Analysis of Two Decades of Research on Post-Flood Intervention Management in Nigeria

Analysis of Two Decades of Research on Post-Flood Intervention Management in Nigeria

Sadiq Alhaji Abubakar^*, Haryati Binti Shafii

Faculty of Technology Management and Business FPTP, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, UTHM

*Corresponding Author

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2025.907000458

Received: 04 July 2025; Accepted: 12 July 2025; Published: 22 August 2025

ABSTRACT

Flooding is a significant calamity that annually affects worldwide. Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa, and it faces floods, which are one of nature’s risks that are linked to danger, fatalities, property damage, injuries, and physiological impacts. Nigeria has experienced flooding in several states over time. These frequent floods affect states of Lagos, Anambra, Borno, Enugu, Rivers, Taraba, Kogi, Benue, Yobe, Katsina, Niger, Kano, and Nasarawa have harmed property, impacted the environment, spread illness, and put human and animal lives in jeopardy. This article provides a comprehensive analysis of two decades of research on post-flood intervention management in Nigeria. Understanding the dynamics of flood control and its repercussions depends on the results of this research. In this article, we look at the changing tactics, adaptation, resilience, problems, and creative solutions that have developed in response to frequent flooding. The bibliometric (publication evolutions, collaboration networking between institutions and countries) and text mining analysis (based on terms co-occurrence algorithm used to look at the titles and abstracts of various publications) was performed using the VOSviewer software version 1.6.1.9, employing both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. Two research objectives were addressed by analysing 246 articles from the Scopus database between 2003 and 2023 that dealt with flood intervention management in Nigeria. The study identified 5 themes. The study revealed that psychological impact and mental wellbeing intervention management of post-flood received little attention alongside other gaps mentioned under the implications and direction for further research.

Keywords: Psychological adaptation, resilience, flood intervention and Flood Risk Management (FRM)

INTRODUCTION

Flood disasters, one of the most common and pervasive natural calamities in the world, have a profound detrimental effect on human societies. A convergence of climatic and hydrological extremes causes these inundations, which typically drown dry areas Ansari et. al (2022). In communities and regions around the world, their fundamental characteristics as natural hydrological phenomena have a huge social, economic, and environmental impact Chan et. al (2022). Since floods are becoming more frequent and intense due to factors including climate change, urbanisation, and deforestation, effective flood disaster management is now at the forefront of disaster planning and mitigation strategies Atanga (2020). A frequent natural environmental concern is flooding, especially in developing nations. Notably, flooding in Nigeria displaces more people than other natural disasters and puts roughly 20% of the population in danger Cirella and Iyalomhe (2018). While Gober and Wheater (2015) stressed that some people may view floods as “acts of God,” human behaviour can either amplify or mitigate the impacts of hydrological extremes. Flood losses are mostly the result of “acts of man,” they acknowledge. Additionally, Zhang and Wang (2022) stated that the most common and severe natural disasters brought on by global climate change are floods.

RESEARCH BACKGROUND

Natural disasters like floods can have a significant negative impact on infrastructure as well as human lives, with reverberating impacts on the affected regions around the globe. In this context, several interventions have been made to minimise the impact of floods. Non-structural as well as structural interventions are possible for these initiatives, said Manglem Singh and Nilakanta Sharma (2023). However, both structural and non-structural flood risk reduction strategies have been put in place over time to safeguard people and property from floods’ frequent and consistent recurrence Ansari et. al (2022). Furthermore, urban flooding is a serious threat to many cities throughout the world and calls for tailored countermeasures. Modern flood forecasting and warning systems offer extremely early notice of flash floods and the severity of flooding, which is crucial for sounding the alarm in metropolitan areas (Lee et. al 2020).

