Natural and anthropogenic factors affecting groundwater quality in the eastern region of the United Arab Emirates
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Natural and anthropogenic factors affecting groundwater quality in the eastern region of the United Arab Emirates Mohamed Mostafa Mohamed & Samy Ismail Elmahdy
Received: 19 February 2014 / Accepted: 25 November 2014 # Saudi Society for Geosciences 2014
Abstract Groundwater contamination is a serious health and environmental problem in the eastern region of the United Arab Emirates. Factors affecting groundwater quality are known to be natural and anthropogenic, but the process through which it is being released is poorly understood. In this study, an attempt has been made to map and spatially correlate factors controlling groundwater quality using a combination of remote sensing and geographic information system technology. Factors, which might have spatial relation with groundwater quality, namely flow direction, host rock, land use and topographic slope, were selected as essential factors. Factor thematic maps were extracted from remote sensing data using deterministic eight-node and fuzzy logic algorithms. The obtained maps were correlated with groundwater data collected from groundwater wells. The results show that pollutants resulting from intensive agriculture and human activities and carbonate rocks in the Al Ain area are likely to contribute significantly to the degradation of groundwater quality. The results also show that the salinity in groundwater ranges from 100 mg/L at the foot of the Oman Mountain to 5,343 mg/L at Al Ain city. Keywords UAE . Remote sensing . Groundwater contamination . Al Ain . Land cover . GIS
M. M. Mohamed (*) : S. I. Elmahdy (*) Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, United Arab Emirates University, P.O. Box 15551, Al-Ain, United Arab Emirates e-mail: [email protected] e-mail: [email protected] M. M. Mohamed : S. I. Elmahdy Irrigation and Hydraulics Department, Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University, P.O. Box 12211, Giza, Egypt
Introduction The United Nations has proclaimed the years 2005–2015 as the international decade for action on “Water for Life” (United Nations, UN Millennium Project 2005). The quantity and quality of groundwater have deteriorated year by year, especially in the large developing cities (Mohamed and Almualla 2010a, b). The over-extraction of groundwater resources has lowered the water table by more than 1 m on average during the last two decades, while seawater intrusion is increasing in the coastal areas (Alsharhan et al. 2001). Groundwater quality in a region is largely determined by both natural processes (dissolution and precipitation of minerals, groundwater velocity, quality of recharge waters and interaction with other types of water aquifers) and anthropogenic activities (Al Asam 1996; Mohamed and Hatfield 2005, 2011; Mohamed et al 2007, 2009; Sherif et al. 2011; Elmahdy and Mohamed 2012a). Waste from residential, commercial, industrial and agricultural activities can seriously affect groundwater quality (Brook 2005). These contaminants may reach groundwater from activities on the land surface, such as industrial waste
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