Appraisal of Water Quality Measurements for Canal and Tube Well Water Systems for Agriculture Irrigation in Rechna Doab, Pakistan

The present study was an attempt to assess the surface and ground water quality for irrigation suitability in Rechna Doab. Irrigation water quality at canals and tube well water were analyzed by physicochemical parameters including pH, Electric Conductivity (EC), important cations such as Calcium (Ca2+) Magnesium (Mg2+), Potassium (K+), Sodium (Na+), important anions such as Chloride (Cl-), Bicarbonate (HCO3-), Sulphate (SO42-), three heavy metals including Zinc (Zn), Nickel (Ni) and Copper (Cu). Twelve water samples were collected from the main canals (Lower Gogera canal, Jhang branch canal and Rakh branch canal) while fifty water samples were collected from the tube wells. Statistically, data were analyzed by generating correlation coefficients. Canal water quality parameters i.e. Sodium Adsorption Ratio (SAR), Magnesium Adsorption Ratio (MAR), Sodium Percentage (Na %), Kelly Ratio (KR), Soluble Sodium Percentage (SSP), Residual Sodium Bicarbonate (RSBC), Permeability Index (PI) and Potential Salinity (PS) with their mean values 0.16,38.18, 8.03, 0.08, 10.17, 0.08, 28.34 and 0.024 respectively were calculated. Piper and Durov diagrammatic representations provided the suitability of the canal water regarding ionic composition. Results revealed that the status of the canal water was fit for agriculture. On the contrary, the data about Electric Conductivity (EC), Sodium Adsorption Ratio (SAR) and Residual Sodium Carbonate (RSC) of tube well water (with their maximum values 4.80, 29.65 and 13.60, respectively) was exceeding the FAO limits owing of sodium hazards. Thus, the scenario of groundwater is alarming due to unfit status of tube well water regarding irrigation purposes. Out of total 50 water samples of tube wells, 11 samples were found to be fit. While 39 samples were unfit for crop irrigation. Geo-statistical analysis was performed by using Inverse Distance Weighted (IDW) technique created in Arc map

Seasonal Aerosol Classification Over South Asia by Satellite based Atmospheric Optical Data

Aerosol optical characteristics have been investigated to explore regional and seasonal inconsistencies of aerosols and to define the dominant type throughout South Asia from 2001 to 2021. MODIS aerosol products from collection 6.1 have been used in present study, that comprise daily values of Angstrom exponent (AE) and aerosol optical depth (AOD) data. MODIS-derived AODs are validated by using nine ground-based AERONET station data. Overall, an adequate correlation is found among the two datasets. However, an overestimation of the MODIS retrievals is found in one site named Jaipur and underestimations are found at two sites named as Gandhi-college and Karachi. The seasonal evaluation shows that aerosol distribution found between 0 and 1.05, depending on the change in geographical location. The highest AOD value originates over the Indo-Gangetic plain (IGP), mostly throughout warm season. The second maximum AOD value covers a large area of South Asia during spring, summer and autumn. The lowest values of AOD are found in winter season excluding the IGP. A region with high aerosol optical depth (AOD) values support a low value of angstrom exponent (AE) indicating the coarse aerosol during warm seasons (spring and summer) over IGP. The region with high AOD and high AE values is showing fine aerosol during the mild to cold seasons (autumn and winter). The threshold values for AOD and AE have been used to classify aerosols. The results demonstrate that urban/industrial aerosols prominent in every season across the region dominate in spring and summer due to frequent occurrence of dust events. The mixed type aerosol is second largest contributor in aerosol formation in all seasons. The Biomass burning/smoke aerosol is dominant over IGP due to open forest and crop burning in autumn. Clean and maritime aerosol has small unnoticeable involvement in the studied region

Appraisal of Ground Water Potential through Remote Sensing in River Basin, Pakistan

Groundwater is an important source of water supply throughout the world and is one of the vital parts of the hydrological cycle. Its availability depends on the precipitation and recharge conditions. In arid regions, recharge amount is smaller than semiarid regions. Recharge is the basic phenomenon for the sustainability of ground water resources. Pakistan has inadequate water resources and inflow pattern due to arid climate. There are so many factors which make the conditions gradually worst such as increasing population, change in climate condition and misuse of water resources etc. These factors lead to the situation of water scarcity rather than any addition. watershed is positioned at the boundary of Sindh and Balochistan, Pakistan. It is the most important water supply source to Industrial area and the mega city of Karachi, which is getting only about 50 percent of water supply against its fast-increasing requirement. Hab watershed is therefore considered for this study. Remote Sensing and GIS are very effective tools for the assessment and exploration of potential sites of groundwater in any of the watershed. A case study was conducted for the assessment of groundwater potential sites in study area. For this purpose, different thematic layers were created like drainage map, structural and geological map and Overlay analysis was performed and to determine the potential zone of groundwater in the study area

Impact of Urbanization Growth on Land Surface Temperature using remote sensing and GIS: A Case Study of Gujranwala City, Punjab, Pakistan