However, risk-informed land-use planning and regulations are used as part of flood intervention management (FIM), which is a part of DRR, with the aim of decreasing the causes of catastrophes and the resulting losses Der Sarkissian et. al. (2022). However, lakes and reservoirs may contain flooding, which is a great defence against flood disasters that has recently been discovered Wang et. al. (2022). A smart technique to avoid flooding and minimise damage is to elevate buildings and infrastructure above expected flood levels Hasanpour and Istrat (2022). Levees, man-made barriers along natural water bodies, protect low-lying areas from flooding. By keeping water inside their bounds, these raised buildings prevent neighbouring important residential or business areas from flooding, Kuchi et. al (2021).

Danhassan et al (2023), mentioned that due to the growing frequency of floods across Africa, notably in Nigeria, a well-coordinated, multidisciplinary intervention and management approach is urgently required. Creating collaborations between governments, local communities, NGOs, and international organisations becomes more important as climate change perpetuates and worsens these natural disasters. According to Safiah Yusmah (2020) stated that Floods can have significant effects, but they can be mitigated, and the way is opened for more resilient and sustainable futures in these susceptible places with a comprehensive plan that addresses prevention, readiness, response, and recovery.

The main goal of this study is to create a thorough understanding of post-flood intervention management in Nigeria, including key trends and research themes, a critical assessment of the qualities and suggestions for further study. This was achieved by reviewing the body of knowledge on FIM between two decades. The analysis performed in this work provides a platform for directing ongoing future research. A mixed-methods approach integrating bibliometric and text mining analysis was employed to achieve these research objectives.

Objective 1: To study flood intervention management in Nigeria for two decades.

Objective 2: To determine/ evaluate research trends and themes on FIM in Nigeria for two decades.

This paper starts with an introduction to floods and intervention management, background of the research, and the objectives of the research to achieve the desired goals. Moreover, prospects and challenges of FIM, consisting of data sampling (gathering and cleaning), data analysis, bibliometric and text mining. The result and discussion of this paper consist of the bibliometric mapping of extended studies. The bibliometric analysis indicators are presented in this section to achieve the first research objective. The presentation includes descriptive findings, citation analysis, collaboration networks, and bibliometric coupling. The second research objective goes with descriptive analysis (publication evolution), citation analysis (core articles and authors), collaboration analysis (countries and institutions), and co-word analysis (identifying hotspots) to meet the main research themes and trends that were found using text mining. The implications of research and directions for further studies are presented, and finally, the research conclusion is attained.

Nigeria’s Flood Intervention Management: Opportunities and Challenges

Nigeria already faces environmental issues brought on by anthropogenic climate change,, stressing the need for knowledge-based policy for effective mitigation and adaptation strategies according to Okon et. al (2021). Furthermore, because floods have a detrimental effect on the environment, social life, economy, and health, they pose a challenge to sustainability. The possibility of flooding prevents Nigeria from attaining the world’s sustainable development goals, said Adaku Jane Echendu (2021). Similarly, Oladokun and Proverbs (2016) revealed in a study that sustainability is threatened by floods because of their negative impact on the economy, health, social life, and environment. To achieve the global sustainable development goals, Nigeria must overcome its flooding problem. Along with the technological and budgetary difficulties that many government organisations have encountered, the lack of efficient cooperation among these organisations has made it difficult to achieve great FRM results. Moreover, according to Daramola et. al (2016), like other unexpected events, natural disasters such as floods pose serious obstacles to the development of human capital and the ongoing struggle against poverty. Due to these circumstances, people and families deal with their troubles by changing several aspects of their lives. In another development, natural catastrophes like floods pose a serious threat to a nation’s economy and have a negative impact on several sectors, including banking, energy, transportation, investment, manufacturing, and social welfare. Disasters have a huge economic impact and cause significant losses that are difficult to evaluate in terms of damage and recovery costs stated by (2012). However, inadequate mechanisms for disaster prevention, preparedness, mitigation, and response are among the challenges associated with natural disasters in Nigeria. These issues are intertwined with the effects of factors that aggravate the suffering of victims, leading to an increase in casualties and an increase in displaced people, coupled with a lack of modern tools and technical know-how inside public institutions, which impedes the nation’s ability to respond to disasters effectively. Furthermore, natural disasters worsen people’s preexisting vulnerabilities, especially for underprivileged groups, while underlying socioeconomic issues, including poverty, unemployment, and illiteracy, obstruct recovery and resilience efforts  Gwaza, 2014).

