New Progress in Flood Disaster Analysis in Pakistan 2022
Publisher: the 4th Research Field
time: 2023-12-08
The research group of Prof. Juanle Wang, researcher of the fourth major research field of China-Pakistan Joint Research Centre on Earth Sciences, have achieved new progress in the analysis of Pakistan's 2022 mega-flood disaster.
In August 2022, Pakistan suffered the most serious flood disaster in nearly 30 years. Nearly two-thirds of Pakistan's territory was affected by the flood, about 330 million people were affected, the largest number of victims in history. Infrastructure was also severely damaged.
Prof. Wang’s team used multi-source remote sensing images, geographic information technology and other means to quickly assess and finely monitor the scope of flooding and disaster losses, obtaining Pakistan's flood inundation range in 2022 as well as the affected farmland, buildings and roads. Using flood risk assessment technology based on the BlueSpot model, the potential risk of dam failure around reservoirs was graded to divide into five risk levels: higher, high, medium, low and lower. By comparing and analyzing historical data on snowmelt changes, the research team found that heat waves accelerating snowmelt in mountainous areas is one of the important causes of flooding. Finally, combined with the statistics of historical disasters, it was found that the main flood hazard area in Pakistan is located in the lower reaches of the Indus River Basin. The border between Balochistan and Sindh Province is prone to disasters.
In addition, the research team also established a database of Pakistan's flood disasters, and publicized it on the China–Pakistan Joint Research Center on Earth Sciences and the UNESCO International Disaster Risk Reduction Knowledge Service Platform, providing important data support for flood prevention and mitigation research in Pakistan.
The relevant research, funded by the China–Pakistan Joint Research Center on Earth Sciences, were recently published online in the journal Natural Hazards.
Link: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11069-023-06337-8
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