Trend analysis of the decadal variations of water bodies and land use/land cover through MODIS imagery: an in-depth study from Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan

Abstract

Water is a primary element for human life on Earth. Fresh water, which includes rivers, lakes, streams, and ponds, contributes less than one thousandth of a percent of the total water on Earth, but it is critical for the environment and human life. Change in land use and land cover (LULC) is a foremost concern in global environment change. Rapid changes in LULC lead to the degradation of ecosystems and have adverse effects on the environment. There is an urgent need to monitor changes in LULC and evaluate the effects of these changes in order to inform decision makers on how to support sustainable development. This study used Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometry images to detect and investigate changes in LULC patterns in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan, between 2008 and 2017. Six types of LULC were used to explain the major changes of LULC in the study area. The results showed that there was a reduction of barren lands and an increase of urban areas. It also showed an inconsistent behavior of water bodies during the study. Snow area, which also increased, needs further investigation.

Time Series Analyses and Forecasting of Surface Urban Heat Island Intensity Using ARIMA Model in Punjab, Pakistan

“…MODIS LST products are widely used to study SUHII on a large scale [63][64][65]. In this study, MODIS MOD11A2 with 1 km spatial resolution and 8 days temporal resolution [66,67] was used to evaluate LST trends and the effect of SUHII. To delineate the urban and rural area for each city annually, the MODIS MCD12Q1 composite land cover product with a spatial resolution of 500 m was chosen, the International Geosphere Biosphere Programme (IGBP) MCD12Q1 classification scheme provides 17 categories [68] To match the resolution of LST data, the MCD12Q1 product was rescaled to 1 km.…”

A Synthesis of Spatial Forest Assessment Studies Using Remote Sensing Data and Techniques in Pakistan

“…The forest cover of the entire Kohistan district, extracted through the GFW data set, was 1304 km 2 . The last reviewed study, performed by Zafar et al [101], used MODIS data to map the coniferous, broad-leaved, and mixed forests in GB (68,601 km 2 area) using a pixel-based supervised image classification method. This study reported that a substantial increase in the forest was observed between 2008-2017 yearly.…”

“…In this forest ecoregion, four studies were conducted [42,49,50,101]. Out of these studies, one study used OBIA [50], and all others used pixel-based image analysis.…”

“…Out of these studies, one study used OBIA [50], and all others used pixel-based image analysis. One study [101] reported an increase in the forest cover, one reported [42] a decreasing trend, and two studies did not perform change analysis.…”