Classification and Assessment of Aridity Over Pakistan Provinces (1960-2009)

Authors

  • Sajjad Haider COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT), Islamabad-44000
  • Shahzada Adnan 2Pakistan Meteorological Department, Islamabad-44000

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3126/ije.v3i4.11728

Keywords:

Aridity, Climate Change, Geographic Information System, Moisture Index, Vulnerable

Abstract

Due to rapid growth of population, massive deforestation and anthropogenic activities, noticeable change in climate conditions is being observed in Pakistan. Increased aridity due to climate change is a growing environmental problem of the agricultural country like Pakistan. It is essential to assess and monitor aridity to combat the probable land degradation and drought desertification. Identification of arid and semi arid regions on climatic basis is the first essential step in any project of land reclamation for agricultural and other purposes. A geographic information system is used in this paper for the assessment of aridity in Pakistan from long term climatic data of fifty years (1960-2009) collected from fifty four stations situated in the country. In the delineation of climatic zones and delimitation of their boundaries, five well known aridity models viz. De Martonne Aridity index, Erinc Aridity index, Thornthwaite Precipitation Effectiveness index, UNESCO Aridity index and Thornthwaite Moisture index are utilized for this purpose. The study shows that southern parts of the country are dry and more vulnerable to drought while the northern parts have variable types of climate. Almost 75 to 85% of the total area of the country is arid in which most part lies in the south while less than 10% area is humid lies in the north of the country. This study will be a good predicator for agricultural scientist, agronomist and hydrologist to plan according the climate of the region.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ije.v3i4.11728

International Journal of Environment

Volume-3, Issue-4, Sep-Nov 2014

Page : 24-35

 

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.
Abstract
2513
PDF
1742

Downloads

Published

2014-12-15

How to Cite

Haider, S., & Adnan, S. (2014). Classification and Assessment of Aridity Over Pakistan Provinces (1960-2009). International Journal of Environment, 3(4), 24–35. https://doi.org/10.3126/ije.v3i4.11728

Issue

Vol. 3 No. 4 (2014)

Section

Research Papers

License

The author(s) acknowledge that the manuscript submitted is his/her/their own original work; all authors participated in the work in a substantive way and are prepared to take public responsibility for the work; all authors have seen and approved the manuscript as submitted;  the manuscript has not been published and is not being submitted or considered for publication elsewhere; the text, illustrations, and any other materials included in the manuscript do not infringe(plagiarism) upon any existing copyright or other rights of anyone.

Notwithstanding the above, the Contributor(s) or, if applicable the Contributor’s Employer, retain(s) all proprietary rights other than copyright, such as Patent rights; to use, free of charge, all parts of this article for the author’s future works in books, lectures, classroom teaching or oral presentations; the right to reproduce the article for their own purposes provided the copies are not offered for sale.

The copyright to the contribution identified is transferred to IJE.