September 30, 2025Open Access

Monsoon 2022 Floods and Its Impacts on Agriculture Land Using Geospatial Approaches: A Case Study of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province Pakistan

Key Points

The 2022 monsoon floods severely damaged approximately 1377.54 km2 of cropped area in the DI Khan region.
Areas in Districts Charsadda and Nowshera experienced significant crop loss, with damages measured at 117.56 km2 and 467.75 km2 respectively.
Geospatial techniques were employed to monitor and assess the agricultural impacts of floods across multiple districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
These findings underscore the necessity for better disaster preparedness and rainwater conservation strategies to mitigate future flooding effects.

Abstract

Pakistan liesamong the most vulnerable countries facing severe episodes of climate change-induced hydro-climatic disasters, including heatwaves, floods, droughts, and rainfall-induced landslides. These disasters have major impacts on agriculture, soil health, groundwater, and the socioeconomic conditions of the region.In 2022, Pakistan experienced the biggest natural disaster in its history caused by severalhydrometeorological anomalies. An extreme heat inMay 2022 was followed by a devastating flood disaster in August 2022. Such natural hazards have hampered national socioeconomic conditions. Floods usually affectedthe whole province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) Pakistan; however, its nine districts were severely affected by the Monsoon-2022 Flood. In southern parts of the province, Dera Ismail Khan (DI Khan) and Tank were severely affected by the floods. In the northern parts of the province, Swat, Dir Lower, Dir Upper,and some areas of the Chitral region were affected. In the central parts, areas of Nowshera, Charsadda,and Peshawar were affected by the recent floods. Field data were collected and processed using geo-spatial techniques and verified the damages of floods in 2022. The results revealed that the recent monsoon spell damaged 1377.54 km2cropped area in the DI Khan region, and 270.15 km2cropped area fully or partially damaged in the District Tank region. Croplands with sugarcane and maize crops (117.56 km2) were severely damaged in District Charsadda. While, a total cropland of 467.75 km2and 30.08 km2was damaged in District Nowshera and Peshawar, respectively. In the northern part of the province, District Swat was mostly affected by this flood where 122.00 km2of land with various crops and orchards were damaged. Similarly, 63.60 km2, 15.15 km2,and 575.68 km2of agricultural land wereaffected in District Dir Lower, Dir Upper,and Chitral, respectively. The outcome of the present study will help the government and other organizationsmitigate the adverse effects of such floods in the future and will assist in rainwater conservation strategies/planning.

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