Climate change: An evil or an opportunity-evidence from the Hindu-Kush Mountain system of Pakistan

Abstract

Swat district falls in the Hindu-Kush mountain system of Pakistan, is considered as one of the most important biodiversity hotspots of the country. To explore the present floristic diversity of the region, vegetation sampling was done and field experiments were carried out using geo-referenced data of various species of eco-geological interest. Field data was merged with remotely sensed data, obtained from Landsat and LDR missions and processed in GIS for various geospatial analyses, i.e. Climate Change modelling, were developed hotspot analysis, Digital Elevation Models. Max Ent niche climate change modelling technique was used to predict the present and future potential distribution of some species. The results were obtained in the form of model outputs and GIS choropleth maps. It is evident from the results that Malakand division general and swat in partial area has microclimatic niches in various pockets of Malakand division i.e. District Swat, Dir and Chitral. Some locations were found to be extremely poor in floristic diversity and are extremely vulnerable to minute climatic changes. We conclude that the inevitable climate change is not necessarily an evil but could be looked at as an opportunity in hand which could be used for the socioeconomic development of the country. We recommend initiatives like introduction of GIS and remote sensing technologies to the Universities’ curricula and interdisciplinary adaptation approaches in the form of departmental and inter-universities collaboration.