Exploring underlying causes and assessing damages of 2010 flash flood in the upper zone of Panjkora River

Shakeel Mahmood (), Amin-ul-Haq Khan and Shaker Mahmood Mayo
Additional contact information
Shakeel Mahmood: Government College University
Amin-ul-Haq Khan: Government College University
Shaker Mahmood Mayo: UET

Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, 2016, vol. 83, issue 2, No 21, 1213-1227

Abstract: Abstract The paper assesses the damage caused by 2010 flash flood and its underlying causes in the upper zone of Panjkora River within district Dir Upper, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Province in Pakistan. Floods in general and flash floods in particular are very common in the area, and the phenomenon has intensified in the wake of observed climatic changes in the region. Anticipating an increase in the multiplicity of causes and a rise in the human, livelihood, and property losses attributed to flash floods calls for a detailed study of affected communities in the region. Within the study area of District Dir Upper—within the band of 200 m on both sides of Panjkora River, three most affected communities, namely Barikot, Kalkot, and Sharingal, were picked on random basis to have detailed analysis of underlying causes and the quantification of damage assessment in the area. Questionnaire-based household survey and structured interviews were conducted to investigate physical and economic damages in the sample sites. Global positioning system (GPS) survey is also conducted to acquire absolute location of damages, and geographic information system is used to visualize land use, land cover, physical features, and GPS data. Monsoon winds interacted with the westerlies abnormally caused unprecedented high intensity rainfall in the valley. The steep topography of the area caused rainwater to accumulate rapidly in the Panjkora River channel, overpowering the withholding capacity of the river. The flash flood inflected heavy losses to life and properties of the local population. The infrastructure such as houses, roads, retaining walls, bridges, water supply schemes, and irrigation channels were destroyed severely in the whole area particularly in Kalkot. Three explored underlying causes of flash floods and the degree of damage due to 2010 flash floods in the region call for an enhanced realization for climatic change adaptability, flood risk management, and mitigation measures, better flood response through early warning systems, and improved rehabilitation and recovery efforts within flood prone areas such as district Dir Upper, KP, Pakistan.

Keywords: Flash flood; Underlying causes; GIS; GPS; Damages (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11069-016-2386-x Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:nathaz:v:83:y:2016:i:2:d:10.1007_s11069-016-2386-x

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11069

DOI: 10.1007/s11069-016-2386-x

Access Statistics for this article

Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards is currently edited by Thomas Glade, Tad S. Murty and Vladimír Schenk

More articles in Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards from Springer, International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().