LEKKI WETLANDS

Lekki peninsular is 27 x 12 kilometers stretch(324 sq.Km);Over 60% of the peninsula are wetlands. The wetlands on the Lekki peninsular are located between the lagos lagoon and omu creek(north) and atlantic ocean in the south; the wetlands are not influenced by rivers but consist of shorelines, beaches, palms and mangroves.
The Lekki peninsula is charaterised of beautifully laid barrier beaches with densely distributed coconuts and palmtress along the atlantic and large patches of undulating swampy terrain(wetlands).
The northern stretch overlooking the Lagos lagoon is mainly series of interlocking swamp forest with palmtrees and huge tall trees sparsely distributed across the landscape.
The disppearing wetlands were buffer zones for floods during the rainny season. Also Lekki wetlands qualify as peatlands and consequently Peatlands Drainage of peat soils results in carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions of
globally 2-3 Gt CO2-eq per year (Joosten & Couwenberg 2009).
The decomposition of organic matter within the wetlands led to very thick layers of peat accumulation in the wetlands.
There is a need to reseach into the Lekki wetlands disappearances and design a model that will be beneficial to solving simmilar problems in southern Nigeria.

WETLANDS ?

According to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands; “Wetlands are areas of marsh, fen, peatland or water, whether natural or artificial, permanent or temporary, with water that is static or flowing, fresh, brackish or salt, including areas of marine water the depth of which at low tide does not exceed six metres."

Categorisation
There are several ways in which to categorise wetlands. A wetland may be described as:
• Marshes/swamps: areas where water is more or less permanently at the surface and/or causing saturation of the soil (e.g. papyrus swamp, fen, peatlands)
• Shallow lakes: areas of permanent or semi-permanent water with little flow (e.g. ponds, salt lakes, volcanic crater lakes).
• Coasts: areas between land and open sea that are not influenced by rivers (e.g. shorelines, beaches, mangroves and coral reefs)
• Estuaries: where rivers meet the sea and water changes from fresh to salt as it meets the sea (e.g. deltas, tidal mudflats and salt marches)
• Floodplains: areas next to the permanent course of a river that extends to the edge of the valley (e.g. ox-bow lakes and river-islands)

Source: www.wetlands.org