Development And Validation of a Composite Flood Impact Index (CFII) for Ecowas Countries
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Date
2026
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Crawford Journal of Economics and Management
Abstract
Flood disasters represent a major socio-economic and environmental challenge within the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Assessing disaster severity through individual indicators provides only a partial representation of flood impacts, as isolated metrics often fail to capture their multidimensional nature. This study developed and statistically validated the Composite Flood Impact Index (CFII) for the comparative assessment of multidimensional flood impacts across ECOWAS countries. The study covered the fifteen ECOWAS member states over the period 2000–2023 and utilized data from the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT). The CFII was constructed from flood frequency (ff), total persons affected (tpa), and total deaths (td) using Min-Max normalization and an equal-weighting aggregation framework. Statistical validation was conducted using an Independent Samples t-test. The principal findings revealed significant variation in flood impacts across the region and enabled the ranking and classification of countries into distinct vulnerability groups. Statistical validation confirmed the discriminatory capability of the CFII. The study contributes a transparent, reproducible, and standardized framework for multidimensional flood assessment. The CFII complements traditional single-indicator approaches and supports comparative flood risk assessment and evidence-informed disaster risk planning across ECOWAS.
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Citation
Amire, C. M., Afariogun, A. O. and Enilolobo, O. (2026). Flood Disasters and GDP Per Capita in Ecowas Countries: A Pooled Mean Group ARDL Analysis. Crawford Journal of Economics and Management. 3(1); 25-34.