Abstract

United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a water stressedcountry due to limited rainfall. Moreover, rapid populationgrowth, increase in agricultural and industrial activities arecausing 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 isvital for the country. Trend analysis of groundwater levels is anessential component of groundwater management, since itprovides significant information about the direction andcharacteristics of the groundwater level trend, allowabledischarge limit and the cause of groundwater decline. In thisstudy, monthly groundwater level trends from eleven well fieldswere 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 forgroundwater levels. Mann-Kendall non-parametric test wasused for the temporal trend analysis. Statistically significantdecreasing trends were identified almost in all well fields inSharjah. In parallel to decreasing groundwater levels, thegroundwater production has fallen substantially (more than 90%decrease in some well fields over 15 years). It was found that thewell fields close to the coastline experienced significant decreasein groundwater levels, which induces sea water intrusion andsalinization of groundwater.