The Indus Delta—Catchment, River, Coast, and People

Kidwai, Samina; Ahmed, Waqar; Tabrez, Syed Mohsin; Zhang, Jing; Giosan, Liviu; Clift, Peter D.; Inam, Asif

doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-814003-1.00012-5

Cited by 19 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Evidence from multiple literature studies show that the Indus Delta ecosystem has experienced losses in fisheries, economical gains, and mangroves due to human-induced stressors in the past years. Also, it has been observed in studies that the decrease in freshwater reaching delta and sediments is one of the major causes of the damage to the Indus Delta (Salik et al, 2015;Salik et al, 2016;Kidwai et al, 2016;Kidwai et al, 2019). This study assesses the multi-sectoral impacts of provision of freshwater to the Indus Delta and associated costs in the water, energy, and land sectors.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Replenishing the Indus Delta through multi-sector transformation

Awais

Vinca

Parkinson

et al. 2022

Front. Environ. Sci.

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The Indus River Basin (IRB) is a severely water-stressed and rapidly developing home to an estimated 250 million people in South Asia. An acute deficit of environmental flows (EFs) in the basin’s delta negatively impacts geomorphology and surrounding ecosystems. Here, a sub-national model of the IRB’s integrated water–energy–land systems is applied to quantify multi-sector transformations and system costs for enhancing EFs to the Indus Delta. The results show that increasing the average outflows from the basin relative to historical policy levels by 2.5 and 5 times would increase sectoral costs for upstream water users between 17–32 and 68–72% for low and high ecological potential targets. The enhanced EFs result in more energy for pumping and treating water upstream from the delta and a net increase in irrigation and energy investments. The EF policy costs are minimized by 7–14% through cooperation across countries and 6–9% through the coordinated implementation of water efficiency measures in the irrigation, conveyance, power plant cooling, and water treatment sectors. The results underscore the crucial role of a multi-sector, multi-scale collaboration in achieving EF targets in water-stressed river basins for ecosystem adaptation to climate vulnerability, restoration of the delta, and socio-economic benefits.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Replenishing the Indus Delta through multi-sector transformation

Awais

Vinca

Parkinson

et al. 2022

Front. Environ. Sci.

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“…All these problems, as well as direct exploitation of biological resources in the delta, have combined to cause a rapid decline of the deltaic mangroves and fisheries linked to mangrove creeks. The largest contiguous mangrove ecosystem in the world, developed around the tidal creek network of Indus delta (see [115] and references therein), is now reduced by more than 60%. Reductions in freshwater inflows have had strong impacts on mangrove ecology and on the fish populations that rely on them for breeding and habitat.…”

Section: The Indus Deltamentioning

confidence: 99%

Deltas in Arid Environments

Day

Goodman

Chen

et al. 2021

Water

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Due to increasing water use, diversion and salinization, along with subsidence and sea-level rise, deltas in arid regions are shrinking worldwide. Some of the most ecologically important arid deltas include the Colorado, Indus, Nile, and Tigris-Euphrates. The primary stressors vary globally, but these deltas are threatened by increased salinization, water storage and diversion, eutrophication, and wetland loss. In order to make these deltas sustainable over time, some water flow, including seasonal flooding, needs to be re-established. Positive impacts have been seen in the Colorado River delta after flows to the delta were increased. In addition to increasing freshwater flow, collaboration among stakeholders and active management are necessary. For the Nile River, cooperation among different nations in the Nile drainage basin is important. River flow into the Tigris-Euphrates River delta has been affected by politics and civil strife in the Middle East, but some flow has been re-allocated to the delta. Studies commissioned for the Indus River delta recommended re-establishment of some monthly water flow to maintain the river channel and to fight saltwater intrusion. However, accelerating climate impacts, socio-political conflicts, and growing populations suggest a dire future for arid deltas.

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“…A deficit in the sediment discharge/flow reaching the shoreline adversely affects the sediment supply and redistribution to the BIs driven by the combined action of wind and waves, hence their stability. Long term sediment discharge from the Indus River below the Kotri barrage from Kidwai et al [45] was used to evaluate the influence of the hydrodynamics of the Indus River (IR) on the erosion of the BIs in the study area.…”

Section: Sediment Discharge Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The hydrodynamics of an area also actively control the sediment budget of the coast, and hence, its stability. There has been a significant reduction in the sediments in the Indus Delta coastal plains (Figure 10) due to the construction of dams, barrages, and channeling in the up-stream areas [45]. Limited/reduced sediment supply from the upstream distributaries coupled with rising relative sea levels and shoreline erosion will eventually lead to the separation of such natural coastal barrier islands from the mainland of Mississippi delta [19,59] and further narrowing of the deltaic islands in the case of non-episodic flooding and storm events.…”

Section: Hydrodynamics Of the Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Remote Sensing of Narrowing Barrier Islands along the Coast of Pakistan over Past 30 Years

Kanwal

Ding

Sajjad

et al. 2021

JMSE

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Barrier islands (BIs) are the first line of defense against the sea/wave actions in coastal areas, and assessing their stability is crucial in the context of effective coastal planning. Therefore, this study evaluates the spatial–temporal shoreline changes of the BIs in Pakistan over the past three decades (1989–2018). Satellite data from Landsat missions are used to delineate the shorelines of 19 BIs in Pakistan. After delineating the shorelines from satellite observations, two well-known statistical methods (i.e., end point rate (EPR) and linear regression rate (LRR)) are used to capture the localized changes in the BIs. The results ascertain that nearly all of the BIs have experienced noteworthy erosion during the past three decades. While the mean erosion over all the BIs during the study period is estimated to be >6 m/y, significant spatial heterogeneities among the individual BIs exist. The interdecadal comparison indicates that the highest mean erosion of the BIs occurred during the period 1989–1999 (13.03 ± 0.62 m/y), which gradually reduced over the preceding decades (i.e., 7.76 ± 0.62 m/y during the period 1999–2009 and 3.8 ± 0.7 m/y during the period 2009–2018). Nevertheless, ~65% of the total BIs experienced high erosion (>2 m/y), ~15% experienced moderate (<2 m/y), and ~20% experienced low erosion (<1 m/y) during the period 1989-2018. This situation implies that while ~65% of these BIs need immediate interventions from the concerned authorities, the 15% BIs with moderate erosion might experience high erosion in the wake of rising sea levels and decreasing sediment influx in the near future without proper measures. This depletion of the BIs might not only affect Pakistan but also have regional consequences due to their various services.

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The Indus Delta—Catchment, River, Coast, and People

Cited by 19 publications

References 22 publications

Replenishing the Indus Delta through multi-sector transformation

Replenishing the Indus Delta through multi-sector transformation

Deltas in Arid Environments

Remote Sensing of Narrowing Barrier Islands along the Coast of Pakistan over Past 30 Years

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