2.

1 Hydrology of Pakistan
When we talk about hydrology of an area it includes the movement, distribution and quality of
water and also discuss about the water resources in detail. Hydrology is concerned with three
different forms of water, such as: Above land surface, as atmospheric water and precipitation Over
land surface, as surface water and runoff Below land surface, as subsurface or ground water.
Hydrology and topography of the area are closely related with each other. Hydrological patterns
follow the topographic divisions. Hydrology of Pakistan is directly related with its topography.
Pakistan’s topography is a multitude of landscapes ranging from vast plains to barren deserts,
forests, hills, and plateaus varying from the coastal areas of the Arabian Sea in the south to the
mountains of the Karakoram, Hindu Kush and Himalayas in the north. Pakistan geologically overlaps
both with the Indian and the Eurasian tectonic plates where its Sind and Punjab provinces situated
on the north-western corner of the Indian plate while Baluchistan and most of the Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa lie within the Eurasian plate which mainly comprises the Iranian Plateau. Gilgit-
Baltistan and Azad Kashmir lie along the edge of the Indian plate. General slope of land of Pakistan is
from North-East to South-West that is why major river system of Pakistan follows the same pattern.
Major hydrological sources of Pakistan are: Beside topography another major factor that affects the
hydrology of Pakistan is its climate. Pakistan lies in the temperate zone, immediately above the
tropic of cancer. The climate varies from tropical to temperate. Arid conditions exist in the coastal
south, characterized by a monsoon season with adequate rainfall and a dry season with lesser
rainfall, while abundant rainfall is experienced by the province of Punjab, and wide variations
between extremes of temperature at given locations. Northern parts of Pakistan have a vast glacial
system and according to studies there is more glacial ice in Pakistan