Ashfaq Ahmad Shah

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Verified

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• PhD in Rural Development and Management
• Associate Professor at China Agricultural University

Children spend more than two-thirds of their total daytime in schools and becoming more persuasive in shielding them from potential hazards. Schools have a responsibility to protect students in the event of disasters and to promote a culture of preparedness by keeping them prepared and aware. If schools do not handle emergencies effectively, the ed...

Poverty is a complex and persistent social challenge in the twenty-first century, especially in developing countries facing socioeconomic and environmental issues. Sudan, being one of the countries where poverty exacerbates environmental degradation, underscores the need to examine the link between environmental degradation and household poverty. T...

This study explores the potential role of precision agricultural technologies (PATs) in enhancing the physical, natural, human, financial, and social capitals of farming communities in the southern Punjab region of Pakistan, specifically focusing on the districts of Bahawalpur, Rahim Yar Khan, Dera Ghazi Khan, and Multan. A stratified random sampli...

Sheep (Ovis aries L.) farming significantly contributes to food security and is a source of revenue for small-scale breeders in Saudi Arabia. The present study aims to investigate breeders’ practices and perceptions on rearing of modern sheep breeds along with their preferences regarding modern farm management. For this purpose, 360 breeders were s...

Small landholders in Pakistan's high mountainous regions face significant challenges in adapting to the impacts of climate change. This study investigates the adaptation strategies employed by smallholder farmers to address these challenges and identifies the household-level factors influencing these strategies in Nagar Valley. Using a quantitative...

Climate-induced migration is increasingly affecting communities, disrupting livelihoods, and intensifying socio-economic inequalities, particularly in disaster-prone regions. Despite the prevalence of recurring flood hazards, there remains limited research on the multi-dimensional impacts of migration particularly in socio-culturally sensitive and...

Food and water security are critical challenges in Pakistan, exacerbated by rapid population growth, climate variability, and limited resources. This study explores the application of machine learning techniques to address these issues. We specifically examine the dimensions of food and water security in Pakistan, employing data-driven methods to e...

This study maps the rural household vulnerability to flood-induced health risks in flood-affected Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), Pakistan, focusing on the devastating 2022 flood. Using data from 600 households in the severely impacted districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province (including Charsadda and Nowshera), this research examines the influence of dem...

The livelihoods of households affected by land acquisition in rural Vietnam are crucial for sustainable development and community resilience. This study employs the sustainable livelihoods approach, which recognises the interconnectedness between various factors shaping livelihood outcomes, to investigate factors behind livelihood changes among 474...

Natural disasters have a widespread impact globally, often posing significant challenges to sustainable development in affected regions. Effective disaster recovery requires coordinated efforts from various stakeholders; however, this process is frequently hindered by inadequate resources and policies. Consequently, a thorough exploration of resour...

Land-based livelihoods in Pakistan's high mountain regions are highly vulnerable to climate change due to the complex interactions between people and their natural environment. This study uses a mixed-method approach to explore how climate change affects land-based livelihoods in the high mountain Nagar District, Pakistan. Data were collected using...

The purpose of this study is to analyze the effects of technical efficiency (TE) and return to scale on Vietnamese agriculture using panel data. This study employs a stochastic output distance function technique applied to panel data collected from 487 households over five surveys. This approach is used to investigate TE, its determinants, technica...

Agriculture is vital to the Saudi Arabian economy since it provides food and other necessities to people living in rural areas, as well as those living in adjacent cities. Notwithstanding its considerable economic importance, the agricultural sector is confronted with formidable obstacles due to climate change, such as elevated temperatures, floods...

Agricultural extension programs promote regenerative land management practices by increasing farmers' awareness of land use, climate risks, and adoption of adaptation practices for sustainable livelihoods. This study focuses on the perceptions of communities that participate in extension programs and those that do not, regarding climate change risk...

Rural and agricultural communities' adaptation to climate change has gained significant attention owing to many countries' vulnerability to climate change risks. A similar trend has been witnessed in South Asia, a highly climate-vulnerable region, where research has grown dramatically considering the agriculture sector's vulnerability to climate-in...

The efficacy of the community response to flood hazards is closely intertwined with its social capital. Communities with high social capital (robust social networks and cohesive community bonds) are likely to have greater abilities in preparing for and dealing with flood hazards. Numerous studies have continuously emphasized the fundamental signifi...

This study examines water scarcity and quality deterioration in various components of the urban setting, including agriculture, manufacturing, construction, residential buildings, and the recreational industries. This paper also analyzes various measures that can be used as valuation matrices to assess the quality and quantity of water consumption,...

