ESTIMATING THE TOTAL VOLUME OF RUNNING WATER BODY: A CASE STUDY OF PESHAWAR BASIN, PAKISTAN

Abstract

The main purpose of this study is to estimate the changes in land use and land cover in the Peshwar Basin, Pakistan (2000-2020). With the help of advanced geographic information systems (GIS), land use and topographic changes were identified. Moreover, some remedial measures were taken to develop land use/cover of the area to overcome the future problem. This will greatly improve the selection of areas designated as the agricultural, industrial, and/or urban sectors of the region. Land use around the Peshawar basin (Peshawar, Madan, Charsadda, Swabi and Nowshera) has changed every day with the addition of new developments (agriculture, trade, industry, cities). The rationale of this study was to evaluate land use/cover changes in the Peshawar basin from 2000 to 2020. The temporal and spatial dynamic measurement of land use/cover change uses two satellite images, classifies them through a supervised classification algorithm, and finally applies post-classification technology to detect changes in GIS. This study investigated the land cover changes in four categories, which were built-up Area, Agriculture Land, Rang land, and water body, by using Maximum Likelihood Classification (MLC). It is inferred that the built-up area was increased the most in the last ten years i.e. 2010 to 2020 as compared to other classes. Results show that, from 2000 to 2020, there is a significant increase of 16.48% in urbanization and a decrease of 10.46% in vegetation. These results can be useful for future planning and development. Groundwater depletion is an emerging problem is worldwide due to climate changes and the rapid increase in urbanization. GIS application makes it possible to estimate the total potential of running and groundwater by determining the appropriate locations. The objective of the current study is to estimate the total volume of running water by applying GIS in the Peshawar basin situated at the southern foothills of the Himalaya of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The basin is filled with quaternary sediments ranging from Pleistocene to recent in age. However, the sediments of the central part of the basin contain a relatively large portion of fine material and are characterized as lacustrine sediment. Based on the data of the 20 years from (2000 to 2020), the total runoff volume in the Peshawar basin in (2000-2010) is 13.9 cubic km. In comparison, the total runoff volume in the Peshawar basin fromvi (2010-2020) is 19.4 cubic km. The volume of water is estimated for the settled/covered areas. This volume estimation will assist in quantifying the total infiltration rate. The total study area of the current research work was 7,176 km2. Furthermore, Peshawar Basin is covered mostly by vegetation, which increases the chance of precipitation infiltration. However, in settled areas where vegetation is not present, the infiltration rate is very low. Therefore, the present case study of the Peshawar basin will help farmer community and environmentalists to manage rang land, agricultural land, populations, and water body. Most significantly, the current study will help manage floods that occur every year in Peshawar, Pakistan. Finally, we proposed the prospective applications of GIS in integration with AI (Artificial Intelligence) as a future work opportunity.