# Flooding Conceptual Review: Sustainability-Focalized Best Practices in Nigeria
## 2 Flood Impact in Nigeria  
In Nigeria, flooding displaces more people than any other natural disaster with an estimated 20% of the population at risk [8; 9]. This perennial problem consistently results in death and displacement of communities. The number of flood-related fatalities has varied significantly from flood-to-flood with the percentage of displaced versus killed persons not conclusive in the literature. Groundwater into verifying the correlative connection between the two would require an in-depth data mining check on fatalities and an analytical breakdown of each flood occurrence to date. Using this method, we performed a preliminary calculation of 34 floods and found results ranging from 0.0% to 2.8% for larger-scaled floods versus 0.0% to 42.8% for smaller-scaled ones. In about half of the flood events no fatalities occurred. The higher smaller-scaled percentages related to examples like the event from 7 August 2005 in Jigawa State in which 7 persons were displaced and 3 died. On the other hand, at the larger-end of the scale, in 2012 for example, flooding caused more than two million to be displaced with hundreds of fatalities--resulting in more deaths, but at a much lower percentage. In any case, flood fatalities warrant further research, beyond the scope of this review; they alarming pose a real threat to citizeny and stress the continued need into best practices nation-wide. Equally concerning, flooding has become increasingly severe and more frequent throughout the country. Unfortunately, impacts are felt more by the urban poor where recovery is unlikely without external aid [10]. As a result, the urban poor are most vulnerable since they often build homes along a floodplain. Flooding in various parts of Nigeria have caused four notable problems: (1) forced millions to relocate, (2) destroyed businesses, (3) polluted water resources and (4) increased risk of disease [11; 12]. In the last few decades, high annual seasonal rainfall prediction (SRP), conducted by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency, affirm irregular flooding and consequential suffering for many parts of the country. The national response to SRP has been anything but communicative or comprehensive. Flood management, by in large, is a reactionary aftereffect with relief provided to unfortunate victims. Management is limited to waiting for an event to occur with limited SRP mass communication, hazard prevention or associated risk reduction efforts [3; 13]. The notion of flood risk reduction largely depends on the amount of available information and regional knowledge affecting ongoing events. A lack of accurate hydrometeorological data affects the uncertainties associated with flash flooding and relating tidal wave hazards. There is, therefore, an urgent need to introduce mitigation measures to ensure that these areas are protected so flooding can be minimized. Demands for the use of modern day techniques identify steps that will help government and relief agencies identify flood prone areas and help with future flood prevention. Several researchers have examined the utilization of remote sensing and geographic information system (GIS) data in regards to flood risk [7; 13]. [PERSON] and [PERSON] [14] applied GIS within a flood risk assessment analysis to a wide variety of countries around the world. Their research formulated risk assessment into five categories: (1) meteorological parameters, (2) hydrological parameters, (3) socioeconomic factors, (4) combination of hydrometeorological and socioeconomic factors and (5) GIS predictive testing. In reference to the latter, [PERSON]'s [15] research utilized and identified specific GIS itemized variables (e.g., land use, land cover and soil strength) correlating with varying areas of flood prone probability (i.e., low, medium and high levels). This predictive research overlay focalized urban flooding within Benin City, Nigeria and created a digital database for land relief mapping.