A Rapid Geospatial flood impact assessment in Pakistan 2022
In 2022, intense rainfall in monsoon season caused severe flooding across Pakistan and impacted a large number of people and households including deaths of people, damages of infrastructure (including roads, dams, buildings, electricity poles etc.), destruction of agricultural area and push millions of people into poverty and hunger. Since the beginning of the rainy season, it is reported that over 735 000 livestock have perished, and about 2 million acres of crops have been adversely impacted (UNCT, 2022). In this context, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) conducted a rapid geospatial impact assessment of floods on agricultural land, crop types and the exposure of people to floods during the period 1–31 August 2022. This assessment was conducted for four provinces of Pakistan (Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochishtan) and provides information at both provincal and district levels. This assessment was also extended for the period 1-19 September 2022. In this report, additional results for flood extent for September 2022 were added while the core of the report and results focused on the most affected period i.e. August 2022. The methodological approach and results prepared for the period 1-19 September 2022 are consistent with the assessment for August 2022. This analysis combines Sentinel 1 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and Sentinel 2 at a 10 m spatial resolution, land cover 2021 data at 10 m spatial resolution and 2020 population data from WorldPop at 100 m spatial resolution to determine: (1) flood extent; (2) flooded agricultural area; (3) crop type area (rice, cotton, sugarcane, wheat); (4) flooded crop type area; and (5) exposure of people to flood extent for the period 1–31 August 2022. The results are provided in the form of maps by administrative units and tables with descriptive statistics for the aforementioned indicators. Because of limited available data, flood impact assessment on maize cultivation could not be calculated.