ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses rainfall characteristics and other hydrological parameters in relation to the concepts of erosion in Southeastern Nigeria. Also, the extent to which these parameters can be used to predict erosion in the region is indicated and the effects of erosion hazards on development and their economic and social consequences are examined. Accelerated erosion is related to man's activities which degrade the protective vegetal cover of the earth's surface. In this case, the massive destruction of the thick tropical rain forest of the south-eastern Nigeria, due to the increasing pressure of the population on the land initiates and accelerates erosion. Few attempts have been made to analyze and determine the hydrological processes of erosion in South-eastern Nigeria. The establishments of the relative significance of the factors that cause erosion constitute one of the complicated problems faced by erosion scientists. The disastrous consequences of erosion incidents, in the South-eastern States have demonstrated the sensitivity of human welfare to those incidents.