Saudi Arabia (SA) faces a water shortage, and it further challenges sustainable agriculture, industrial development and the well-being of people. SA uses more than 80% of its water resources for agricultural purposes. Groundwater extractions account for most of this demand, which is not sustainable. Hence, this study aims to analyze water managemen...

Risk communication is crucial since individuals need to understand how they are at risk and what proper steps to deal with flood events. Sharing information with the public opens the door for two-way communication about risks, wherein you learn about people's perspectives and work together to find ways to mitigate the risks. Beyond government scope...

Public extension services disseminate awareness and promote community participation in landscape restoration efforts around the world. Due to the importance of forest restoration programs in Pakistan, access to public extension services can have a significant impact on community mobilization in reforestation efforts. This study quantifies the socia...

Floods are the most common natural hazard in Pakistan, and research on flood risk management is continuously growing to improve policies for effective flood risk management. One of the critical determinants of effective food risk management is better communication of flood risks through the Flood Early Warning System. FEWS have been implemented wid...

Assessment of rural regions’ vulnerability to flooding is gaining prominence on a global scale. However, researchers are greatly undermined in their efforts to make a comprehensive assessment owing to the multidimensional and non-linear link between different indicators and flood risk. Thus, a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach is propo...

The world has seen a number of natural hazards, but among them, floods are perhaps the most frequent devastating natural hazard, resulting in more human causalities and financial losses. Rural inundation has become an issue of concern in various parts of the world, including Pakistan. Over the past few decades, it has been hard for local institutio...

The United Nations SDGs Report 2020 revealed that climatic variability victimized masses across the globe in 2018 and the global average temperature would rise to 3.2°C during this century. The GHG emission reduction targets for 2030 were prioritized under the Paris Climate Agreement (PCA) of 2015 to keep the rise in global temperature below 1.5°C....

Adoption of improved agricultural technologies can help achieve the two Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of no poverty and zero hunger by 2030. This study investigates the determinants of farmers' adoption of hand tractors in the HKH region of Pakistan using binary logit model. We also examine what facilitates and what impedes the adoption of h...

Empty pesticide container recycling helps control nonpoint source pollution and provides alternative sources for basic materials. This article investigates end users’ adoption of recycling their pesticide container waste and investigates the determinants influencing their adoption. The study uses an extensive farm survey of 210 farmers from the Dis...

Urban Heat Island (UHI) is a phenomenon that can cause hotspots in city areas due to dense, impervious infrastructure and minimal vegetation cover. UHI hotspots may become worse in extreme heat events that are already affecting many regions across the globe due to increased frequent hot extremes, human-induced warming in cities, and rapidly growing...

The economy of Pakistan has constantly been plunged due to its severe electricity shortages over the last 2 decades and persistently faces challenges in revamping its electricity supply network. The purpose of this research was to assess the causal relationship between carbon dioxide emissions (CO2), combustible renewable and waste (CRW), electric...

The external influence due to the severe repercussions of unprecedented and un-attended pollution has put vulnerable marine ecosystems at high risk of irreversible damage. This business-as-usual scenario could render them unfit to offer sustenance along with innumerable ecosystem services. Since the Stockholm Conference on Human Environment 1972, t...

In the face of climate uncertainties, farmers need advice on adaptation measures to manage climate risk in an efficient and user-friendly way. This study takes the case of a major cropping zone of Punjab province, Pakistan, which is reported among the climate-susceptible regions, to explore farmers' preferred ways of agricultural advisory and farme...

Remarkable agricultural productivity gains have been achieved during the last several decades as a result of green revolution (GR) technologies that have greatly increased food production and reduced hunger. However, climate change threatens to reverse the progress made so far in the fight against food insecurity. The agricultural sector in many de...

This study applied a nuclear technique in conjunction with a classical monitoring tool to characterize the origin, fate, and behavior of metal pollutants in groundwater of Islamabad-Rawalpindi Metropolitans, which are also known as the “twin cities.” In total, 122 groundwater samples were collected and analyzed in accordance with standard methods....

This study examines the long-term impact of energy production and economic growth on the environment using data on real GDP, energy production (and its subcomponents), carbon dioxide emissions, and real foreign trade. The datasets contain 99 countries that are classified into seven regions and analyzed by using MG, AMG, and CCEMG estimators. Estima...

The modern organizational structure expects that the human resource department should train the employees effectively to sustain the environment. This study aims to understand the role of green human resource management (GHRM) in the efficiency of organizations’ employees in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) of Pakistan. The questionnaire was dev...

Environmental sustainability is a major challenge for the governments of various countries. The industrial sector and the growth of startups have created a challenge for sustainable development, with little concept of innovativeness for environment sustainability. The current research aims to foster environmental sustainability by adopting sustaina...