However, floods that naturally occur in locations without human populations provide a number of advantages, as stated by (Olanrewaju, Chitakira, Olanrewaju, Louw, et al., 2019; Opperman et al., 2013) which includes supporting natural water balance, nutrient-rich sediment deposition that revitalises ecosystems, aquifer replenishment that helps groundwater stores, habitat creation that increases biodiversity, floodplain enrichment that improves soil fertility, fish population growth, availability of aquatic resources, preservation of hydrological cycles, and sediment transport that helps the riverbed. Similarly, Cirella and Iyalomhe (2018) indicated in their work that, despite problems, floods present chances for profound transformation. Moreover, according to Olorunlana et. al (2022) feels that comprehending the causes of floods is crucial because it reveals the elements that contributed to the loss of life, property, and resources, which directly affects the long-term viability of communities. This information empowers locals to take decisive action to lessen these causes, boosting resilience and quick response, which can improve disaster readiness, supported by state-of-the-art monitoring technologies and early warnings, can proactively save lives, and lessen the negative effects of floods.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Fig. 1 Operational Framework of the Research

Data Sampling, Gathering, and Cleaning.

To ensure that relevant papers are used within the scope of this study for data collection, one of the most well-known sources of publications, which is the Scopus database, was chosen. The search phrases are (“flood” AND “nigeria“). Abstracts, keywords, and titles were chosen for this study and utilised. The search was carried out in October 2023 and restricted to the subjects of social science and environment. Peer-reviewed journals written in the English language were chosen.

Inclusion and Extraction Criteria

Articles sourced from the year 2003 to 2023 focus on FIM in Nigeria and peer-reviewed journal articles with complete bibliometric information, relevant keywords, and clear titles and abstracts were included. Non-English articles, duplicates, and those irrelevant articles and keywords to the study focus were excluded using manual screening after taken the article into excel sheet for easy identification and sorting out. After selection, there were a total of 246 papers that satisfied the criteria for bibliometric and text mining analysis. Cleaning the database is an essential step in getting ready for co-word analysis. In this scenario, the terms “flood” with “floods” were combined, “flood hazard” with “flood hazards” and “PTSD” with “post-traumatic stress disorder,” and “impact” with “impacts” and “sediment” with “sediments” and “risk management” with “flood risk management” and “climate change” with “impact of climate change” and “flood event” with “flood events” and “stream” with “streams” and “flood plain” with “flood plains” and “ disaster management” with “flood disaster management” and “natural hazard” with “natural hazards” while words that appeared irrelevant such as drought, coal mine, random forest, etc., were not considered. The cleaning was done to increase the reliability of the analysis.

Data Analysis

The present trend in this research topic was discovered by utilising two investigation techniques, which are bibliometric analysis and text mining analysis.

Bibliometric Analysis

Bibliometric evaluation is an effective method for examining large data sets that offers a priceless approach to examine intricate trends, research components, and collaborative networks within a certain topic area. This analytical approach serves as a flexible tool that has several benefits for academics. First, it provides a comprehensive overview of a topic, enabling a deep understanding of its evolution and complexity. Secondly, it serves as a guide for identifying and defining knowledge gaps, which makes way for targeted new research efforts in the future. Thirdly, it fosters innovation for future research by fusing fresh concepts and ideas. Finally, it enables researchers to meticulously chart the field’s evolutionary trajectories and identify patterns through rigorous scientific methods, enabling them to strategically locate their contributions within the conceptual framework of the field Castañeda et. al (2022). This study uses VOSviewer version 1.6. 19 as its analytical tool. This framework employs a variety of indicators, including closely monitoring current publishing patterns in the area of flood FIM in Nigeria, painstakingly analysing citations to gauge authors’ influence, identifying the collaborative networks that support scholarly published works, using bibliometric to reveal hidden correlations, and using co-word analysis to identify important keywords such as flood, disaster, intervention, and management are explained in the context of Nigeria. Using these intricately entwined techniques, the paper closely explores the landscape of flood disaster management in Nigeria and provides a deep knowledge of its dynamics and evolution.

