The impact of land use land cover on groundwater level and quality in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, UAE: an integration approach using remote sensing and hydrological data

Figures & data

Table 1. Sources of groundwater contamination in the study area (Brook and Dawoud 2005).

Sources of contamination	Region	Environmental impact
Factories / land fill	East, west and the middle	High iron, nitrate and lead concentrations in groundwater and soil
Residential	East, west and south	increases trace elements in groundwater and soil
Agricultural / farming	East, west and South	Source of nitrate in groundwater and soil
Industrial area	East and west	High concentration of cadmium and chromium levels in groundwater
Medical and institutional	East and west	High cadmium and chromium concentration in groundwater
Airport	East, west and south	Air pollution as part of water cycle
Oil refining station	South	Soil and groundwater
Landfill	East, west and south	Soil and groundwater contamination by bacteria, viruses, household chemicals,

Figure 1. The main divisions and regions of the United Arab Emirates(a) and the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.

Figure 2. Maps of the spatial distribution of precipitation (a), sources of groundwater contamination (b), graphs of monthly temperature and precipitation (c), and population growth (d) over the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.

Table 2. Data layers and data type used in groundwater potential index.

Remote sensing data	Sensor	Resolution (m)	Data format	Data scale
The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM)	Active	30	Raster	http://srtm.csi.cgiar.org/Index.asp
Landsat 7 images ETM Landsat 8 images OLI	Passive	30	Raster	GloVis (usgs.gov)
QuickBird image	Passive	0.6	Raster	Civil and Environmental Engineering Depart.
Hydrological information	–	–	Vector	Civil and Environmental Engineering Depart.

Table 3. Confusion matrix of the year 2000 and 2020 classification map.

2000					2020
Class	Prod. Acc. (%)	User Acc. (%)	Kappa Coefficient	Overall Accuracy	Prod. Acc. (%)	User Acc. (%)	Kappa Coefficient	Overall Accuracy
Residential	94.62	88.63			90.75	85.38
Industrial	97.34	89.59			75.59	79.61
Garden/Park	80.83	80.55	0.8714	90.1225%	97.56	99.85	0.9409	96.0965%
Farmland	84.53	95.09			95.41	93.10
Bare land	93.35	98.38			99.90	99.50

Figure 3. Spatiotemporal variation of built-up area (a), vegetation area (b) during 2000-2020, and types of buildings (c), and vegetations (d).

Figure 4. The graphical representation of the total area in km² of built-up and vegetated area changes from 2000 to 2020.

Table 4. LULC change detection analysis in Dubai for the years 2000–2020.

	2000		2020		2000-2020
	Km^2	%	Km^2	%	Difference (Km^2)	Difference (%)
Residential	304.83	0.5	683.70	1.14	378.87	0.63
Industrial	86.34	0.14	150.58	0.25	64.24	0.10
Garden/Park	106.64	0.17	279.34	0.46	172.69	0.28
Farmland	418.39	0.69	1387.22	2.31	968.83	1.61
Breland	59,558.42		58,476.03		1,082.39	1.80

Total area of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi = 59,863.253 Km².

Figure 5. Regional spatial distribution of the groundwater level depletion (in m) (up), and nitrate concentration (mg/L) (down) in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi from 2000 to 2020.

Figure 6. Regional spatial distribution of groundwater salinity (mg/L) (up), and TDS concentration (mg/L) (down) in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi from 2000 to 2020.

Figure 7. Regional spatial distribution of electric conductivity of the groundwater (up), and IWQI (down) in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi from 2000 to 2020.

Figure 8. Relationship between groundwater table and vegetation density(a), LULC density against nitrate concentration (b), groundwater salinity (c), TDS (d), SAR (e) and IWQI (f).

Figure 9. Semivariogram models for four directions of the 2020 maps of LULC (a) and TDS (b). These are generated from 2020 raster maps of LULC and TDS.

Brook M, Dawoud MA. 2005. Coastal water resources management in the United Arab Emirates. Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE): Integrated Coastal Zone Management in the United Arab Emirates, p. 1–12.

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