Sensing the dependable surficial signatures of temporal groundwater variations in arid coastal regions through geospatial techniques with respect to microclimate changes

Yogeesha Jayaramu; DhanuRadha Samayamanthula; Chidambaram Sabarathinam; Bedour Alsabti; Amjad Al-Rashidi; Tariq Rashid

doi:10.1016/j.envres.2024.118483

Sensing the dependable surficial signatures of temporal groundwater variations in arid coastal regions through geospatial techniques with respect to microclimate changes

Environ Res. 2024 Feb 17:250:118483. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2024.118483. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Yogeesha Jayaramu¹, DhanuRadha Samayamanthula², Chidambaram Sabarathinam², Bedour Alsabti², Amjad Al-Rashidi², Tariq Rashid²

Affiliations

¹ Water Resources Development & Management Program, Water Research Center, Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, Kuwait. Electronic address: yjayaramu@kisr.edu.kw.
² Water Resources Development & Management Program, Water Research Center, Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, Kuwait.

PMID: 38373553
DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2024.118483

Abstract

Reports on Groundwater level variations and quality changes have been a critical issue, especially in arid regions. An attempt has been made in this study to determine the surface manifestations of groundwater variations through processing imageries for determining the changes in land use, Normalized Differential Building Index (NDBI), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Land Surface Temperature (LST), along with Groundwater level (GWL) and Electrical conductivity (EC). Decadal variation between these parameters for 2013 and 2023 shows that the average water level had increased by 1.03amsl, while the EC values of groundwater decreased by 418 μS/cm. The decrease in EC values indicates freshwater recharge, promoting natural vegetation, thus reducing the LST values by 3.28 °C. In addition, urban landscaping and relatively lesser emissivity from built-up surfaces than the sandy desert have further reduced the LST. The interrelationship of the parameters indicates that an increase in LST correlates with an increase in NDBI and with less significant changes in NDVI. The lowering of the LST along the coastal regions was inferred to be due to the influence of Sea breeze, adjacent moisture from the ocean, shallow water level, and the shadow effect of the buildings. Further, the increase in water level was mainly attributed to the recent increase in rainfall and the extreme event in 2018. The higher EC in the lesser NDBI regions is attributed to the anthropogenic contamination from agriculture and landfill leachates. Though there was an increase in NDBI, the LST of the region was inferred to be reduced mainly due to the increase in water level and reduction of emission from desert sand by recent urban developments.

Keywords: Climate change; Electric conductivity (EC); Land surface temperature. (LST); Normalized difference building index (NDBI); Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI); Urban heat island (UHI).