In Pakistan, climate change is adversely affecting agricultural production and undermining the food security and subsistence of millions of farm households. Farmers’ understanding of climate change and their adaptation strategies can serve as a useful step to help minimize climate risks. This study explores farmers’ perception of and adaptation str...

The ongoing adverse effects of climate change produced by carbon dioxide emissions have sparked global advocacy to face its adverse consequences with the utmost vigor. Pakistan’s contribution to global emissions is less than 1% while it is among the most vulnerable countries facing threat of climate change. The sources of carbon dioxide (CO2) emiss...

Globally, the number of people living in flood-prone areas is increasing. The poorest and most vulnerable people are at the greatest risk. This article analyses the dominant social factors that motivates people to occupy flood-prone areas, from the perspective of residents across the social spectrum in the largest Himalayan urban center, Srinagar C...

Land is one of the most vital nonrenewable resources that guarantee the survival and development of humans on planet Earth. In the 21st century, rapid population growth accompanied by expeditious industrialization and urbanization has led to land degradation and irreparable damage. In Pakistan, land degradation has affected the livelihood of 3.58%...

Agriculture has a very strong nexus with water and energy sectors due to their complex interdependence and interplay in the context of adaptation, resilience, mitigation, and low carbon development to cope with the increasing effects of a changing climate. The situation demands a comprehensive response in terms of policies, legal instruments, insti...

The steep parts of Vietnam face more rain, frost, flash flooding, and landslides than the plains and lowlands, making them more vulnerable to disasters and experience severe natural calamities every year. In mountainous areas, water shortages are becoming increasingly problematic as a result of the impacts of climate change and measures to promote...

The enormous amounts of food going as waste to landfills is of great concern in Saudi Arabia. The issue of food waste is complex, with its numerous social, cultural, economic, and environmental sustainability dimensions warranting further investigations. Food waste is one of the prime issues threatening food security in Saudi Arabia. This article a...

In Pakistan, research on information and communication technologies-based agricultural information services (ICTbAIS) have gained significant attention owing to the overwhelming population of smallholder farmers (whose information needs are unable to be met by the conventional extension services) and the increasing incidence of climatic risk. This...

The rapid pace of unattended urbanization has caused the urban heat island phenomenon, due to which the United Nations SDGs agenda 2030 calls for immediate actions for “sustainable cities and communities”. In this context, the case of the emerging metropolitan city Islamabad has been studied based on its developmental discourse vis-à-vis associated...

Natural hazards early warning systems (EWS) are built on a solid technical and scientific foundation. However, a significant focus must be on those at risk and a systems approach that considers all the key risk factors. A people-centered flood EWS has proved to be more successful at conveying risk messages and protecting lives during times of crisi...

As growth regions evolve to accommodate the increasing population, they need to develop a wider variety of residential properties to accommodate the varying needs of the residents. As a result, the new accommodation is denser which involves higher embodied water carbon and energy. This research compares the construction differences in metropolitan...

The heavy smog pollution in all the urban areas of Pakistan is disturbing everyday life very badly. Most of the smog pollution comes from transportation, and it is triggering many health problems. The government of Pakistan is struggling to alleviate smog pollution by introducing green vehicles and new modes of transportation. The Push-Pull and Moo...

An effective risk assessment and response to flood disasters will help ensure the sustainable development of a region. A perfect flood disaster assessment index system should consider the interactions between indexes. The Choquet integral method can effectively solve the problems of index interactions and information overlap and can be used to aggr...

The expansion of a country's ecological footprint generates resources for economic development. China's import bill and carbon footprint can be reduced by investing in green transportation and energy technologies. A sustainable environment depends on the cessation of climate change; the current study investigates nuclear energy efficiency, economic...

Pakistan has become a highly vulnerable country with considerable exposure to climate change. Over the past few decades, Pakistan has endured many severe floods, droughts, and storms. However, limited research was conducted into farmers' perspectives towards climate change vulnerability, risk perceptions, and adaptation measures at the farm level i...

Each year, Pakistan faces several disasters, which stresses the already fragile economy. To tackle these disasters, Pakistan is struggling to shift the paradigm from response-based reactive to a mitigation-and-preparedness-based proactive approach. This study aims at examining disaster management financing in pre and post-disaster phases from 2013...

The soft set is one of the key mathematical tools for uncertainty description and has many applications in real-world decision-making problems. However, most of the time, these decision-making problems involve less important and redundant parameters, which make the decision making process more complex and challenging. Parameter reduction is a usefu...

Water is the main ecosystem service that supports the oasis system. Middle Draa Valley is an oasis zone located in the south of Morocco. The water availability in this area is the key element of vegetation cover change. This change added to other factors can cause some parasitic diseases. The zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis is one of these disease...

