Pakistan ranks among the ten countries most severely impacted by the relentless forces of Climate Change. Amidst this urgent scenario, the need of the hour transcends routine forest monitoring. It demands a comprehensive strategy that encompasses annual forest assessments, meticulous tracking of deforestation (conversion) and afforestation/revegetation (expansion) trends, and pinpointing deforestation hotspots and positive growth pockets. These insights are vital for steering effective policies and actions to mitigate the impact of climate-related challenges.
To address this imperative, we propose a forward-looking solution in the form of a dynamic mobile application or an interactive web portal. This digital interface serves as an informational hub, delivering three distinct categories of data tailored to specific local administrative boundaries or user-defined Areas of Interest (AOIs).
This multi-faceted platform empowers decision-makers, researchers, and the public alike. It provides a potent toolkit for informed choices, enabling efficient resource allocation and the formulation of strategies that seamlessly amalgamate ecological resurgence with sustainable development aspirations. Through the synthesis of real-time data and actionable insights, this solution spearheads Pakistan's endeavors to combat the far-reaching effects of Climate Change.
The project will be tested through selection of an administrative boundary of the District Attock of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan.
The methodology involve following steps:
A simplistic step wise approach will be adopted using the Remote Sensing data / shapefiles of the commonly used deforestation mapping through sentinel- 2 based satellite data in the FAO tools of SEPAL and Openforis. The current study devised a methodology to focus more on the post processing of the results for least possible uncertainty and high accuracy. Main steps planned are as under:
Data preparation:
1. Customization of the sentinel-2 based change detection shapefiles (base layers) in Openforis Collect Earth platform
2. Visual interpretation using very high-resolution satellite resources i.e. Google Earth Engines, Bing Maps and ESRI online resources in a for accurately recording the extent and nature of spatial change detection.
3. The spatial change detection would be segregated based on possible direct drivers of deforestation (visible through land use changes between two reference points (for demonstration October 2018 to September 2021 for selected District). Various QA and QC steps would be added.
4. The localized Emission Factors / Removal Factors will be used for the calculation of Emissions / Removals.
Generation of tool:
5. A digital tool / user friendly APP would be generated to provide following solutions:
a. Deforestation and Afforestation/Revegetation Metrics: Unveiling the quantitative aspects of deforestation and afforestation/revegetation, this feature offers a comprehensive overview of changing forest dynamics.
b. Unveiling the Drivers of Deforestation: By exposing the scope and drivers of deforestation, this feature uncovers the intricate forces shaping land use shifts.
c. Carbon Footprint Assessment: Establishing a direct connection between land-use transformations, particularly deforestation and afforestation, and associated carbon emissions and removals. This analysis quantifies the ecological impact of these actions on the overall carbon equilibrium.