Spatial dimension of climate change vulnerability and urbanization relationship in Nigeria

Abstract

ABSTRACT The interaction between urbanization and climate change and their associated impact on human society is increasingly being documented. This study concerns the relationship between urbanization and climate change vulnerability. Specifically, it investigates the spatial aspect of the relationship between climate change vulnerability and urbanization in Nigeria. The study is vital because the relationship between urbanization and climate change in Africa has remained unclear. An exploration and comprehension of country-specific relationships in Africa have remained scarce. In Nigeria, efforts to research climate change vulnerability (CCV) have not looked at its connection with urbanization. Via an integrated vulnerability assessment and based on secondary data, the paper examines the effect of urbanization on climate change vulnerability. It argues that urbanization does not significantly increase CCV in Nigeria. It shows that urbanization and CCV have a significant negative relationship in Nigeria, suggesting that more urban states have lower levels of CCV than relatively more rural states. However, it indicates that relatively more urban states in Nigeria tend to have lower sensitivity and higher adaptive capacity to climate change, but there is no clear rural-urban difference in exposure to climate change. It follows that while there is a rural-urban disparity in CCV, individual components of vulnerability may exhibit a different relationship with urbanization. Thus, it concludes that the impact of climate change is dynamic and complex. Hence, there is a need to open the urbanization-climate change nexus to a lively debate to further climate change scholarship. Thus, while taking an all-inclusive approach to addressing climate change is desirable, it is vital also to explore the impacts of individual elements that comprise vulnerability.