The climate variability in Pakistan adversely affects rice crops and undermines the food security and livelihoods of millions of rural households whose survival depends directly on rice farming. This study examines farmers’ risk perception, adaptation responses, and adaptation impact on rice productivity. We employed a multi-stage sampling method f...

Managing and communicating flood risks necessitates a strong understanding of how people perceive risk. It has become critical to examine risk perception to implement effective disaster risk management (DRM) measures. Socioeconomic determinants have an impact on risk perception, which in turn affects future adaptive capacity and disaster preparedne...

Environmental degradation is a severe problem for all nations, especially for developing ones like Pakistan. For analysis purpose, this study employed two proxies of environmental degradation, i.e., carbon emission and ecological footprint as the explained variables during 1980–2017. In contrast, real GDP per capita, electricity consumption, financ...

Purpose: Bangladesh faces a growing food demand from a growing population under the continuous shrinking of arable land. Most Bangladeshi farmers produce inbred rice. Hybrid rice has been shown, in China, to be far more productive per hectare. Bangladesh cannot feed itself long-term without ample produce of hybrid rice. Yet, fewer Bangladeshi farme...

AimPakistan has one of the highest proportions of stunted children in the world, and the prevalence of stunting has been quite persistent over the years. This study aims to identify the factors behind the persistent prevalence of under-5 stunting in Pakistan, focusing on a child’s access to food, health, care, and environment and the synergies amon...

Despite the Zimbabwean State’s narrative and discourse that in fast track land reform areas ‘land leasing is illegal’, there is a surge in land leasing. This article focuses on how land leasing unfolds in the post-fast track land reform Zimbabwe, paying particular attention to state’s role in land leasing, the forms of land leasing and the forms of...

The floods are among the most dangerous extreme events. They have affected a large part of the world population. Studies on this topic are needed to understand the phenomenon and prevent the damages. In this context, a new composite indicator was proposed and applied in the Moroccan High Atlas, which is the largest mountain in the Middle East and N...

Children are disproportionately affected by disasters, in both the long and short term, particularly in developing countries. Children in rural areas face the most adversity since they are inadequately prepared, lacking in resources, and oblivious to their potential. Many children continue to turn to their parents or guardians for help in emergenci...

This study explored rice farmers’ on-farm autonomous adaptation (OFAA) strategies to climate change and evaluated their impact on rice yield and total crop returns. The study used empirical data of 480 farmers collected from the major rice-growing zone of Punjab province, a region highly vulnerable to climate variability in Pakistan. We employed th...

Objectives The study aimed to identify the determinants of childhood diarrhea in Pakistan with a specific focus on water, sanitation, hygiene, and mother’s decision-making ability. Methods This study is based on nationally representative Demographic and Health Survey of Pakistan. The working sample is 3,067 children. Bi-variate and multi-variate l...

Economic expansion gives rise to modern and energy-efficient technologies and, thus, contributes to a decline in energy usage. Developing countries, including Pakistan, require tremendous efforts to sustain economic growth. However, to attain economic growth, these countries have to cope with greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and other environmental p...

Pakistan is counted among the world's most vulnerable nations impacted by climatic risks and catastrophes. Among various sectors, agriculture remains the worst-affected sector, threatening the subsistence of the millions of households associated with farming. Local institutions, being important stakeholders, have a pivotal role in shaping community...

Pakistan is the home to a large number of poor, constituting about one-third of its population. The government of Pakistan launched several poverty reductions and rural development programs to increase the productivity of the rural poor through agricultural growth and other human-resource-related measures. This study has reviewed 14 community devel...

Integrated disaster risk management in a changing climate is a key concern for disaster reduction and global sustainable development now and in the future. This study conducted descriptive statistical and bibliometric analysis of 488 articles on integrated disaster risk in a changing climate from 2008 to 2020 using Excel, CiteSpace, and Gephi. The...

While previous studies have shown that risk perceptions vary across populations and domains, there is little empirical evidence on the interplay between individual-level characteristics and risk domains in shaping perceived social risks in a country, like China. This study empirically examines the effects of individual-level characteristics on risk...

This study uses the theory of planned behavior to examine the individual’s intentions and zig-zag kiln technology adoption attitude in responding to carbon emissions in Pakistan. This study is based on cross-sectional data and a representative sample of 335 brick kilns owners from 11 districts of Punjab province of Pakistan is collected. Partial le...

Ethiopia's agriculture is facing significant challenges of climate change and associated hazards. Farm-level adaptation could serve as an important tool to manage these production risks. This study took the case of a vulnerable farming community of Raya Azebo district of Tigray region of Ethiopia to map household level perceptions of climate change...