One of the detailed and useful ways to develop land use classification maps is use of geospatial techniques such as remote sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS). It vastly improves the selection of areas designated as agricultural, industrial and/or urban sector of a region. In Islamabad city and its surroundings, change in land use has been observed and new developments (agriculture, commercial, industrial and urban) are emerging every day. Thus, the rationale of this study was to evaluate land use/cover changes in Islamabad from 1992 to 2012. Quantification of spatial and temporal dynamics of land use/cover changes was accomplished by using two satellite images, and classifying them via supervised classification algorithm and finally applying post-classification change detection technique in GIS. The increase was observed in agricultural area, built-up area and water body from 1992 to 2012. On the other hand forest and barren area followed a declining trend. The driving force behind this change was economic development, climate change and population growth. Rapid urbanization and deforestation resulted in a wide range of environmental impacts, including degraded habitat quality.

Balochistan is a semi-arid region. The assessment of water quality is very important, as the majority of people depend on groundwater for drinking purposes. The present study involves the quality assessment and mapping of drinking water in the five selected major coal mining sites in the four districts of Balochistan. A total of 50 samples were collected from these five coal mining sites in two seasons: i.e., summer and winter. A physicochemical analysis was carried out for groundwater samples: i.e., pH, electrical conductivity (EC), total dissolved solid (TDS), CO₃, HCO₃^-, Cl^-, Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, Na⁺, K⁺, Cd, Cr, Co, Cu, Fe, Pb, Mn, Hg, Ni, and Zn. Thematic maps were used to depict the spatial distribution of significant variables and were compared with WHO standards (2011) during both seasons. The majority of parameters crossed the safe permissible limit of WHO standards. The water quality index (WQI) was calculated for the whole monitoring data obtained from both seasons from the perspective of drinking water in each of the selected sites. Moreover, a principle component analysis (PCA) and correlation matrix was carried out for the data analysis in order to identify the source of pollution and correlation among the variables. The results suggested that the overall quality of water from the selected coal mining sites deteriorated due to the overexploitation of coal mines and mining activity. The current investigation provides a comprehensive picture of the current status of water quality in and around the selected coal mines of Balochistan.