Addressing Environmental Vulnerability: Land Cover Dynamics Assessment and Afforestation Strategies in Pakistan for Disaster Resilience

Abstract

The devastating floods of 2022 in Pakistan killed 1,739 people and caused 15.2 billion USD in economic losses, underscoring the urgent need for proactive environmental management strategies. This study investigates land cover changes, focusing on forest cover, in Pakistan from 2017 to 2023, aiming to inform policy and mitigation efforts. High precipitation intensity from July to August 2022 exacerbated the impact of the floods, revealing the region's vulnerability. The method uses spatial analysis from Existing artificial intelligence (AI) land classification models, which were enhanced by bringing together a massive training dataset of billions of human-labeled image pixels. These models were applied to the entire Sentinel-2 scene collection for each year – that’s over 2,000,000 Earth observations from 6 spectral bands to produce the maps. The analysis reveals a stark reality: Pakistan's forest cover is a mere 2%, highlighting the critical need for intervention. Examining land cover dynamics over the six years illuminates trends and projections crucial for environmental planning. This research also uses deep interviews with snowball sampling of some key persons in Pakistan. Government-led afforestation initiatives underway signal a proactive response, intending to bolster environmental resilience and reduce the susceptibility to natural disasters. Insights gleaned from this research serve as a foundation for strategic policy formulation, guiding efforts to enhance environmental quality and safeguard against future calamities in Pakistan.