Bottom-Up Resilience: An Inventory of Informal Flood-Adaptation Building Practices in Ghana’s Savannah Peripheries.

Informal settlements across Ghana's Savannah peripheries face recurrent seasonal flooding yet remain absent from mainstream engineering literature. This study documents and categorises the structural modifications and material choices, specifically raised plinths, perimeter barriers, and sandcrete construction, deployed by residents to mitigate flooding, examining how tenure security and socioeconomic factors shape adaptation intensity.
A cross-sectional survey of 384 household heads in Tamale's peri-urban peripheries was conducted using structured questionnaires. Analysis employed independent samples t-tests, chi-square tests, and ordinal logistic regression to examine structural inventories, material trust, implementation timing, and perceived efficacy across tenure groups. Secure tenure households constructed significantly higher plinths (31.2 cm vs 20.3 cm) and deployed more barrier types (mean 2.1 vs 1.7). Sandcrete was the dominant material choice (82%). Proactive builders achieved plinth heights that were 43% higher than those of their reactive counterparts. Each 10 cm increase in elevation raised safety odds by 52% (OR = 1.52), yet plinth height correlated strongly with neighbour flood impacts (rho = 0.64), exposing adaptation as a competitive rather than cooperative process. This study provides the first systematic structural audit of bottom-up flood adaptation in Ghana's Savannah peripheries, quantifying how tenure insecurity drives reversible, suboptimal construction. Findings challenge assumptions that individual adaptation improves collective resilience, with direct implications for tenure regularisation and block-level drainage policy.

Flood adaptation, Ghana, Informal settlements, Plinths, Sandcrete, Tenure security, Urban resilience

1. Amoako, C., & Inkoom, D. K. B. (2018). The production of flood vulnerability in Accra, Ghana: Re-thinking flooding and informal urbanisation. Urban Studies, 55(13), 2903–2922. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098016686526 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

2. UN-Habitat. (2020). The state of African cities 2018: Re-imagining sustainable urban transitions. United Nations Human Settlements Programme. https://unhabitat.org/books/the-state-of-african-cities-2018/ [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

3. Leal Filho, W., Barbir, J., Gwenzi, J., Ayal, D., Simpson, N. P., Adeleke, L., ... & Yaffa, S. (2022). The role of indigenous knowledge in climate change adaptation in Africa. Environmental Science & Policy, 136, 250-260. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2022.06.004 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

4. Nightingale, A. J. (2017). Power and politics in climate change adaptation efforts: Struggles over authority and recognition in the context of political instability. Geoforum, 84, 11-20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2017.05.011 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

5. Pelling, M. (2010). Adaptation to climate change: from resilience to transformation. Routledge. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

6. Adger, W. N., Arnell, N. W., & Tompkins, E. L. (2005). Successful adaptation to climate change across scales. Global Environmental Change, 15(2), 77-86. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2004.12.005 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

7. Koranteng, C., Simons, B., & Manu, F. W. (2021). A thermal performance study of four communities in Ghana's savannah region. Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, 28(10), 3261-3281. https://doi.org/10.1108/ECAM-07-2020-0572 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

8. Cobbinah, P. B., Asibey, M. O., Opoku-Gyamfi, M., & Peprah, C. (2019). Urban planning and climate change in Ghana. Journal of Urban Management, 8(2), 261-271. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jum.2019.02.002 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

9. Oteng-Ababio, M., Agergaard, J., Møller-Jensen, L., & Andreasen, M. H. (2024). Flood risk reduction and resilient city growth in sub-Saharan Africa: searching for coherence in Accra's urban planning. Frontiers in Sustainable Cities, 6, 1118896. https://doi.org/10.3389/frsc.2024.1118896 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

10. Schipper, E. L. F. (2020). Maladaptation: when adaptation to climate change goes very wrong. One Earth, 3(4), 409-414. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2020.09.014 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

11. Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2017). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Sage Publications. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

