Monday, February 9, 2015

Drought Severity in Pakistan

The Thal Doab region of Pakistan is located between three rivers and is known to have extremely dry weather and low amounts of rainfall. During droughts, the production of crops such as gram are very negatively affected. In this paper, the meteorological conditions were measured for the years 1989, 1995, 2001, and 2007. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index was calculated along with rainfall and crop yield. The results showed that NDVI, rainfall, and yields were positively correlated. The evapotranspiration rates were also found and shown to correlate negatively with crop yields. These results were analyzed and integrated into drought severity maps in order to indicate areas with the most hazardous conditions and to help planners decide how best to go about planting in the future. Using GIS in this way can be extremely helpful in regions such as Pakistan where agriculture is a main way of life because it can help people be more successful by knowing weather patterns, best growing areas, soil types, etc.


Shaheen, A., & Baig, M. A. (2011). Drought severity assessment in arid area of Thal Doab using remote sensing and GIS. Int. J. Water Resour. Arid Environ,1(2), 92-101.

1 comment:

  1. Did this study take into consideration the impact of droughts on the socioeconomic or human populations in Pakistan? I think it would be interesting to study the population density and socioeconomic distribution as well as the drought severity to predict and create human sustainability plans. While agriculture is extremely important to the economic stability of cultures in this region, I think it would be interesting to study the impact of the drought on the diverse cultures.

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