essential components of our global
ecosystem. They have important functions which include maintenance of the
environment through mitigating the degree of flooding, regulating the local and
global climate and lessening the degree of erosion by trapping sediments. The
aim of this research is therefore to investigate how relevant wetland
parameters mitigate flood in Apiti wetland soil of middle River Mamu basin of
Nigeria. For the purpose of the study, the wetland was divided into three; A
(the upland region), B (the flood plain), and C (the raffia palm area). The
soil flood mitigation parameters examined are bulk weight, moisture content,
and saturation water content. These were employed to calculate the volume of
flood mitigation within three sub-sites of the wetland. The
statistical methods employed were One Way ANOVA and Students t-Test to see whether differences occur
in the flood mitigating ability of the soil. Results obtained show that flood
mitigation was highest within study site B (flood plain) with 6.4 × 106 m3 volume of flood mitigation and lowest in site A (upland region)
with 1.5 × 106 m3. In conclusion we recommended that the
study be scaled up to other wetlands in Nigeria.