Papers by Rana Waqar Aslam
The notion of this research is based on the two devastating earthquake events that happened on Oc... more The notion of this research is based on the two devastating earthquake events that happened on October 8, 2005, and September 24, 2019, in the regions of Azad Kashmir. This study aims at (i) identi cation of the susceptible zones where landslides will occur in the future; (ii) preparation of landslide inventory maps using vector data, satellite imagery, Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (STRM) and Advanced Space-borne Thermal Emission and Re ection Radiometer (ASTER) DEM; (iii) implementation of Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) model using weighted overlay analysis (WOA). For this purpose, key factors such as land-use, faults, slope, contours, soil and seismology are used to develop a landslide hazard zonation map. The output landslide susceptibility map has four susceptibility levels such as low, medium, high, and very high vulnerable zones. The results indicated that a highly susceptible landslide zone is found in the northwestern part of Muzaffarabad, which is a metropolitan region. Moreover, there are 127 active landslides are identi ed and collectively about 9% of the study area is very highly susceptible to future landslides. Moreover, research ndings are helpful in tactful thinking for future infrastructure development, ecological protection in high-susceptible landslide regions in Muzaffarabad. It also allows the Government to make strategies for that speci c zones on a priority basis to reduce the casualties and destruction in future landslide events.
Pakistan offers the nation's citizens basic health care with a well-developed primary and pub... more Pakistan offers the nation's citizens basic health care with a well-developed primary and public health system but the health sector is underdeveloped in the Southern areas of Punjab and Multan district is prominent area. Multan District has developed and evolved over time, but it still struggles to provide basic health services to its people, especially in rural areas. In rural areas, small health units are springing up, but they are under-equipped, and the workforce is under-trained and uneducated. In the Multan district, a total of 82 BHUs were chosen for this report. Five of the most common diseases in the study region have been identified and affect the population at an alarming rate. In the district of Multan, these five diseases are distributed unequally and affect people in different proportions and result in an annual death rate of 1000 people. In addition, the overall analysis of registered patients into BHUs is geographically represented. People who are diagnosed with...
Lahore is famous for its rapid urban growth providing bread and butter to around 11 million popul... more Lahore is famous for its rapid urban growth providing bread and butter to around 11 million population. Availability of clean drinking water to general public is the responsibility of the state. Pakistan ranks at 80 in terms of providing standard drinking water to people. This research is based on monitoring the temporal changes in water quality of various towns of Lahore for the years 2009-2019. Various water quality parameters e.g., pH, alkalinity, calcium, magnesium, hardness, turbidity, chloride, Total Dissolved Solid (TDS), Electric Conductivity (EC) and hardness were examined, and the spatial trend was mapped. Primary data about these parameters was collected from water and sanitation authority Lahore and the interpolation was applied to examine trend in variations of various levels of these parameters for a period from 2009 to 2019. The results show that pH, alkalinity, hardness and turbidity levels in most of towns were below the acceptable limit in comparison to World Healt...
In this study, district Mansehra, Pakistan was chosen as the study area. The main objectives of t... more In this study, district Mansehra, Pakistan was chosen as the study area. The main objectives of this research areto assess the extent and the changes in the rate of deforestation in Mansehra since past 20 years. It also examinethe impacts of deforestation on the Climate by establishing and mapping the magnitude and rates of land coverchanges that had occurred in the study area. Landsat satellite images were taken as secondary data and they wereforemost for the classification process. Remote sensing data together with GIS techniques have made itconceivable to display and oversee remotely detected information in various scales. The images taken forclassification are Landsat 5 TM for the year 1998 and 2008 and from Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS TM for the year 2017.Climatic data from 1988 to 2017 was collected from Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) of MansehraDistrict. The Forest Cover was 14% (601 Sq. Km) in 1998, 15% (668 Sq. Km) in 2008 and 5% (194 Sq. Km) in2017. Taking everything toge...
