2021

Author(s): Owuor MO, Mwiturubani DA

Nairobi's settlements are vulnerable to urban flooding exacerbated by anthropogenic factors. Households living in flood-prone areas suffer perennially. However, little scientific evidence exists on the relationship between impacts of flooding and coping strategies in Nairobi's settlements. In this study, primary data was obtained through ground-truth surveys and administration of questionnaires to 310 households in Nairobi's crowded informal settlements of Mathare Kosovo and Kibera Mashimoni. Information captured included their bio-data, knowledge and perception of flooding, socio-economic, susceptibility and recovery indicators. Secondary data was mainly from literature review. The findings of the canonical correlation revealed that an insignificant relationship of 0.2964 and 0.2503 existed between flooding impacts and coping strategies adopted by households and communities respectively. Floods caused inaccessibility of houses, workplaces and schools, damages to settlements infrastructure, drowning, diseases and displacement of residents. The indirect impacts were loss of livelihoods, environmental degradation, loss of manhours in traffic jams and economic loss. This study is novel in that it provides empirical scientific evidence on the nexus between impacts of flooding and coping strategies in an urban settlement. It augments existing literature on flood risks in urban settlements. It also provides an entry point for policy and decision makers such as scientists, private sector leaders, urban planners and government technocrats to make informed policy guidelines and intervention strategies.

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2021.102480