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Amongst global resources water is emerging as perhaps the most critical but misused natural resource. It is an important input to agricultural production and an essential requirement for many domestic, municipal and industrial activities.

Of all the water on earth, 97.5% is the oceans, thus the total fresh water is only 2.5%. Pakistan is divided into three hydrological units: the Indus basin, covering an area of over 566,000 km2 (70% of the surveyed area in the country), the Kharan desert in west Balochistan with its inland drainage, and the arid Makran coast along the Arabian Sea in the south. The total watershed area of the Indus basin, or the region that drains into the river, as well as the river system itself, is 944,000 km2, 60% of which lies in Pakistan.

The effect of climate change on water resources is expected to be significant. An analysis of changes in the hydrological regime can provide a basis for estimating the impacts of climate change on water resources, and can be used as a tool to recommend changes in the water management regimes. In general, increase in temperature would not only increase water demand because of higher evaporation rates, but may also increase rainfall due to additional moisture supplied to the clouds because of higher evaporation from the sea surface. Similarly, increased rainfall may cause increase in intensity of floods.

The objectives of Water Section is the assessment of likely climate change impacts on fresh water resources of Pakistan in line with IPCC/CSERES climate change scenarios for the current century, and identification of appropriate coping mechanisms for the adverse impacts through application of computer models to simulate various hydrological processes in the Indus River Basin to reproduce inflows of various components of Indus River System and Use of validated models to quantify changes in river inflows as a result of projected climatic changes in the region.

Activities of Water Section

Assessing potential impacts of anthropogenic and CC-driven land cover changes on future water balance.

Real-time Hydrological forecasting by integrating DHSVM with MM5.

Developing integration with regional and meso-scale climate models for the assessment of future water resources.

Development of spatial extrapolation techniques for radiation, temperature and precipitation over Himalayas.

Development and Management of Basin databases for the Indus River System for the application of DHSVM.