Remote Sensing
The substantial reliance of South Asia (SA) to rain-based agriculture makes the region susceptibl... more The substantial reliance of South Asia (SA) to rain-based agriculture makes the region susceptible to food scarcity due to droughts. Previously, most research on SA has emphasized the meteorological aspects with little consideration of agrarian drought impressions. The insufficient amount of in situ precipitation data across SA has also hindered thorough investigation in the agriculture sector. In recent times, models, satellite remote sensing, and reanalysis products have increased the amount of data. Hence, soil moisture, precipitation, terrestrial water storage (TWS), and vegetation condition index (VCI) products have been employed to illustrate SA droughts from 1982 to 2019 using a standardized index/anomaly approach. Besides, the relationships of these products towards crop production are evaluated using the annual national production of barley, maize, rice, and wheat by computing the yield anomaly index (YAI). Our findings indicate that MERRA-2, CPC, FLDAS (soil moisture), GPC...
Forests
This paper synthesizes research studies on spatial forest assessment and mapping using remote sen... more This paper synthesizes research studies on spatial forest assessment and mapping using remote sensing data and techniques in Pakistan. The synthesis states that 73 peer-reviewed research articles were published in the past 28 years (1993–2021). Out of all studies, three were conducted in Azad Jammu & Kashmir, one in Balochistan, three in Gilgit-Baltistan, twelve in Islamabad Capital Territory, thirty-one in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, six in Punjab, ten in Sindh, and the remaining seven studies were conducted on national/regional scales. This review discusses the remote sensing classification methods, algorithms, published papers’ citations, limitations, and challenges of forest mapping in Pakistan. The literature review suggested that the supervised image classification method and maximum likelihood classifier were among the most frequently used image classification and classification algorithms. The review also compared studies before and after the 18th constitutional amendment in Pakista...
. Atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most significant greenhouse gas and its concentration i... more . Atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most significant greenhouse gas and its concentration is continuously increasing mainly as a consequence of anthropogenic activities. Accurate quantification of CO2 is critical for addressing the global challenge of climate change and designing mitigation strategies aimed at stabilizing the CO2 emissions. Satellites provide the most effective way to monitor the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere. In this study, we utilized the concentration of column-averaged dry-air mole fraction of CO2 i.e., XCO2 retrieved from a CO2 monitoring satellite, the Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2 (OCO-2) to estimate the anthropogenic CO2 emissions using Generalized Regression Neural Network over East and West Asia. OCO-2 XCO2 and the Open-Data Inventory for Anthropogenic Carbon dioxide (ODIAC) CO2 emission datasets for a period of 5 years (2015–2019) were used in this study. The annual XCO2 anomalies were calculated from the OCO-2 retrievals for each year to remove the larger background CO2 concentrations and seasonal variabilities. Then the XCO2 anomaly and ODIAC emission datasets from 2015 to 2018 were used to train the GRNN model, and finally, the anthropogenic CO2 emissions were estimated for 2019 based on the XCO2 anomalies derived for the same year. The XCO2-based estimated and the ODIAC actual CO2 emissions were compared and the results showed a good agreement in terms of spatial distribution. The CO2 emissions were estimated separately over East and West Asia. In addition, correlations between the ODIAC emissions and XCO2 anomalies were also determined separately for East and West Asia, and East Asia exhibited relatively better results. The results showed that satellite-based XCO2 retrievals can be used to estimate the regional scale anthropogenic CO2 emissions and the accuracy of the results can be enhanced by further improvement of the GRNN model with the addition of more CO2 emission and concentration datasets.
Remote Sensing
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most important greenhouse gas and several satellites have been launch... more Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most important greenhouse gas and several satellites have been launched to monitor the atmospheric CO2 at regional and global scales. Evaluation of the measurements obtained from these satellites against accurate and precise instruments is crucial. In this work, aircraft measurements of CO2 were carried out over Qinhuangdao, China (39.9354°N, 119.6005°E), on 14, 16, and 19 March 2019 to validate the Greenhous gases Observing SATellite (GOSAT) and the Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2 (OCO-2) CO2 retrievals. The airborne in situ instruments were mounted on a research aircraft and the measurements were carried out between the altitudes of ~0.5 and 8.0 km to obtain the vertical profiles of CO2. The profiles captured a decrease in CO2 concentration from the surface to maximum altitude. Moreover, the vertical profiles from GEOS-Chem and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) CarbonTracker were also compared with in situ and satellite datasets. ...