Text Mining Analysis

Text mining analysis makes use of linguistic and computational techniques to extract relevant insights from unstructured text data. Text mining uses techniques including information retrieval, text classification, named entity identification, topic modelling, sentiment analysis, relationship extraction, and summarisation to extract patterns, sentiments, and topics from large datasets. This approach can be used by organisations to turn unstructured text into data that is helpful for making informed decisions and completely understanding complex textual content. It has applications in a range of sectors (Antons et al., 2020). To identify study themes and trends in FIM Nigeria, this study used text mining analysis based on a terms co-occurrence algorithm to look at the titles and abstracts of various publications. The five emerging themes in post-flood mental health intervention in Nigeria which includes flood prediction, risk management and vulnerability assessment, governmental policy, health implications including PTSD, and community resilience strategies highlight significant gaps rooted in the country’s socio-political and environmental realities. In Nigeria, inadequate early warning systems, weak infrastructure, poor mental health integration in disaster policies, and limited access to trauma care leave vulnerable populations especially in rural and flood-prone areas exposed to long-term emotional harm (Aborode et al., 2025). Further, cultural stigma underfunded mental health systems, and fragmented governance in the country further hinder effective intervention (Malah et al., 2025). Therefore, it is recommended that strengthening the existing early warning systems, incorporating mental health into disaster policy frameworks, training local responders, and supporting community-based resilience efforts are vital steps for improving post-flood mental health outcomes in Nigeria.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

This session will cover the following subheadings. Descriptive results, citation analysis, and collaboration networks.

OBJ 1: To study FIM in Nigeria for two decades.

Descriptive Examination of the Evolution of Publications

Figure 2 indicates the 246 number of publications conducted research in the areas of FIM in Nigeria over the two decades.  It has revealed a very minimal number of publication from the year 2003 to 2012 showing only 40 publication articles equivalent to 16.3%, moderate number of publication frequency appeared from 2013 to 2019 with a total of 98 publications equivalent to 39.8% further, the figure indicates that most of the publications with higher frequency in the area of floods were carried out from the year 2020 to date which comprises 108 number of published articles equivalent to 43.9% within this data set Echendu (2022).

Descriptive Examination of the Evolution of Publications 

Figure 2 indicates the 246 number of publications conducted research in the areas of FIM in Nigeria over the two decades.  It has revealed a very minimal number of publication from the year 2003 to 2012 showing only 40 publication articles equivalent to 16.3%, moderate number of publication frequency appeared from 2013 to 2019 with a total of 98 publications equivalent to 39.8% further, the figure indicates that most of the publications with higher frequency in the area of floods were carried out from the year 2020 to date which comprises 108 number of published articles equivalent to 43.9% within this data set Echendu (2022).

Fig. 2 shows two Decades of publication with 246 articles

Figure 3: 246 publications from 169 journal sources were published between 2003 and October 2023. In this study, the top ten (10) journal sources with the highest number of publications are 47 in total, or 19.1% of all published articles were used.  The journal with the most articles published in this study on FIM in Nigeria is the “International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction”, which has 9 articles published, the “Journal of Natural Hazards”, which is ranked second with 8 articles published, and “Journal of Disaster Risk Studies”, which is ranked third with 5 articles published, round out the top three journals. The next four journals, each having four articles published, are the “Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences”, the “Scientific African”, “International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment”, and “Water (Switzerland)”. Whereas, the journals of “Environmental Monitoring and Assessment”, “International Journal of Environmental Studies”, and “Handbook of Flood Risk Management in Developing Countries” each of the last 3 mentioned journals have 3 published articles regarding this study, as shown in the Figure.

Fig. 3 Top Ten Journal Sources that published articles.

