Flooding is among the most catastrophic and common natural events. It not only endangers human lives, their livelihoods, and possessions but also devastates the nation’s economy. Increased flooding is an inevitable consequence of climate change. Hence, Identification of flood suspectable hotspots is vital for flood risk management along with disaster handling. The primary objective of this research is to use a frequency ratio model to classify flood-prone zones in two provinces of Pakistan. The flood inventory map was developed using 230 flood location points in Northern Sindh and Southern Punjab. Aspect, profile curvature, elevation, slope, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), normalized difference soil index (NDSI), distance from the road, distance from the river, land use/land cover (LULC) and rainfall were among the ten (10) determining factors. The data were randomly divided into two distinct datasets, with 70% flood points (161) used for inventory formulation and the other 30% (69 flood points) for result validation. The flood vulnerability map was categorized into five different zones ranging from very low (19.73%) to very high (20.37%) susceptibility range. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) and area under curve (AUC) was used to demonstrate the prediction result that yielded a reasonable score of 77.4%. The study suggested that in comparison to other studied districts, Jacobabad is the most prone region with acute vulnerability and constrained resilience. The presented data can serve as a source for tracking, assessing, and predicting potential flood activity in the area and could be beneficial for planners and decision-makers involved in early disaster response planning within the country.

Land is one of the most vital nonrenewable resources that guarantee the survival and development of humans on planet Earth. In the 21st century, rapid population growth accompanied by expeditious industrialization and urbanization has led to land degradation and irreparable damage. In Pakistan, land degradation has affected the livelihood of 3.58% of the total population. This study aimed to identify the soil erosion-based land that is degraded in Pakistan through an analytical hierarchal process (AHP). For this purpose, climatic parameters such as vis-a-vis precipitation, temperature, land use/land cover, soil parameters (i.e., soil pH, soil texture, soil bulk density, and soil moisture content), and topographic parameters (i.e., slope, elevation, aspect, and drainage density) were taken into the consideration. Weights and scores were assigned in integration with a weighted overlay analysis (WOA) to the prioritized parameters. The findings revealed that Zone A comprising high mountains is severely affected by land degradation, followed by Zone D and E (Sindh and Balochistan). Key factors operating in Zone D and E are hyper-arid climatic conditions along with inefficient land management practices. The overall results validated the hypothesis that soil erosion strongly correlates with an increase in the magnitude and severity of land degradation.

Domestic water availability is intricately linked with a growing population, urbanization, and associated land use/land cover change (LULCC). Precise and periodic assessments of water supply and demand are imperative for the sustainability of urban ecosystems. The present study provides a situational analysis of the domestic water supply and demand and LULC to quantify their impacts on water resources in the rapidly growing water scarce metropolitan area of Islamabad-Rawalpindi. Data regarding demography, water demand and supply were collected from concerned government departments, and the water demand-supply balance was projected for the years 2021–2050 through simple equations. Two remotely sensed satellite imageries (Landsat 8 OLI and Landsat 5 TM) were retrieved and supervised classification was performed for land use land cover (LULC) analysis during last two decades 1999 and 2019.The results revealed that the current domestic water supply is 65 million gallons per day (MGD) and 54.074 MGD in Islamabad and Rawalpindi, respectively. The per capita water availability is estimated as 60 GPCD (gallons per capita per day) in Islamabad, whereas it is 76.40 GPCD in Rawalpindi. Water demand has outstripped conventional supplies, leading to deficits of 52 MGD and 18.50 MGD in Islamabad and Rawalpindi, respectively. The groundwater depth has decreased from 22.8 m to 56 m in Islamabad and from 37.8 m to 59 m in Rawalpindi. This decline is positively correlated with the density of installed tube wells, borehole wells, demographic factors and LULCC. LULC analysis depicts rapid decline in open land which has been replaced by settlements. Moreover, the area of open land decreased significantly from 68.46% to 18.92%whereas the area under the built environment increased significantly from 7.77% to 36.51% from 1999—2019. However, increase in the forest cover and water was insignificant. This land transformation contributed to a reduction in the water table depth and recharge to aquifers and escalating water demand. The study concluded that the groundwater resources of twin cities are under stress. In addition, forecasted water demand will also increase in the future with increasing population, economic growth and lifestyle changes while increasing groundwater abstraction, and diminished water infiltration rates due to urban expansion will compromise water availability for future generations. The findings provide valuable information to concerned agencies, policy makers and stakeholders to take appropriate long-term measures to address repercussions of unplanned urbanization and LULC to ensure a sustainable water supply to the urban populace.

The lack of information regarding biodiversity status hampers designing and implementing conservation strategies and achieving future targets. Northern Pakistan consists of a unique ecoregion mosaic which supports a myriad of environmental niches for anuran diversity in comparison to the deserts and xeric shrublands throughout the rest of the country. In order to study the niche suitability, species overlap and distribution patterns in Pakistan, we collected observational data for nine anuran species across several distinct ecoregions by surveying 87 randomly selected locations from 2016 to 2018 in Rawalpindi District and Islamabad Capital Territory. Our model showed that the precipitation of the warmest and coldest quarter, distance to rivers and vegetation were the greatest drivers of anuran distribution, expectedly indicating that the presence of humid forests and proximity to waterways greatly influences the habitable range of anurans in Pakistan. Sympatric overlap between species occurred at significantly higher density in tropical and subtropical coniferous forests than in other ecoregion types. We found species such as Minervarya spp., Hoplobatrachus tigerinus and Euphlyctis spp. preferred the lowlands in proximal, central and southern parts of the study area proximal to urban settlements, with little vegetation and higher average temperatures. Duttaphrynus bengalensis and D. stomaticus had scattered distributions throughout the study area with no clear preference for elevation. Sphaerotheca pashchima was patchily distributed in the midwestern extent of the study area as well as the foothills to the north. Microhyla nilphamariensis was widely distributed throughout the study area with a preference for both lowlands and montane terrain. Endemic frogs (Nanorana vicina and Allopaa hazarensis) were observed only in locations with higher elevations, higher density of streams and lower average temperatures as compared to the other seven species sampled. It is recommended to provide legal protection to amphibians of Pakistan, especially endemic species, through revision in the existing wildlife laws. We suggest studying the effectiveness of existing amphibian tunnels and corridors or designing new ones tailored to the needs of our species to prevent their local extinction due to ongoing or proposed urban development which might affect their dispersal and colonization.