Influence of Natural and Anthropogenic Factors on the Effects of Climate Change Induced Heat in Lokoja Urban Centre

Abstract

The debilitating effects of climate change are wreaking significant havoc in different parts of the world, a situation that is aggravated by natural and anthropogenic factors. This work sought to establish the influence of natural and anthropogenic factors on the effects of climate change induced heat in Lokoja urban centre and the objective is to identify the natural and manmade factors that aggravate the vulnerability of Lokoja urban centre to the effects of heat occasioned by climate change. The survey research method was used for the study with the administration of 800 copies of questionnaire for data gathering. The data was analyzed and the hypothesis tested using the stepwise regression analysis. The analysis revealed that there are natural and anthropogenic factors that aggravate the vulnerability of Lokoja to the effects of climate change. The natural factor is the location of Lokoja between River Niger and the Patti ridge, while the anthropogenic factors are; percentage built up area and hard surfaces resulting from roads, buildings and concrete pavements. As part of ations, it is posited that the overcrowding of building sites with buildings and hard surfaces like concrete paving and interlocking tiles should be discouraged through the enforcement of existing building density regulations and by laws that provide more open spaces within residential/commercial development/compounds in order to effectively control the increase of hard surfaces thereby reducing Land Surface Temperature (LST) within the study area.

Keywords: climate change, natural factors, anthropogenic factors, heat.