Pre-investment survey for natural resources development in Northern Pakistan
Pre-investment survey for natural resources development in Northern Pakistan
Faqir Mohammad Khan
ABSTRACT
With increase in population, pressure on land for cultivation, grazing and timber supplies is also increasing in the north-western hilly part of Pakistan like everywhere else. But these mountain lands also constitute a major portion of the watersheds of Indus river and are thus vitally important as the primary source of the country's water for agriculture, domestic and industrial uses as well as for power. The quantity, quality and seasonal distribution of the water-flow from these areas is, therefore, of paramount importance for the national economy. With a view to conserving and developing these watersheds, a project known as the pre-investment Survey Project for Natural Development was launched in 1965 to collect inventory data on topography, vegetation, soils, hydrology and climate and to interpret these data for the drawing up of land use plans relative to the needs of sound management of these watersheds and for the preparation of management plans for proper working of the forests situated therein. The project covers one of the most difficult and inaccessible areas of the world. Altitudes vary from about 500 meters to well over 7000 meters above mean sea level. Communication is poor and the area remains covered either with snow or with clouds for most pat of the year. Thus, there is a lot of difficulty in flowing aerial photography because of the short and not-too-certain spells of appropriate weather conditions as well as the non-availability of necessary equipment and material. Despite these difficulties, good progress has been achieved on the project in the flowing of aerial photography, preparation of maps and drawing up of integrated land resources reports. In some cases, even the follow-up operational projects have been put to implementation. The procedure is that aerial photography is carried out on two scales. The small 1:50,000 scale is used for mapping and the larger 1:20,000 scale is used for photo interpretation and for photo measurements. Some of the photo plots are visited in the field for verification and establishment of correlation as well as for recording of additional information. The data collected through photo interpretation, photo measurements and ground measurements are analyzed for the preparation of integrated land use plans. The results of land use surveys in so far as these indicate forest areas in some of the watersheds have been checked
with the observations recorded from the LANDSAT images. It has been found that the two compare favorably well. With more training, equipment, and material, it is hoped to compare the results already achieved on the project and to apply the use of LANDSAT images in solving the basic problem of mapping and of carrying out forest inventory in the in-accessible part of the country.
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March 1977
Vol. 27, Iss. 1
