Abstract
This study examines the quantification of riverbank erosion trend, by detecting the shoreline changes and river migration of Amu River, during the recent 14-years period in Qarqin District of Afghanistan. In this study, Landsat images (TM/ETM/OLI TRI) from 2000 to 2014 were used to categorize eroded area and identify shoreline change locations. Furthermore, the images were classified into five different classes, i.e., water, built-up, barren land, sand bank, and agriculture land. River boundaries were digitized from the shorelines on the images from 2000 to 2014. Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) was applied to calculate shoreline movement. End point Rate (EPR) and Linear Regression Rate (LRR), were used to compute long term changes for the analysis. The study found that the river movement was toward Afghanistan side, i.e., south-word. The threat of losing land of Afghanistan was estimated to be ca. 362.4 ha/year. The total eroded area was calculated to be 1,984 ha, 1,410 ha, and 1,680 ha during period of 2000-2005, 2005-2010 and 2010- 2014, respectively. The shoreline was demarcated in each image and the area was categorized into three zones correspond to the erosion trend, i.e., lower as moderate eroded zone, central as high eroded zone and upper as lower eroded zone. This research work can provide the advocatory input to policy makers in war torn countries to manage riverbank erosion.
