Climate Change Adaptation and the Architecture of Coastal Resilience in the Niger Delta: A Theoretical and Methodological Contribution

The Niger Delta faces an existential challenge from climate change-driven sea level rise, intensified storm surge, increased rainfall variability, and coastal erosion, and developing architectural and urban design responses that are technically adequate, culturally grounded, and socially just requires theoretical frameworks and methodological tools that do not yet exist for this specific context. This dissertation makes original theoretical and methodological contributions to the architecture of coastal climate change adaptation in the Niger Delta. The theoretical contribution develops a framework of amphibious resilience architecture, extending existing amphibious urbanism concepts from Dutch and Bangladeshi contexts to account for the specific hydrological conditions, settlement patterns, livelihood systems, and cultural values of Niger Delta communities. Original theoretical components include a tidal temporality model of Niger Delta settlement design that incorporates seasonal and inter-annual hydrological variability as a primary design driver rather than a hazard to be excluded, a social ecological resilience theory of settlement relocation decision-making, and an indigenous building knowledge integration methodology for incorporating Ijaw and Urhobo traditional waterfront construction intelligence into technically upgraded coastal design proposals. The methodological contribution develops a community co-designed resilience scenario planning process applied with three coastal communities in Bayelsa and Delta states, generating tested design briefs that integrate technical hydrological modelling with community-derived spatial preferences. Three prototype architectural design solutions developed through the process are presented as methodological demonstrations. The dissertation contributes to climate adaptation architecture theory, delta urbanism, and indigenous knowledge integration methodology. Keywords: climate change adaptation, Niger Delta, coastal resilience architecture, amphibious urbanism, indigenous building knowledge.