Spatiotemporal Analysis of Urban Sprawl and Its Contributions to Climate and Environment of Peshawar Using Remote Sensing and GIS Techniques

This research study predominantly emphases on spatiotemporal extensions of urban area of Peshawar;its adverse impacts and contributions to climate and environment during 1931 to 2011. To probe these interventions, meteorological data, Satellite’s temporal imagery of Landsat ETM+ and TM, anthropogenic and demographic secondary data were congregated. In relation to map out land cover changes, maximum likelihood classification algorithm and followed by change detection techniques were applied to study area. The outcome of this process was further subjected through Geographic Information System (GIS) overlay analysis which suggested a clear straggle in urban area. Auxiliary data (Population growth rate, transportation, electricity connections, etc.) also support the fact of urban area extension. This study proposes that severs contributions of massive heat energy and CO2 have been added to local climate and environment ensuing substantial increment in temperature drawn out from the trends. Consequently, Remote Sensing, GIS and allied data were found to be effective to gauge such variations. To eliminate anomalies in sprawl and environment, few suggestions and recommendation are made in latter part of this study.

Towards Foreign Tourist at Heritage Sites Using GIS: A Case Study of Lahore

Pakistan is potentially a good tourist destination for cultural and heritage overs because the Indus and Gandhara Civilizations, and a great Mughals heritage also exists in Pakistan particularly in Lahore city. Tourism is the fastest growing industry in modern world. This study is based on the number of foreign tourist who visited the heritage sites of Lahore. The purpose of the study is to examine the number of foreign tourist who visited the heritage sites of the Lahore at Shalimar Gardens, Lahore Fort and Lahore Museum and to find the tourism trend in Lahore whether it is declining or growing high. The secondary source of data was used and data was collected from archeology department, Lahore Museum and Pakistan Year Book of Statics 2014. Tools used for research purpose were Microsoft excel, Microsoft word and ARC GIS. The number of foreign tourists that visited Lahore fort were highest in 2006 i.e. 21,178 this is the highest number of tourists who visited Lahore Fort in 15 years and 2906 lowest number of foreign tourist who visited Lahore fort, at Shalimar Gardens highest number of foreign tourists was 8558 in 2000 and the lowest number was 309 in 2013 and at Lahore Museum in 7242 tourists is the highest number of Foreign tourist who visited museum in 2000 and the lowest number of foreign tourists that visited Lahore Museum was 1825 in 2010. The trend of foreign tourism in Lahore is declining after the incident of nine eleven due to terrorism. But now with the efforts of government and work of Walled city authority foreign tourism industry is growing in Lahore as it is the Queen of cities having major and attractive heritage places for tourist.

Towards a Remote Sensing and GIS-Based Technique to Study Population and Urban Growth: A Case Study of Multan

In recent decades, the migration rates of the large cities of Punjab have been risen up to a considerable level due to the lack of employment opportunities as well as lack of facilities in the rural areas of the province. It has caused an unprecedented and unplanned urbanization across the urban areas of the province. This study has been undertaken to perform fractal analysis about the sprawl in rapidly growing city. GIS and remote sensing data have been used in this study as an emerging technology which is cost effective as well as accurate at the same time. Landsat images have been taken for the study and the sprawl has been calculated with the analysis of the data of each decade for past more than 40 years. It has been observed that the built up area is 47.8 to 141.12 Sq. Km whereas the pattern of urban settlement has been classified as clustered and linear, following the roads network. The temporal population growth also seconded these results. The population growth rate and population density increase, are based on the pixel based extraction of the data from satellite imagery for the period of 2000 to 2014, which is taken as a decision support tool. In 2000, the population of the district increased from 2,071,694 (1981 census) to 2,939,907 and then in 2013, it became 4,384,191 at a rate to 2.93% upturn per annum. Moreover, the study also reveals the extent of the growth of other land uses as well which may be taken as a reference that in an agricultural country like Pakistan, the natural resources are being wasted (by urbanization of the fertile land). There must be some master planning to avoid such things in the other cities as well.

Appraisal of Urban Heat Island and Its Impacts on Environment Using Landsat TM in Peshawar, Pakistan

Last couple of decades witnessed a rapid escalation in urban temperature of Peshawar city and its neighboring localities. This alarming condition gave birth to climatic term Urban Heat Island (UHI) created drastic alteration in surface temperatures. In this study, thermal infrared remote sensing data has been employed to map out and monitor such micro-climatic variation in temperatures in land use/land cover exposed surface to the environment. To assess these outcomes resulting from human activities, Landsat TM data band 6 was subjected through ERDAS Imagine 2013. For further processing, ARC GIS helped a lot in making maps to pinpoint the heat island in and around the city. Moreover, a relationship of land surface temperature with urban sprawl, environmental and industrialization was established. This study has shown a substantial upsurge in temperature about 1 to 3 degrees. Urban sprawl and industrialization at the edges are accounting for these conditions. Urban and industrial data has also reinforced the fact being drawn from remotely sensed data. Hence, evaluation of Land surface temperature data captured through remote satellite has proven to be effective tool not only for monitoring and analyzing temperature but also for assessing its adverse impacts on the environment and climate.

Flood Frequency Analysis of Chenab River for Predicting Peak Flows during Late Monsoon Period

The River Chenab is one of the main western rivers of the Indus River system in Pakistan, which undergoes intensive inundation almost every year during the late monsoon period. The present study performs flood frequency analyses for the river basin as well as simulates different levels of water flow in the system to speculate all kinds of inundation under different scenarios, i.e., to predict flood hazard and flood extended areas. Flood frequency analyses were performed at MARALA Headworks to Khanki Headworks. Data were collected from the Punjab Irrigation Department, Pakistan and from USGS and ASTER GDEM. The peak discharge of MARALA Headworks had been analyzed for 25 years. The preprocessing was performed in HEC Geo-RAS after preprocessing model run in HEC-RAS. After analysis the data were exported in HEC-RAS to ARCMAP to generate a floodplain and inundation map. Our analysis generated the result that different areas would be under water in different return periods. Flood hazards maps for different return periods 10, 20, 50 and 100 years were conducted using annual peaks flow of 35 years from 1980 to 2016. The maximum discharges at up and down stream for different periods were obtained using Gumbel distribution model results which showed that different areas were predicted under water in different return periods and affected areas after five years’ return period.