Analysis of Citations: Core Articles and Authors 

The number of citations an article receives reveals its importance within a certain field of study. Citation analysis validates the value of an article, and its use makes sense in a range of application fields Aksnes et. al (2019). The authors’ names, the titles of their articles, the number of citations, and the published journals of each article are shown in Table 1 below. The first row of the table, serial number 1, contains the article title by Adelekan (2010), which has 198 citations as of October 2023, as the most cited when published in a journal of “Environment and Urbanisation”. The following is the second most-cited article by (Ajibade et al., 2013) with 149 citations published in the journal “Global Environmental Change”. In a nutshell, the top ten (10) articles in the table below are arranged in order of descending ranking from most cited to least cited articles, as shown during this study.

Table 1: Core Authors and Articles and the journals used in publication.

The five (5) most influential and productive authors who conducted research on FIM in Nigeria are listed in Table 2 below. The table identifies Adelekan I.O. as the most productive and most influential author as well. He published 8 papers between 2003 and 2023 and has 428 citations, making him the most productive and influential author. While McBean G., who received 170 citations in just three publications, is ranked as the second-most influential author. Nkwunonwo U.C. and Igwe C.A., who both have five published works but with a different number of citations, are the next-most productive authors. Nkwunonwo U.C., on the other hand, emerged as the third most significant author based on the quantity of citations. Considering the number of publications produced, Igwe C.A. is the third most productive author in the Table. In summary, the most productive authors are presented based on the number of publications they have produced, whilst the most influential authors are presented in descending ranking order based on many citations.

Table 2: The five most influential and five most productive authors in the field of FIM in Nigeria

Collaboration Analysis of Institutions and Countries 

Figures 4a and 4b below display the joint analysis of the top 10 nations. In the area of FIM, 48 nations have made contributions. Chats display the top 10 contributors in that area. 282 research papers conducted in Nigeria are displayed in Fig.4a, along with 126 collaborations. Additionally, the chat shows that as of October 2023, Nigeria has 55 links that contain 187 papers. This shows that Nigeria has the most collaborations, followed by the United Kingdom with 22 linkages and 27 documents as the second-highest number of collaborations after Nigeria. South Africa is next, with 15 connections and 15 documents. The brown colour key represents the number of links, while the blue colour represents the number of documents. The networks of the nations are depicted in Fig. 4b. The figure demonstrates Nigeria’s high level of international networking cooperation. The characteristics of Nigeria’s bright yellow colour also point to the size of her research networks with other nations. Figure 4b demonstrates that increased collaboration between two countries results from networking links connecting them, and vice versa.

Fig. 4a collaboration network between countries

Fig. 4 b Collaboration network between countries

Like this, among 289 institutions, a collaborative analysis of the top 10 institutions has been conducted based on the total number of linkages, documents, and institutional collaborations, as shown in the figures. 5a and 5b. Some universities’ names were harmonised because they did not all sound the same, such as University of Nsukka, Nigeria, University of Nigeria, University of Nigeria, Nsukka and University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria were harmonised to University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria. Figure 5a shows that the University of Ibadan in Nigeria has a larger network and more records. It has 24 published documents and 25 ties to other institutions, making it the most among the top 10 institutions, whereas Delta State University in Nigeria has only 2 links and 3 documents, making it the least-linked university. Moreover, Figure 5b shows the collaboration network among the 289 institutions that contributed to the articles we used for the analysis. For a clearer vision of the figure, only institutions with collaboration were presented, and those with no collaboration were ignored.

Fig. 5a Collaboration between institutions

Fig. 5b collaboration between institutions

Identifying hotspots through co-word analysis. 

