'Pakistan confronting challenges of land degradation'

Pakistan is confronting daunting challenges of land degradation and desertification, especially in dry-land ecosystems, as it makes impossible to adopt cost-effective land degradation assessment. This was stated by Additional Secretary Environment Kamran Ali Qureshi while addressing the inaugural session of two-day national workshop "Role of Spatial Technology" Geographical Information System & Remote Sensing (GIS & RS) in sustainable land management" here on Tuesday.
"The vast spread of dry-lands with great spatial and temporal variation makes it difficult to adopt cost-effective land degradation assessment", said Qureshi. He further said that rapid and accurate data collection related to water resources, rangelands, forest cover and other related variables is a challenging task, adding that use of advanced technology is vital for sustainable land management.
"Role of GIS & RS is very important in managing land and natural resources on sustainable basis for the benefit of present and future generations," said Kamran, adding that use of the technology would help provide informative and efficient visual tools to the planners and decision makers to make correct decisions.
He said that the technology was making considerable headway in Pakistan and many government departments and research institutions were using geo-informatics technology, however its application in Sustainable Land Management was limited. He further said that with the advent of satellite technology, many developments for efficient and sustainable management of land and natural resources have emerged for enhanced productivity globally.
Qureshi said that identifying solutions for complex environmental challenges, especially related to land and water depends on accurate collection and efficient use of information. While highlighting the use of Spatial Technology, he said that it was an emerging field and could be beneficial for integrated management of land resources. Sustainable Land Management Project (SLMP) had been using the technology for collecting baseline information and developing village based land use planning for 63 villages in 9 districts. Dr Amjad Tahir Virk, National Programme Co-ordinator, SLMP said that use of GIS and RS technology could help manage land resources.