DAMAGE ASSESSMENT OF THE 2010 INDUS RIVER FLOOD USING GIS AND REMOTE SENSING TECHNIQUES: A CASE STUDY OF RAJANPUR, MUZAFFARGARH, AND RAHIM YAR KHAN DISTRICTS, PUNJAB, PAKISTAN

Abstract

Among the most devastating natural disasters in the world, floods are one of the worst and the flood of 2010 in Indus River was one of the worst in the history of Pakistan, which also affected southern Punjab districts of Rajanpur, Muzaffargarh and Rahim Yar Khan in the State. Landsat 4-5 satellite imagery (USGS) from before the flood (11 July 2010) and after (12 August 2010) was used with supervised classification in ERDAS Imagine and spatial analysis in ArcMap to determine the spatial extent of flooding and the damage to land use, infrastructure and agriculture. About 742.13 km² of the study area were affected and the result was shown by analysis. The largest proportion of damage was on barren land (49.62%), followed by vegetation (27.56%), settlements (17.42%) and roads (5.38%). Their impact was severe on region's agricultural output, resulting in significant losses in cotton, sugarcane and rice. The results validate the usefulness of GIS and Remote Sensing as tools for flood damage assessment and they also offer valuable geospatial data for disaster preparedness, agricultural recovery and sustainable land-use planning.