12. Ampofo, J. A., Owusu-Sekyere, E., & Adongo, R. (2025). Analysis of urban flood hazards and adaptation strategies in the Tamale Metropolis of Ghana. Discover Environment, 3(1), 30. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44274-025-00200-2 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

13. Gyasi, E. A., Fosu, M., Kranjac-Berisavljevic, G., Mensah, A. M., Obeng, F., Yiran, G. A. B., & Fuseini, I. (2014). Building urban resilience: assessing urban and Peri-urban agriculture in Tamale, Ghana. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

14. Ghana Statistical Service. (2021). Ghana 2021 Population and Housing Census: General Report Volume 3A – Population of Regions and Districts. Ghana Statistical Service. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

15. Israel, G. D. (2013). Determining sample size. University of Florida IFAS Extension. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

16. Taherdoost, H. (2016). Sampling methods in research methodology: how to choose a sampling technique for research. International Journal of Academic Research in Management, 5(2), 18-27. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

17. Bernard, H. R. (2017). Research methods in anthropology: Qualitative and quantitative approaches. Bloomsbury Publishing PLC. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

18. Chambers, R. (2017). Can we know better? Reflections for development. Practical Action Publishing. https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12413/14757 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

19. Field, A. (2024). Discovering statistics using IBM SPSS Statistics. Sage Publications Limited. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

20. Barnett, J., Evans, L. S., Gross, C., Kiem, A. S., Kingsford, R. T., Palutikof, J. P., ... & Smithers, S. G. (2015). From barriers to limits to climate change adaptation: path dependency and the speed of change. Ecology and Society, 20(3). https://www.jstor.org/stable/26270227 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

21. Chu, E., Anguelovski, I., & Roberts, D. (2017). Climate adaptation as strategic urbanism: assessing opportunities and uncertainties for equity and inclusive development in cities. Cities, 60, 378-387. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2016.10.016 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

22. Magnan, A. K., Schipper, E. L. F., Burkett, M., Bharwani, S., Burton, I., Eriksen, S., ... & Ziervogel, G. (2016). Addressing the risk of maladaptation to climate change. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 7(5), 646-665. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.409 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

23. Naess, L. O. (2013). The role of local knowledge in adaptation to climate change. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 4(2), 99-106. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.204 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

24. Bai, X., Blanco, H., Gurney, K. R., Kılkış, Ş., Lucon, O., Murakami, J., ... & White, L. (2022). Urban systems and other settlements. In Climate Change 2022-Mitigation of Climate Change (pp. 861-952). Cambridge University Press. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

25. Eriksen, S., Schipper, E. L. F., Scoville-Simonds, M., Vincent, K., Adam, H. N., Brooks, N., ... & West, J. J. (2021). Adaptation interventions and their effect on vulnerability in developing countries: Help, hindrance or irrelevance? World Development, 141, 105383. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105383 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

26. Shi, L., Chu, E., Anguelovski, I., Aylett, A., Debats, J., Goh, K., ... & VanDeveer, S. D. (2016). Roadmap towards justice in urban climate adaptation research. Nature Climate Change, 6(2), 131-137. https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2841 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

27. Anguelovski, I., Shi, L., Chu, E., Gallagher, D., Goh, K., Lamb, Z., ... & Teicher, H. (2016). Equity impacts of urban land use planning for climate adaptation: Critical perspectives from the global north and south. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 36(3), 333-348. https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456X16645166 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

• Assessment of the Role of Artificial Intelligence in Repositioning TVET for Economic Development in Nigeria
• Teachers’ Use of Assure Model Instructional Design on Learners’ Problem Solving Efficacy in Secondary Schools in Bungoma County, Kenya
• “E-Booksan Ang Kaalaman”: Development, Validation, and Utilization of Electronic Book in Academic Performance of Grade 9 Students in Social Studies
• Analyzing EFL University Students’ Academic Speaking Skills Through Self-Recorded Video Presentation
• Major Findings of The Study on Total Quality Management in Teachers’ Education Institutions (TEIs) In Assam – An Evaluative Study