Geo Spatial Assessment of Flood Hazard in Jhang District, Pakistan

Floods are one of the leading natural disasters in Pakistan. In recent decades the frequency and intensity of floods has increased due to human and environmental factors. In this work an attempt was made to examine the flood vulnerable areas of Jhang district and its impact on land cover changes by using remote sensing and GIS techniques. Image Analysis and different indices like NDVI, NDWI were applied on satellite images for identification of flood prone areas and vegetation conditions in study area. Flood prone areas were further classified into low, medium and high risk areas according to flood hazard. The results indicate that, Jhang covers total area of 6357 km 2 out of which flood affected area is 530 km 2 . During the flood of 2010 water area expanded approximately 714 km 2 while a decline was observed in agricultural lands which have lost139 km 2 area under vegetation.