Impacts of urbanization on groundwater resources in Jebel Ali, Dubai

Abstract

Drinkable water is very limited on Earth, and groundwater is considered as one of its main sources, especially in the arid and semi-arid countries where there is scarcity in surface water sources, and the distribution of rainfall is not consistent all seasons. Mostly, groundwater is impacted by human activities. Changes in Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) are commonly human-induced activities that affect the groundwater system. Continuous growth in population rate forces governments to expand urban areas, which leads to negative consequences for groundwater storage. This study examines this issue extensively in Jebel Ali - Dubai. Recently, Jebel Ali continuously growing region, it is considered one of the most significant urban development areas in Dubai. This paper aims to map groundwater potential areas by applying 6 hydrological and topological factors to Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). As well as creating Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) classification of 2002 and 2020 in order to detect the changes in urban classes of the city in the last two decades. Afterwards, Dubai expansion can be evaluated by calculating the given presence of a high groundwater potential zone in areas that have become urban. To achieve these objectives, there are two types of data were used, DEM data provided from SRTM with 30 meters spatial resolution and multispectral image delivered from Landsat 7 and 8 with 30 meters spatial resolution. The result was found to be 496.7 sq KM in Dubai has High Groundwater Potential (HGP), with only 0.7% located in Jebel Ali. Considering the changes that occurred in this area, only 0.028 sq KM of the HGP has become urban since 2002.