Aquatecture, a Climate-Responsive Building Innovative Strategy for the categories of floods affecting Buildings in Bayelsa State, Nigeria

Abstract

As climate change keeps aggravating the nature and frequency of flood occurrences, Aquatecture, a

water-centred innovative architectural design solution, seems to be a suitable solution for buildings in flood-prone

areas, as conventional flood mitigation strategies have been observed not to yield the desired results in Bayelsa State.

Floods are categorised internationally into minor, moderate, and major, based on their coverage, depth, and other

characteristics such as duration and frequency, which have a direct relationship to the level of destruction they cause

to buildings. Thus, this study seeks to examine the nature of the floods in Bayelsa State, using 2012 and 2018 as case

studies, to determine their categorisation and in order to recommend suitable climate-responsive Aquatecture design

strategies for the flood types in Bayelsa State. Secondary data enumerated the five standard Aquatecture strategies,

which are: Flood Avoidance, Flood-resistant buildings, Flood-resilient buildings, Floating Architecture, and Ambitious

Architecture. The study adopted a cross-sectional survey method to obtain primary data from a sample of 399 flood-

affected residents in the selected 12 communities, within the six affected local government areas. The results of the

study reveal that the 2012 and 2018 floods were both major floods, covering almost the entire affected local

government areas, having an average depth of 2.7m and 2.4m, respectively, lasting for long periods of 3 months in

2012 and 6 weeks in 2018, and flowing at a slow velocity. The study found that Flood Avoidance (Stilted / Elevated

Buildings), Floating Architecture, and Amphibious buildings as the most suitable Aquatecture approaches for the

major floods in Bayelsa State. The study recommends, amongst others, that new buildings to be built should adopt the

Stilted / Elevated Buildings design option. Also, Architects and building owners should explore the floating architecture

and amphibious building Aquatecture design option for new residential buildings to be built on the river banks.