Pakistan -201006

< Last Update: 23 Jan. 2013 >

SAFE Prototyping Status: November 2010 - November 2012 <Completed>

Monitoring Water Cycle Variations & Assessing Climate Change Impacts

Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD)

Pakistan is an arid to semi-arid country and drought is one of the major disasters happened in the country. The mountainous region of the Upper Indus Basin is a critical source of water for Pakistan. Most flow in the upper Indus is derived from the snow- and glacier- accumulation and melting, which depend on the previous winter and the following summer climate conditions, respectively. Climate change impacts on the variations of dry-wet and snow-glacier environments in Pakistan were observed partly. Regional and national assessments are strongly requested scientifically and socio-economically. To enforce observation, understanding, and assessment capabilities of the water cycle variability associated with the climate change, this project develops;

1) Drought monitoring capability in Pakistan by coupling a satellite-based land data assimilation, in-situ observations and a distributed hydrological model

2) Flood monitoring capability in Pakistan by coupling satellite and in-situ observations and a distributed hydrological model

3) Simulation capability of snow- and glacier- melt in the Upper Indus River based a distributed hydrological model coupled with an integrated snow scheme, satellite and in-situ observations, and numerical weather prediction model outputs

4) Climate change impact assessment capability of drought and snow- and glacier induced river flow in Pakistan by using integrated climate prediction model outputs

Final Results

1) Products

Drought Management

Assim: Monthly avg. surface soil moisture January 2009

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Flood Map

Flood map of Available PALSAR data in Aug. 2010

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Snow and Glacier Cover Map

Hunza: Snow and Glcier Cover - Model output (Year 2002)

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2) Method

Drought Management

Drought Quantification: The Standard Anomaly Index

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Model Development: Snow

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Model Development: Glacier

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Stakeholder Meeting

1) Date and Place: September 10-11, 2012, Islamabad, Pakistan

2) Participants

- Ministry of Climate Change (MOCC)
- Ministry of Water & Power (MOWP)
- Research and Operation Organizations
- Academia
- International NGOs

Formation

1) Prototyping Executor

Dr. Rasul Ghulam, Deputy Director
Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD), Pakistan

2) Technical Supporter

University of Tokyo

3) Data & Application Provider

a) Satellite Data

- JAXA: TRMM, GSMaP, PALSAR, AVNIR-2, MODIS, AMSR-E

b) Other Data

- PMD: Operational meteorological observation data (soil moisture, temperature…), Research-oriented snowfall, snowmelt, glacier-melt observation data
- Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC): Local information of agricultural activities and water use, research-oriented hydrological observation data

c) Model or Tool

- The University of Tokyo: Distributed Hydrological Model (WEB-DHM), Land Data Assimilation System (LDAS-UT), Integrated Drought Assessment System, Data Integration and Analysis System (DIAS)