ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sustain. Cities
Sec. Urban Resource Management
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frsc.2025.1616421
Ecohydrological Assessment of Densely Canalized Urban Waterways for Ecological Reconnection and Landscape Restoration in Lagos Metropolis: Nexus for Human-Nature Connectivity
Provisionally accepted
- Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, China
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Urban watershed and drainage infrastructure and networks provide cities with a wide range of benefits and solve a myriad of problems facing urban settlements. Due to the wetlands' neglect over the years, this study examines the application of hydrological assessment through landscape modeling to uncover environmental problems facing the densely populated Lagos metropolis. Data for the study were obtained through direct survey, remote sensing, and physical observation of the 145.68 km2 study area and green corridor. The adoption of Geographical Information System (GIS) analysis to identify flood direction, peaks and depressions, and watersheds aims to develop a spatial model to identify and prioritize this waterway corridor, improving landscape connectivity within the metropolis. The study obtained topographical data reports using a simple kriging predictor to determine the geostatistics and spatial analysis used to examine rainfall threat, flood hazards, and susceptibility, which was conducted at the community levels following the highlights of six zones. Aligning the study with established Flood Risk Index (FRI) ranging from 0% to 100%, the Urban River Restoration Index (URRIx), ranging from 0 to 1 and flood factor risk score ranging from 1 to 10 which shows that whenever it is equal to zero (on the scale of 0-1), there are no risk and threat whatsoever and 1/10 risk score shows that there are minimal risk. The continuous decrease in watershed biodiversity due to an increase in anthropogenic activities has disrupted the integrity of habitats and the environmental sustainability of the metropolis, as well as areas susceptible to high flood impacts. The conclusion called for immediate restoration action by the policymakers, stakeholders, and researchers to prioritize the waterways for sustainable development and metropolitan transitioning, considering the findings that maintaining a human-nature connectivity balance in urban areas where natural ecosystems are quickly replaced by human activities is worrisome.
Keywords: Flood plain, Urban Green Infrastructure, urban design, Watershed management, wetlands
Received: 22 Apr 2025; Accepted: 28 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Adesina, Tang, Ren, Jiang, Fuh and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
John Adekunle Adesina, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, China
Xiaolan Tang, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, China
Yujie Ren, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, China
Hongchao Jiang, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, China
Winchester Ndum Fuh, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, China
Ying Zhang, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, China
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