International Journal of Environmental Science and Development

Abstract—United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a water stressed country due to limited rainfall. Moreover, rapid population growth, increase in agricultural and industrial activities are causing additional stress to the water resources in UAE. Groundwater is the most important fresh water source in UAE, and sustainable and efficient management of groundwater is vital for the country. Trend analysis of groundwater levels is an essential component of groundwater management, since it provides significant information about the direction and characteristics of the groundwater level trend, allowable discharge limit and the cause of groundwater decline. In this study, monthly groundwater level trends from eleven well fields were investigated over the period of 15 years in Sharjah, UAE. Groundwater spatiotemporal data analysis tool (GWSDAT) was used for the spatial and temporal trend analysis for groundwater levels. Mann-Kendall non-parametric test was used for the temporal trend analysis. Statistically significant decreasing trends were identified almost in all well fields in Sharjah. In parallel to decreasing groundwater levels, the groundwater production has fallen substantially (more than 90% decrease in some well fields over 15 years). It was found that the well fields close to the coastline experienced significant decrease in groundwater levels, which induces sea water intrusion and salinization of groundwater.

Index Terms—Groundwater levels, Sharjah, spatio-temporal trend analysis, United Arab Emirates.

Abdullah Gokhan Yilmaz and Abdallah Shanableh are with University of Sharjah, Australia (e-mial: ayilmaz@sharjah.ac.ae, shanableh@sharjah.ac.ae).
Rami Issa Al-Ruzouq is with University of Sharjah, United States (e-mail: ralruzouq@sharjah.ac.ae).
Naseraldin Kayemah is with University of Sharjah, Syria (e-mail: U18200520@sharjah.ac.ae).

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Cite: Abdullah G. Yilmaz, Abdallah Shanableh, Rami I. Al-Ruzouq, Naseraldin Kayemah, "Spatio-Temporal Trend Analysis of Groundwater Levels in Sharjah, UAE," International Journal of Environmental Science and Development vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 9-14, 2020.

Copyright © 2020 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).