International Journal of Agriculture & Sustainable Development, 2020
Urbanization has become a hot issue in context of environmental and socio-political scenarios whi... more Urbanization has become a hot issue in context of environmental and socio-political scenarios which is being addressed at every forum internationally. The classification results of Islamabad showed that the total area of Islamabad was about 899.56 sq.km. The area wise percentages of various landuse features remained very diverse in the period from 2000 to 2020. The area of barren land was highest in the year 2000 that was around 63 % of total LULC. Barren land faced major shift and the area reduced from 63 % to 40% in 2020. The built-up area has increased rapidly over the course of 20 years which was 4% in 2000 and increased up to 36% in 2020, which is alarming for any country. This study reveals that the settlement area has increased by 54 percent between 2000 and 2020. The geological map of study site is showing that Islamabad is located on the fault lines which are dangerous and the earthquake may hit this area any time which leads to huge disaster in coming future therefore this region is unsuitable for megastructures even for setting up small localities. The drainage network is showing that most of water channels were found in SE direction clearly narrating that the trend of population was also in the same direction. This resemblance signifies that people rush toward water channels to manage their daily routine in a better way. Slope map is showing that there were gentle slopes in southern parts of study site while steep slopes were observed in extreme north. Steep slopes are considered unsuitable for living therefore about 99% of urban settlements were found toward gentle slopes. Hazard map is showing that the NE of study site is dangerous for human settlements because this area was found prone to earthquakes. Luckily most of urban settlements were not found on this site and it is recommended the land authority must not approve any new settlement/mega project on this area. It is recommended that government must take strict action on emergency footings to demarcate urban lands so that the agricultural lands must remain intact to save flora and fauna of the city and to get sustainable agricultural developments.
International Journal of Innovations in Science & Technology, 2020
Industries, being commercial productive units perform as manufacturing agents to produce large qu... more Industries, being commercial productive units perform as manufacturing agents to produce large quantity of goods to cater the needs of increasing population. Manufacturing units use raw material and goods to deliver the final product. The findings of this research are consistent and reliable. The study area mainly consists of three types of industries including iron and steel, chemical and fertilizer and plastic industry. The hazardous waste generated by industries in Pakistan was computed as 1 lac tons per day and more than 10 thousand tons/day in Lahore. These wastes played a vital role in the degradation of environment. In addition, various harmful gases such as fluoride, carbon monoxide and dust were released by these industries which mixed with fog and caused smog that resulted in respiratory diseases and the Lahore remained in smog for last 3 years. The air quality declined to alarming level because of the dust produced by these industries. Air pollution leads to skin problems, and respiratory diseases among residents living in outskirts of these industries. In this research it is estimated that industrial emission is more dangerous than any other emissions. From the year 2008 to 2019 the harmful emissions were categorized as 43% by transport sector, 25% by industries, 20% by agricultural sector and 22% by power sector. Proper planning and management are required to secure the safety of environment from the adverse effects of industries.
