Flood severity assessment in Jhelum water shed of Punjab Province, Pakistan

Abstract

Current study evaluated the severity and damages of 2010 and 2014 flood in the Jhelum Water Shed of Punjab, Pakistan. For this, Jhelum watershed was selected as a study area. Simultaneously, field observation was also done and snaps of the destroyed fields and houses were captured through digital camera. Findings revealed that in study area majority of the inhabitants had lost almost all of their possessions to furious flood. The Jhelum watershed starts from the areas of the Khola (Jamu-Kashmir) and diminishes at Trimu Barrage (Jhang). The main purpose of the study is to assess the severity of flood in Jhelum River shed of Punjab and to find the causes of the flood in Jhelum River. Satellite images of Jhelum watershed were downloaded from USGS website for the year’s 2010 and 2014 at Landsat 5 (TM), Pixel ratio of Land sat 5 (TM) at 30*30 meter for every band. The supervised classification technique in Erdas Imagin was applied on these satellite images using inverse distance weight (IDW) in Arc GIS 10.1. The analyses on maps were performed in Arc-GIS which were in the flow direction, watershed, Hillshade, slope and aspect map. The secondary data of all parameters was obtained from the Statistical Department of Bureau, Lahore. The socio-economic conditions like affected area, houses, villages, persons, injured persons, dead persons, dead animals and crop area were also discussed. The analysis revealed that the floods of 2010 and 2014 had badly affected to the eleven districts including Jhelum watershed and the rainfall had been decreased 18.76 inches during the flood of 2014. All indicators remained highest in 2010 flood and decreased in 2014 flood. The study suggests that dams should be built on suitable locations because the needs of dams are more necessary for the control and storage of excess water.