A bibliometric technique called co-word analysis uses word occurrence to identify topics that have stood out in basic research throughout time (Bai & Li, 2022). In Figure 7 below, using VOSviewer software version 1.6.19, from the database, those words with an occurrence of 5 or above were 88 words that met the threshold out of 1735 words from the 246 articles. Looking at the figure, words such as floodplains, urbanisation, catchments, etc. are the oldest words used in 2014 in FIM as indicated in the key below, while words such as risk assessment, flood control, disaster management, remote sensing, and floods are the most recent words used in the year 2020. The top 10 words with a high number of occurrences are floods, flood control, risk assessment, urbanisation, floodplains, disaster management, remote sensing, sustainable development, resilience, and adaptation. The word floods appeared more than all other words as shown in Figure 7; furthermore, those words with the least occurrence are represented in smaller circles.

Fig. 7 Co-occurrence network of keywords

Identifying main research themes and trends through text mining.

OBJ 2: To determine/ evaluate research trends and themes on FIM in Nigeria for two decades.

The second research objective (OBJ2) has been addressed by the results obtained in this section.

Using the text-mining results on FIM in Nigeria, five research themes are identified. These identified themes include flood prediction, flood risk management and vulnerability assessment, government policy, health implications, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), adaptation, adoption, resilience, and coping strategies. See Table 4 below, which shows the research themes, the key terms, and the samples from the most recent references.

Table 4: Five (5) Research Themes

From Table 4, research theme 1 shows that one of the most important essential terminologies used by certain authors when discussing flood expectancy is “flood prediction,” which is utilised to provide mitigation strategies according to Babati et. al (2022). Additionally, some authors provided early warnings on what to do before a flood, like Akukwe and Ogbodo (2015) said this makes it possible for people to get ready for an expected event and take action to counterattack or lessen its effects. Like risk perception, flood perception provides information on the likelihood of occurrence and countermeasures. In a study, Ekoh et. al (2022) stated that flood risk perception is more significant in knowing the probability of flood occurrence and its consequence measures.

The second theme focuses on risk and vulnerability assessment. According to Shuaibu et. al (2022) shows that risk and vulnerability assessment are crucial for formulating strategic plans and policy changes that will help the government and relief organisations lessen the harmful effects of floods. Meanwhile, Oyebode and Paul, (2023) affirms that knowledge about the flood susceptibility of infrastructures and mitigation measures is found useful in reducing the effects of flooding.

The third theme revealed the number of published articles on government policies in terms of either decision-making or policy implementation. According to Danhassan et. al (2023) Nigeria does not have a flood policy; therefore, the country’s governance, prevention, control, and management of floods do not have a focus or a set of objectives that take both short- and long-term flood solutions into account. In another research carried out by Adefisoye and Arum (2021) emphasised the significance of government organisations in carrying out public policy on floods through cooperation amongst government organisations/agencies in managing floods in the nation. Meanwhile, Taiwo et. al (2019) mentioned the existence of decision policy delays in evacuation activities in flood disaster scenarios, which further exacerbate flood impacts.

The fourth theme shows that some researchers have written on the mental health of flood victims. According to Oluka et. al (2022), flooding in Nigeria has been getting worse for several years, beyond the physical harm caused. In Nigeria’s disaster response frameworks, mental health intervention management is still largely unexplored, despite the rise in natural catastrophes like flooding (Unyime, 2024). Though, the existing emergency responses to floods frequently prioritise disease control and the restoration of physical infrastructure, while providing affected individuals with mental and emotional health care is either overlooked or delayed (Onuoha et al., 2024). This influence on people’s mental health could result in mental health disorders in the aftermath of flooding. The study concludes that it is crucial to include mental health and psychosocial support intervention management as a component of the immediate and long-term emergency response available to affected people. Moreover, Ugwuoke et. al (2023) indicated that farmers’ anxiety disorders caused by floods might be greatly reduced by rational emotive and family health therapy (REFHT). Similarly, Ede et. al (2022) affirmed that posttraumatic depression (PTD) is frequently seen in flood victims worldwide, especially in Nigeria. People who have survived a flood tend to experience long-term psychosocial effects; therefore, providing them with the tools to manage their PTD could be a significant opportunity to help them feel less depressed and improve their ability to function and succeed in both their personal and professional lives.

