Mitigating Physical Vulnerabilities of Coastal Communities: A strategy for land value enhancement in Obuama, Nigeria

ABSTRACT: Physical vulnerabilities of coastal communities in Obuama area of Rivers State wereinvestigated to ascertainif there is a relationship between physical vulnerability and land value trends andwhether mitigation through the application of sustainable land management (SLM) tools can be used tomitigatethese vulnerabilities.Indicators of Physical Vulnerabilities such as accessibility in terms of road infrastructure,design of buildings, construction, amenities and population density were considered.A pragmatic researchphilosophy was adopted with a case study strategy. Data was collected key informant interviews, fieldobservation and discussions. Yardsticks for mitigation and sustainable land management tools were obtainedvia secondary sources. Data was analysed using Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) and trendanalysis. The findings reveal that Obuama communities are prone to physical vulnerabilities and severalcommunities/fishing settlements suffer similar pattern of vulnerabilities. The study revealed that areas that havefewer vulnerabilities had land values higher than areas that had higher physical vulnerabilities. However, inareas with medium to high physical vulnerability, land values remain similar irrespective of the highvulnerability which may be attributed to other factors such as high demand and fixed supply due to terrainchallenges. The study recommends the introduction of SLM Mitigation tools such as land use planning; coastalmapping; coastal/wetland planning; community master plan development which can reduce vulnerability andultimately improve land values. The authors recommend an interventionist partnership with government andinternational agencies, advocacies and blue financing that will lead to an increase in land values in the studyarea.

Keywords:Physical vulnerability, mitigation, coastal communities, land management, land values