Floods in Pakistan: A state-of-the-art review

Floods inflict devastating impacts worldwide. The frequency and severity of floods have notably increased as a result of climate change. Pakistan, in particular, has experienced two of the most catastrophic flooding events in recent years: the 2010 super floods and the 2022 monsoon floods, affecting millions of people. The tangible impacts of these events are still not fully understood. However, no study has been found that comprehensively explains the current state of knowledge, major research areas, and themes within the context of flood studies in Pakistan. To address this research gap, this study uses bibliometric and thematic analysis to conduct a state-of-the-art systematic literature review on Pakistan's floods. The dataset comprises 601 research articles obtained from the Scopus database. The bibliometric analysis reveals an upward trend in publications on flood-related topics, primarily within the scope of environmental, earth and planetary, and social sciences. These publications involve the contributions of 160 authors from 160 different institutions and 57 countries across the globe. The thematic analysis identifies several major research areas, including gender, social capital, livelihood, food security, risk perception, risk and vulnerability assessment, socioeconomic impacts, and the application of GIS and Remote Sensing. The study also presents indicators and quantitative methods to assess flood risk and vulnerability. The study recommends that future research examine the socioeconomic and institutional challenges associated with flood risk reduction. Additionally, integrating climate change adaptation and flood risk reduction can lead to developing policies and frameworks to promote flood-resilient communities.