Abstract
This study aims to quantify land use and land cover changes before and after the 2010 flood in district Charsadda, Pakistan. Advanced geographic information systems (GIS) and remote sensing techniques (RST) evaluate land use and land cover changes. The purpose of this research is to estimate and compare the pre-and post-flood changes and their influences on land use and land cover changes. Land use land cover data studies are important for sustainable management of natural resources; they are becoming increasingly important for assessing the environmental impacts of economic development. Moreover, some remedial measures are adopted to develop the area’s land cover to overcome future problems. Land use and land cover changes are measured using satellite images. Two instances, i.e., pre-flood and post-flood, are compared to analyze the change in land use and land cover of district Charsadda within 5 km along the Kabul River. Comparative analysis of pre-flood and post-flood imageries highlighted some drastic changes over the water body, built-up area, agricultural land, and bare land during flood instances. The study area is rural and agricultural land is dominant as compared to other land uses. We evaluated the percentage of different land use and land cover within our study area. The agricultural land found about 68.5%, barren land 22.5%, and the water body 8.8% before the flood. After inundation, the water body raised to 16.4%, bare soil increased to 26.3%, agricultural land degraded up to 57.0%, and settlements (villages) along the Kabul River were severely damaged and finished by this flood. 2010’s flood heavily damaged approximately four villages in district Nowshera, six in district Peshawar, and twenty-seven Charsadda District villages.
Highlights
Flood events significantly impacted communities living in flood-prone areas, causing tremendous damage to human lives and economic losses (Ferrari et al, 2020; Masson et al, 2019)
The main objectives of this study are; 1) estimate and compare the pre-and post-flood changes and their influences on land use and land cover changes, 2) produce land use and land cover maps through geographic information systems (GIS) and remote sensing techniques to find out the flood impacts on land, and 3) suggest and recommend mitigation measures to reduce the impact of recurrent floods
This study provides useful information on the land cover change, the trends, and the impacts of land cover change
Summary
Flood events significantly impacted communities living in flood-prone areas, causing tremendous damage to human lives and economic losses (Ferrari et al, 2020; Masson et al, 2019). Flood mostly occurs in the flood plain area of the river’s body. It is the overflow of water and usually occurs when the land has no more capacity to absorb rainwater, and rivers and lakes rise over their banks (Thomaz et al, 2007). This overflow of water occurs in the surrounding area, which affects the target area's ecosystems (Amoateng et al, 2018; Devi et al, 2019; Perry and Nawaz, 2008). Global warming leads to massive rainfall, water overflow, climate change, and land cover infrastructure (Hunter, 2003; Patz et al, 2008)
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