Evaluation of groundwater quality using groundwater quality index (GWQI) in Sharjah, UAE

The rapid growth in the world population resulted in an increase of the freshwater needs in many sectors. Groundwater is the most important freshwater source specially for arid and semi-arid regions due to lack of surface water sources and low precipitation rates in those regions. In this study, monthly groundwater quality data were collected from eleven well fields in Sharjah over the period of 2004-2017. Water quality parameters including bicarbonate, calcium, chloride, fluoride, magnesium, sodium and sulphate were selected for the analysis. In the study, water quality index (WQI) process is used to develop groundwater quality index (GWQI) for Sharjah using above mentioned water quality parameters. Mann-Kendall and Spearman’s Rho tests were adopted as non-parametric trend tests for temporal (trend) analysis of GWQI, whereas inverse distance weighting interpolation was used in GWQI spatial trend analysis. Temporal trend analysis results showed significant trends in 8 out of 11 well fields. Spatial analysis showed the highest values for salinity ions in the well fields closest to the northern region, whereas the lowest values were detected in the southern region.