Monitoring the effects of climate change and topography on vegetation health in Tharparkar, Pakistan

Abstract

Pakistan's geographic position and socioeconomic profile make it one of the nations that are particularly susceptible to the negative effects of climate change. The Tharparkar district in Pakistan is of particular importance in this regard as it is an arid region with serious environmental issues like drought, desertification, and soil degradation. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine how topographic and climatic factors affect vegetation indicators in the Tharparkar. The study utilizes spatiotemporal data spanning over 20 years (2001–2020) collected from the satellites MOD11A2 and MOD13A3. The collected data are processed using a range of tools in ArcGIS 10.4.1, and the impact of topographic and climatic conditions is analyzed based on different vegetation indices, including EVI, NDVI, STVI, OSAVI, and SAVI. The findings reveal that temperature and precipitation, both of which are controlled by topographic features, such as elevation and slope, are the key elements affecting vegetation in Tharparkar. At high elevations, rainfall (>440 mm) and LST (>39 °C) are also high and where the slope is low the density of vegetation indices is high.