This study aims to assess the impact of 2010-2011 flash floods on the crop production of Sanghar-an eastern district of Sindh. The population of almost two million is mainly dependent on agriculture. Cotton, sugarcane, and wheat are the main cash crops of the district. In 2010-2011 Sanghar was hit by flash floods after heavy rainfall. These floods adversely affected the crops standing at that time. However, on the other hand, they increased the fertility of agriculture lands. Satellite images, precipitation data, and geographical information system (GIS) tools were used to quantify floods' effects by mapping pre-and post-flood vegetation cover. Supervised classification was applied on Landsat images from 2009 to 2013 to extract vegetation area. The temporal analysis unveils a significant increase in the vegetation cover in the post-flood years. Furthermore, the comparison between pre-and post-flood crop production data collected from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics also validated the study results by revealing an increase in crop production.
The rising temperature due to climate change leads to glaciers melting, causing increased sea levels and sea surface temperatures (SST). The rising SST and glacier melting elevate sea levels around the globe. The rising sea level is hazardous for the coastal regions worldwide, and therefore, calls for continuous monitoring to manage this threat. Pakistan, with a coastline of 990 km long, is among those countries most vulnerable to sea-level rise (SLR). Around 10% of Pakistan's population lives near the coastal zones, which are most marginalized and dependent on fishing and small agricultural farms. An SLR of a few millimeters per year is a serious threat to Pakistan's coastal areas that can, directly and indirectly, cause land loss of low-lying areas and destruction of infrastructures, human settlements, agricultural lands, and coastal ecosystems, and other resources. The coastal communities of developing countries such as Pakistan, lacking essential resources, are the most disadvantageous and adversely affected people of the world due to these disasters. To overcome resources and capacity constraints, remote sensing (RS) and Geographic Information System (GIS) techniques can be employed to monitor coastal zones at larger extents. In this study, SLR and SST around the coast of Karachi have been investigated using multi-mission satellite radar altimetry (SRA) and MODIS Terra L3 SST product. The SRA is used to monitor sea levels using data from 1993 to 2018. Similarly, monthly SST data from 2000 to 2019 have been acquired to monitor SST trends. The rising sea levels and temperatures were estimated at 3.9 mm/year and 0.0138 °C/year, respectively. Different extrapolation techniques can further be utilized to predict the potential of SLR and SST in the study area for developing future coastal zone management plans.
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