The extent and nature of changing climate impacts on urban environmental security of Lagos Mega-city in Nigeria

The global population records from the mid-twentieth century have shown increasing total numbers of people living in urban areas. Consequently, the urbanisation trend in most of the developing economy countries have culminated in the growth of some of their cities to mega-urban centres. This includes Lagos Mega-city in Nigeria whose urbanisation brings both benefits and challenges. Among the challenges are negative impacts of changing climate with implications on urban society. This study assesses the perceptions of the extent and nature of climate variability and change impacts on urban environmental security of Lagos Mega-city in Nigeria through face-to-face interviews conducted on randomly chosen 400 adult household members in 3 purposefully selected communities in the city. Also, it engaged key informant interviews and focus group discussions to enhance the robustness of the data. The study indicates that the majority of the participants affirmed that the intensity of annual climate parameters such as rainfall and temperature in the city w increasing in the recent (0–5 years) when compared to 5 years and above. It identifies that changing climate at different times had created climate extremes in Lagos Mega-city that led to socio-economic, environmental and health insecurities. It also surmises that climate variability and change might have affected availability of natural resources for livelihood and also encourage biodiversity depletion. The study recommends city’s alignment with profound urban environmental security protocols to encourage its sustainable development.