Journal of Biodiversity and Environmental Sciences (JBES), 2019
In this study, district Mansehra, Pakistan was chosen as the study area. The main objectives of t... more In this study, district Mansehra, Pakistan was chosen as the study area. The main objectives of this research are to assess the extent and the changes in the rate of deforestation in Mansehra since past 20 years. It also examine the impacts of deforestation on the Climate by establishing and mapping the magnitude and rates of land cover changes that had occurred in the study area. Landsat satellite images were taken as secondary data and they were foremost for the classification process. Remote sensing data together with GIS techniques have made it conceivable to display and oversee remotely detected information in various scales. The images taken for classification are Landsat 5 TM for the year 1998 and 2008 and from Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS TM for the year 2017. Climatic data from 1988 to 2017 was collected from Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) of Mansehra District. The Forest Cover was 14% (601 Sq. Km) in 1998, 15% (668 Sq. Km) in 2008 and 5% (194 Sq. Km) in 2017. Taking everything together, anyway the results exhibit that some land cover types experienced extending rates and sizes of changes however in the others the inverse is legitimate, results revealed that the size and the rates of land cover changes for forest areas experienced an exceptional fluctuations in these 20 years. Maximum temperature of Mansehra increased at an alarming rate from 25.82°C in 1988 and 24.8°C in 1998 to 25.667°C in 2008 and 27.304°C in 2016 and 26.739°C in the year 2017. Mean minimum temperature showed fluctuation of 1° during these 30 years. In some years mean minimum temperature showed decrease from 12° to 11° and this change is not confined to a specific year. The rainfall was 5.129mm in 1988 and then rainfall increased from 3.6 mm in the year 1998 when there was 14% forest Cover to 4.8mm in 2008 when there was 15% Forest Cover but declined to 2.9mm in the year 2017 when there was only 5% forest left in Mansehra.
International Journal of Agriculture & Sustainable Development, 2020
Lahore is famous for its rapid urban growth providing bread and butter to around 11 million popul... more Lahore is famous for its rapid urban growth providing bread and butter to around 11 million population. Availability of clean drinking water to general public is the responsibility of the state. Pakistan ranks at 80 in terms of providing standard drinking water to people. This research is based on monitoring the temporal changes in water quality of various towns of Lahore for the years 2009-2019. Various water quality parameters e.g., pH, alkalinity, calcium, magnesium, hardness, turbidity, chloride, Total Dissolved Solid (TDS), Electric Conductivity (EC) and hardness were examined, and the spatial trend was mapped. Primary data about these parameters was collected from water and sanitation authority Lahore and the interpolation was applied to examine trend in variations of various levels of these parameters for a period from 2009 to 2019. The results show that pH, alkalinity, hardness and turbidity levels in most of towns were below the acceptable limit in comparison to World Health Organization permissible standards. We found that industrial boom, poor sanitation, seepage of sewerage water and its addition in ground water has declined the overall quality of drinking water. Local government must take blunt steps to improve the quality of drinking water otherwise the overall situation may lead to become drastic in near future.
This research has been conducted to assess the water quality in and around Lahore Metropolitan ar... more This research has been conducted to assess the water quality in and around Lahore Metropolitan area on the basis of three different land uses, i.e. residential, commercial, and industrial land uses. For this, 29 sample sites have been selected on the basis of simple random sampling technique. Samples were collected at the source (WASA tube wells). The criteria for selecting sample sites are to have a maximum concentration of population in the selected land uses. The results showed that in the residential land use the proportion of nitrate and turbidity is at their highest level in the areas of Allama Iqbal Town and Samanabad Town. Commercial land use of Gulberg and Data Gunj Bakhsh Town have highest level of proportion of chlorides, calcium, TDS, pH, Mg, total hardness, arsenic and alkalinity. Whereas in industrial type of land use in Ravi and Wahga Town have the proportion of arsenic, Mg, nitrate, pH, and turbidity are at their highest level. The high rate of concentration of these parameters in these areas is basically due to the old and fractured pipelines that allow bacterial as well as physiochemical contaminants to contaminate the portable water at the sources. Furthermore, it is seen in most areas that waste water from domestic, industrial, as well as municipal sources may get easy discharge into open spaces and water bodies, like, cannels, rivers, lakes that seeps and become a part of ground water. In addition, huge dumps located in Lahore are becoming the cause of ground water contamination as when the rain falls, the water gets seep into the ground and impures the ground water quality. On the basis of the derived results with the help of Geo-spatial technology ACRGIS 9.3 Interpolation (IDW), it is recommended that water filtration plants must be installed with specific parameter control. A separate team for proper inspection has to be made for water quality check at the source. Old water pipelines must be replaced with the new pipelines, and safe water depth must be ensured at the source end.
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Papers by Rana Waqar Aslam