Urbanization-led Land Cover Change Impacts Terrestrial Carbon Storage Capacity: A High-Resolution Remote Sensing-Based Nationwide Assessment in Pakistan (1990–2020)

Overview

This repository contains the code, resources, and datasets for our study:

Urbanization-led land cover change impacts terrestrial carbon storage capacity: A high-resolution remote sensing-based nation-wide assessment in Pakistan (1990–2020), published in Environmental Impact Assessment Review.

Dataset Availability

We are excited to announce that our comprehensive Pakistan 30m Land Use Land Cover (LULC) and Carbon Storage Dataset (1990–2020) is now open-sourced. This dataset covers four time periods: 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2020, providing valuable insights into land cover transformations and carbon storage dynamics over three decades.

• Zenodo Archive: Zenodo Dataset
• Earth Engine Assets: See Earth Engine Access

Citation

If you find this work useful, please consider citing our paper:

@article{waleed2024_paklulc,
  title={Urbanization-led land cover change impacts terrestrial carbon storage capacity: A high-resolution remote sensing-based nation-wide assessment in Pakistan (1990–2020)},
  author={Waleed, Mirza and Sajjad, Muhammad and Shazil, Muhammad Shareef},
  journal={Environmental Impact Assessment Review},
  volume={105},
  pages={107396},
  year={2024},
  publisher={Elsevier}
}

• Paper DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eiar.2023.107396
• Paper PDF: Download PDF

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Dataset Description

This dataset provides high-resolution, nationwide Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) and terrestrial carbon stock maps of Pakistan for four epochs: 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2020. Developed using multi-sensor satellite imagery and advanced classification techniques within Google Earth Engine (GEE), the dataset offers a detailed analysis of land cover changes driven by urbanization and their impacts on carbon storage capacity over 30 years.

Key Features

• Spatial Resolution: 30 meters
• Temporal Coverage: 1990, 2000, 2010, 2020
• LULC Classes: Nine distinct land cover types (see LULC Classification Table)
• Carbon Pools: Above-ground biomass, below-ground biomass, soil organic carbon, and dead organic matter
• Methodology: Hybrid random forest-based machine learning approach with ~40,000 stratified random samples for training and validation
• Applications: Urban planning, climate change mitigation, environmental management, policy-making

Findings

• Urban Expansion: Urban areas in Pakistan expanded by over 1040% between 1990 and 2020
• Carbon Storage Loss: Approximately 5% decrease in terrestrial carbon storage capacity
• Regional Variations:
  • Major cities like Karachi and Lahore showed moderate urban sprawl
  • Emerging cities like Rawalpindi and Peshawar experienced rapid expansion
• Land Conversion: Significant shift from rangelands (~47%) and agricultural lands (~35%) to built-up areas
• Afforestation Efforts: Positive impact in northern regions, but significant north-south disparities in carbon loss

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Earth Engine Access

The datasets are also available as Earth Engine assets for direct use within the GEE platform.

Earth Engine Snippet

// LULC Images
var lulc1990 = ee.Image('projects/pak-var/assets/lulc_pk/img1990');
var lulc2000 = ee.Image('projects/pak-var/assets/lulc_pk/img2000');
var lulc2010 = ee.Image('projects/pak-var/assets/lulc_pk/img2010');
var lulc2020 = ee.Image('projects/pak-var/assets/lulc_pk/img2020');

// Carbon Stock Images (values multiplied by 10 for scaling)
var carbon1990 = ee.Image('projects/pak-var/assets/carbon_pk/img1990').multiply(10);
var carbon2000 = ee.Image('projects/pak-var/assets/carbon_pk/img2000').multiply(10);
var carbon2010 = ee.Image('projects/pak-var/assets/carbon_pk/img2010').multiply(10);
var carbon2020 = ee.Image('projects/pak-var/assets/carbon_pk/img2020').multiply(10);

• Sample Code: Earth Engine Code Editor

Note

This dataset is now included in Awsome GEE Community Catalogue. You can find it here: LINK.

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LULC Classification Table

LULC Class	Class Value	Color Code	Visual
Forest Cover	1	#54bb19
Agriculture/Cropland	3	#affd08
Rangeland	4	#d1fbb9
Wetlands	5	#652ff3
Barren Lands	6	#fed483
Water Bodies	7	#005ce6
Built-up Areas	8	#e50600
Snow/Ice	9	#fe4fcd

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Web Applications

Interactive Google Earth Engine (GEE) applications are available to explore the datasets.

Land Use Land Cover (LULC) Viewer

• Access App: Pakistan LULC Viewer (1990–2020)

• Features:

  • Select province and district
  • Visualize LULC for 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2020

• Preview:

  

Carbon Storage Viewer

• Access App: Pakistan Carbon Storage Viewer (1990–2020)

• Features:

  • Select province and district
  • Visualize carbon storage for 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2020

• Preview:

  

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Contact

For any queries or collaboration opportunities, please contact:

• Mirza Waleed
  • Email: waleedgeo@outlook.com
  • LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/waleedgeo
  • Website: waleedgeo.com

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Additional Resources

• Research Projects and Opportunities: UrbES Lab
• Contributors:
  • Dr. Muhammad Sajjad
  • Muhammad Shareef Shazil

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License

This project is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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Keywords

land use land cover, Pakistan, LULC, carbon, urbanization, Google Earth Engine, geospatial, remote sensing, GIS

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Note: To bulk download these datasets, please visit our Zenodo Archive.

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