Pakistan late Summer 2010
Source: NASA Earth Observatory
For a variety of reasons I have been a little obsessed with the floods of the 2010 summer monsoon season in Pakistan. My original idea had been to use Pakistan, a country very much in the news, as a central case study in the water resources course with the idea that the country is chronically short of water and subject to political pressures internally and from India related to water supply and use. Then a few months before the course began Pakistan was hit with excess rainfall and flooding of catastrophic levels. I decided it was wisest to severeky curtail the use of Pakistan as a case. Should I teach the course again, I will have the prospective of time to examine the issue of 2010's flooding, its potential links to global climate change, and the meaning of it to a country usually suffering from drought, or worried about a lack of water. Meanwhile, NASA's Earth Observatory has posted a fine view of the flooded area from space and a brief, but as almost always concise and informative description of that photo in "Flooding in Pakistan," well worth a look!
