Pakistan Wetlands GIS Implementation Strategy

Geographic Information System is used extensively in natural resource planning and management, all

over the world. Pakistan Wetlands GIS-based Wetlands Inventory (PWGIS) is being developed to map the extent and characteristics of the wetlands in the country. The inventory will serve multiple scientific, academic and awareness purposes.

The overall goal of the PWGIS implementation strategy is to provide guidelines and framework for the development, implementation and management of Pakistan wetlands GIS. This strategy is developed after a thorough literature review of the available wetlands’ inventories. It was concluded that AWI provides comprehensive guidelines for recording information and specification of GIS in context of Pakistan. PWGIS database and inventory will closely follow theguidelines and procedures given in the       (Approach to wetland inventory, adapted from
‘A Manual for an Inventory of Asian Wetlands.  Finlayson et al., (2002) modified for Pakistan)
                                                      
The spatial data developed during the project, will be maintained in a map series similar to Surevy of

Pakistan (SoP) standardised map catalogue of scale 1:1 000 000, 1:250 000, 1:50 000 and 1:10 000.  This will help in highlighting wetlands characteristics at various levels; from habitat to basin. A Spatial Data Infrastructure will be set up at NCCW for sharing and exchange of the produced datasets. Web-based application will be developed to explore and extract information on the status of wetlands.

Long term sustainability of PWGIS will be maintained throug number of actions including establishing a master GIS Laboratory at NCCW and small GIS set ups in the partner organisations. Data will also be disseminated through a web server and in the form a digital atlas of
Wetlands. GIS and Remote Sensing             (Framework of Pakistan wetlands GIS)
trainings will be imparted to the staff of conservation agencies in the country.

Downloadable Complete Report in PDF Format.