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An Assessment Of The Socio-economic Impacts (effects) Of Agulu-nanka Gully Erosion, Anambra State
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1.7 Scope of the study.
This section will be
discussed under two categories, namely area coverage of the study and
content. The coverage include erosion sites in Agulu-Nanka. Content of
the research will include a study of the social and economic
implications of gully erosion on the inhabitants of areas devastated by
gully erosion.
Social characteristics that will be studied include,
destruction of ancestral homeland resulting to forced relocation and
hence refugee in Own-Land; loss of source of water supply, experience of
trauma and frightful Scenic environment. On the other hand economic
characteristics that form the crux of the study will include loss of
building and furniture, farmland, planted crops, economic trees and
monetary contributions to gully control works.
1.8 Theoretical
framework The Davison theory is the earliest cause and effect oriented
theory on soil erosion. It holds that steep slopes are faster eroded
than gentle slopes and that stream or runoff velocities are solely
dependent on bed slopes, which got their derivation from this axiom.
This law is tantamount to an obvious conclusion by Davis (1990) that the
rate of change of landforms as well as other geometric impact
magnitudes are functions of local relief. It therefore implies that the
progressive changes on the terrain by the effects (impacts) of soil
erosion are accepted to be universally associated with a progressive
landscape evolution where the geometry of individual landforms and the
rate of their erosion changes are both subject to sequential
transformation through time.
The Ofomata’s (1987) Soil Erosion Model
for humid tropics incorporates both the biophysical and human components
in soil erosion cause and impact. The two major purposes that the Model
addressed are firstly, the clarification of the relative importance of
the numerous factors (causes) of soil erosion in southeastern Nigeria.
Secondly, the advancing of a guide for uniformity of soil erosion
research in all parts of the world in consonance with the second
purpose. The Model explains comparative study and assessment of soil
erosion in the entire humid tropical regions such that necessary
variants in the major components of the Model can be introduced by
specific local conditions. The model did not address the human impacts
of erosion.
The 1969 passage of the National Environmental Policy Act
in USA gave birth to the Environmental Impact Assessment. It was
earlier known as cost-Benefit-Analysis (CBA). Its effect on human being
or the human component of the environment was not at the centre focus.
In other words, it has no human dimension.
Interaction Matrix
Approach (IMA) has been earlier put forwards by Leopold, Clar, Hansaw
and Ralsley (1971) as the first environmental impact assessment
approach. It consist of ten (10) general categories of action on the
abscissa or horizontal axis. This consist of about eight hundred and
eighty eight (888) environmental factors or characteristic such as soil,
flora and land uses. The vertical axis or ordinate has four (4) general
categories with many impact characteristics. There are eight thousand
eight hundred (8800) cells (that is 100 x 88) on a full matrix. It is
denoted by (M/I) where M is
the magnitude of interaction and I is the importance of Interaction. Burton, Kates and White (1978) Model, opines that natural
hazards
are best viewed as ecological framework. This clearly explains that
natural hazards occur from conflicts between what can be referred to as
the natural event system and the human use system. The human
(socio-economic environment) is given a central role from this
interpretation of natural hazards. In the first place, through location.
Secondly, through human perception.
Consequently, Kates (1971)
concluded that hazard occurrences merely represent the extreme of
natural processes and their distributions and in a slightly different
context would often be regarded as natural resource. The study is based
on this theory. Figure 1. shows the ecological framework of natural
hazard.
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ] Soil erosion is the systematic removal of soil including plant nutrients from the land surface by various agents of denudation. This paper highlights the social and economic impacts of gulling in the area. Social effects include; loss of ancestral homes, loss of school building, loss of church building and loss of sources of water supply. Economic effects studied are loss of farmland, loss of planted crops, loss of shop/business premises and loss of economic trees. The study intends to id ... Continue reading---