In the fifth theme, key terms such as adaptation, coping strategies, resilience, flood resilience, resilience theory, and response strategies were mentioned by the authors sampled. According to Akukwe et. al (2023) that there are differences in household food insecurity levels between households headed by men and women based on gender, and these differences have been connected to asset and income poverty inequalities. These households relied on self-created coping methods that only offered transient means of surviving during times of food scarcity. Moreover, Yusuf et. al (2021) revealed several variables, such as sex, age, education, occupation, income, housing status, flood education, and location in specific local government areas, have a substantial impact on households’ decisions about their preferred flood coping mechanisms, including access to bank credit, seeking government assistance, and using early warning information systems. However, Adeniyi et. al (2019) developed a maturity model for evaluating the level of maturity of enterprises’ flood resilience capabilities. The model also technically outlines the processes for enhancing the flood resistance of commercial buildings. The study suggests the use of the model to boost flood resilience.

The timeline in Figure 8 below displays the emerging themes from 2018 to 2023. In the year 2018, government and policy emerged as the most studied issue, with floodplains and coastal areas as the year’s authors’ important topics of study. In 2019, the most prominent theme was flood prediction, and some of the subjects covered included early flood warning and perception. In 2020, flood modelling and mapping became the primary theme, and topics like flood modelling and vulnerability forecasting were covered. The emerging topics in 2021 were climate change and extreme weather, with a focus on issues including climate change and flood detection for urban management. In the year 2022, flood risk management and vulnerability assessment emerged as the theme, whereas vulnerability hazards and flood risk management were the most studied topics. The theme persisted until 2023 with the same topics.

Fig. 8 Timeline of research themes, topics, and years

IMPLICATIONS OF RESEARCH: DIRECTIONS FOR FUTURE STUDIES   

This research explored some possible directions for future research on FIM in Nigeria. These research gaps were identified from 107 reviewed papers. These gaps could be important for several reasons once being addressed, like contributions in academic publications, interdisciplinary collaboration between researchers, and contributions to society by providing solutions, insight, and knowledge that can inform policy on areas of significant relevance in need of attention.

According to Oladokun and Proverbs (2016) stated that to reduce flood risk in Nigeria, there have been several intervention management strategies in the past, however, long-term nonstructural intervention management went unexplored Oluka et. al (2022).

Another research direction for the future is improved inter-agency collaboration on service delivery to post-flood victims in Nigeria. According to Shah et. al (2022) The sudependsand efficiency of organizations depend on the degree to which they collaborate in disaster scenarios like floods. Hence, inter-agency cooperation is a crucial part of modern disaster management.

Moreover, community involvement in policymaking on post-flood interventions in Nigeria is also found to be an area needing attention in research. Ali and George (2022) stated that disaster mitigation strategies can be formulated by governmental organisations and NGOs in the case of a catastrophe, the community’s participation, partnerships, and effective communication are necessary for such efforts to be effective.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, the study sought to comprehend the country’s underlying flood management issues. Themes and patterns were discovered using quantitative and qualitative techniques for bibliometric analysis and text mining analysis. The articles used from the Scopus database were divided into five research themes. Three implications for future directions were identified. Some of the limitations of this research are that we used bibliographic coupling for clustering. Secondly, only Scopus database was used, and thirdly, the search was limited to the fields of social science, environment, and English language. Therefore, other researchers can use co-citation analysis for clustering, use the Web of Science database for article search, to explore more research gaps in addition to what was discovered in this study on FIM in Nigeria. Nigeria’s geography, which is characterised by river systems, low-lying coastal regions, and periods of intense rainfall, contributes to the country’s vulnerability to flooding. Floods are now more frequent and more severe because of climate change. To improve readiness for the benefit of Nigeria and other regions dealing with climate change and natural disasters, the need for efficient post-flood intervention management has become increasingly critical. Building culturally sensitive and community-based mental health support systems in flood-affected areas of Nigeria necessitates a multi-sectoral strategy that combines emergency response systems, public health organisations, and local psychosocial networks.

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