Globally, urban temperature is gradually increasing day by day. The prominent climatic condition called Urban Heat Island (UHI), is rising especially in the rapidly developed cities. Gujranwala a city of Punjab, Pakistan is experiencing fast urbanization which has led to ultimately increase in the observable UHI. The objective of recent study is to determine the effects of increasing urbanization on surface temperature and vegetation cover by different techniques of remote sensing and GIS. For this purpose, different time series of Landsat images were selected through which land surface temperature and NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) has been calculated and urban heat island effect is analyzed. It is found that built-up areas have high temperature as compared to vegetative areas. Surface radiant temperature has increased up to 8 ˚C in Gujranwala due to urbanization. There is negative correlation between NDVI and LST. Economic activities in study area have decreased the vegetated parts leading to an increase in surface temperature and change in urban microclimate

Assessment of Smog Pattern and its Effects on Visibility in Lahore Using Remote Sensing and GIS

In recent times, many parts of the world are experiencing drastic levels of air pollution, which includessmog, the mixture of fog and smoke, polluted air formed by human activities like burning of coal, excessive use ofvehicles and many others. During November 2016, Lahore city also experienced the smog due to increased level of airpollutants. In earlier studies, very limited research work has been done related to smog, therefore, this research is aimedto study the pattern of smog in Lahore and its impact on visibility through remote sensing and GIS. Satellite images ofMODIS and Landsat OLI, of November, 2016 is used to study the pattern of smog, whereas the visibility data wasacquired from Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD). For the processing and analysis of data ERDAS IMAGINE14 and ArcGIS 10.1 software were used. The findings of this research reveal that the dense smog cover on 2nd, 3rd,and 4th November 2016 leads to the considerable reduction in visibility. As on 2nd November’16, it was only 111.6meters (m) while during bright days it was recorded more than 300 m or 400 m

Analytical Review of Land Use Changes by Remote Sensing and GIS Techniques in District Gujrat, Pakistan

Assessment of changes in land use and land cover through remote sensing and GIS is very important and keyanalysis. Urbanization has been continued by the rapid growth in the world economy so; it is the key study withregards to agriculture and urbanization. The aim of this study is to determine the loss of agriculture land and effects ofincreasing urbanization on surface temperature. For urban temperature impact analysis, distinctive time series ofLandsat images have been chosen. Temporal analysis for different time series shows the decrease in agriculture landand increase in built up area. Urbanization increased the temperature up to 20C. Positive correlation is found betweenbuilt-up area and temperature and negative correlation is found between green spaces and temperature. Unplannedurban sprawl and lack of proper irrigation system according to population are major problems in study area. Recentstudy will be helpful for decision makers to develop the sustainable environment policy in future

Quantitative Assessment of Hab Watershed Using Geoinformatics

Morphometric assessment of the watersheds is considered highly critical to appraise its hydrological characteristics, such as, general geology, structure, geomorphology and climate conditions. In this study, morphometric analysis of Hab Watershed has been carried out through Geospatial Technology (RS & GIS) in a systematic manner to examine its Geo-hydrological characteristics. The drainage network of Hab is typically dendritic and semi-dendritic indicating its heterogeneous lithology. Recent study reveals increase in stream order, substantially decreases the stream total length. drainage density of the Hab Watershed indicates the characteristics of its typical soil. Drainage texture value for Hab watershed is 0.18. Low drainage density value reveals that the region has a permeable and porous subsurface material with low relief. The shape of the basin has been observed as quite elongated. The findings of this study reveal that GIS based morphometric analysis is highly effective tool for geo-hydrological study of watersheds

Comparative Analysis of Different Remote Sensing Techniques for Mapping of Supraglacial Lakes on Hispar Glacier

The glacier changes are very significant in quantifying the direct effects of climate change. The glaciers inthe northern Pakistan especially in the Karakoram pose a large change in relief and are difficult to access due tocomplex topography. The global WOS (Web of Science) database indicate only a few studies conducted so far in thisregion in the domain of climate and cryosphere. The studies relating to glacial hazards in this region are even less. Thisstudy involves the mapping of supraglacial lakes on Hispar glacier using multiple remote sensing methods. Theaccuracy of results from those methods is discussed. Remote Sensing and GIS techniques have been applied to timeseries of Landsat images of years 2017, 2016, 2010, 2000 and 1990 (in the descending order) to quantify thesupraglacial lakes on the Hispar glacier. The remote sensing techniques include Band Rationing, Normalized WaterIndex (NDWI), Classification i.e. Unsupervised and Panchromatic Sharpening Image Enhancement Technique for theyears of 2017 and 2016 imageries. After defining the Hunza basin (involving of high resolution DEMs), all the satellitederived imageries have been preprocessed and processed. GIS tools have been used to calculate the areal extents ofyearly obtained supraglacial lakes and compare temporally with passing years, which in turn gave an accuratecomparative analysis among different remote sensing techniques. The satellite derived time series map layouts of eachtechnique have been formulated. The vulnerable supraglacial lakes on Hispar glacier of areal sizes ≤ 0.05 sq.km havealso been identified and delineate