Investigation of Effects of Land Use Land Cover Changes on Quantity and Quality of Groundwater in Qazvin Plain

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran

Abstract

Groundwater is a very important natural freshwater resource for drinking and irrigation purposes. In the present study, the aim is to investigate the effect of Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) changes on the quantity and quality of groundwater in Qazvin Plain from 2005 to 2020, through RS-GIS using LULC maps from Landsat 5 TM and 8 OLI images, Groundwater Resource Index (GRI) and Groundwater Quality Index (GQI). For this purpose, the data from groundwater level and quality parameters including K+, Na+, Mg2+, Ca2+, SO42-, Cl-, TDS and EC were employed. The results indicated that in the central and eastern parts of the plain, the area of agricultural land and the number of exploitation wells were more than other parts. The plain was mostly covered with rangeland and agricultural lands. The area of agricultural land had the most changes over the time. GRI results illustrated more droughts in the eastern parts of the plain over time, and GQI results showed that groundwater quality has significantly decreased in the eastern parts in 2020. The non-vegetated lands had increased in the eastern parts of the plain, which can be due to the increase in agricultural lands, in which the excessive use of groundwater resources had reduced its level and thus decreased its quality. Generally, increasing agricultural lands and high density of exploitation wells in these lands had the greatest impact on the quantity and quality of groundwater in the Qazvin plain. So, the use of groundwater resources should be properly managed to prevent the reduction of its quantity and quality.

Keywords


Reference
Alqurashi, A.F., L. Kumar, 2019. An assessment of the impact of urbanization and land use changes in the fast-growing cities of Saudi Arabia. Geocarto International, 34(1); 78-97.
Babaee, S., Z. Mousavi, Z. Masoumi, A.H. Malekshah, M. Roostaei, M. Aflaki, 2020. Land subsidence from interferometric SAR and groundwater patterns in the Qazvin plain, Iran. International Journal of Remote Sensing, 41(12); 4780-4798.
Babiker, I.S., M.A. Mohamed, T. Hiyama, 2007. Assessing groundwater quality using GIS. Water Resources Management, 21(4); 699-715.
Dehghan Rahimabadi, P., H. Azarnivand, A. Malekian, 2022. Hydrogeological Drought and Groundwater Quality Changes Using GRI and GQI in Semnan and Damghan Plains, Iran. ECOPERSIA, 10(2); 95-108.
Elmahdy, S., M. Mohamed,  T. Ali, 2020. Land use/land cover changes impact on groundwater level and quality in the northern part of the United Arab Emirates. Remote Sensing, 12(11); 1715.
Gehrels, H., N. Peters, E. Hoehn, K. Jensen, C. Leibundgut, J. Griffioen, B. Webb, W. Zaadnoordijk, 2001. Impact of human activity on groundwater dynamics. Proceedings of a symposium held during the Sixth IAHS Scientific Assembly, Maastricht, Netherlands, 18-27, IAHS Press.
Ghafari, S., H.R. Moradi, R. Moddares, 2020. The impact of Land Use Change on Groundwater Level in Isfahan-Borkhar, Najafabad and Chadegan Plains. Iranian Journal of Soil and Water Research, 50(9); 2355-2371.
Kamaraj, J., S. Sekar, P.D. Roy, V. Senapathi, S.Y. Chung, M. Perumal, A.V. Nath, 2021. Groundwater pollution index (GPI) and GIS-based appraisal of groundwater quality for drinking and irrigation in coastal aquifers of Tiruchendur, South India. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 28; 29056–29074.
Karimian K., A. Amini, H. Ghaiumi Mohammadi, 2019, The Impact of Land Use/Land Cover Changes on Groundwater Resources Using Remote Sensing & GIS (Case Study: Khan-Mirza Plain). DESERT, 24(2); 319-330.
Khosravi, H., E, Heydari. Alamdarloo, S, Nasabpour, 2018. Study of temporal and spatial changes of groundwater quality in Yazd-Ardakan plain using GQI. Scientific - Research Quarterly of Geographical Data (SEPEHR), 26(104); 34-44.
Lerner, D.N., B. Harris, 2009. The relationship between land use and groundwater resources and quality. Land Use Policy, 26; 265-S273.
Li, Y., Y. Bi, W. Mi, S. Xie, L. Ji, 2021. Land-use change caused by anthropogenic activities increase fluoride and arsenic pollution in groundwater and human health risk. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 406; 124337.
Mendicino, G., A. Senatore, P. Versace, 2008. A Groundwater Resource Index (GRI) for drought monitoring and forecasting in a Mediterranean climate. Journal of Hydrology, 357(3-4); 282-302.
Patra, S., S. Sahoo, P. Mishra, S.C. Mahapatra, 2018. Impacts of urbanization on land use/cover changes and its probable implications on local climate and groundwater level. Journal of Urban Management, 7(2); 70-84.
Pulido-Velazquez, M., S. Peña-Haro, A. García-Prats, A.F. Mocholi-Almudever, L. Henríquez-Dole, H. Macian-Sorribes, A. Lopez-Nicolas, 2015. Integrated assessment of the impact of climate and land use changes on groundwater quantity and quality in the Mancha Oriental system (Spain). Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 19(4);1677-1693.
Ranjan, S.P., S. Kazama, M. Sawamoto, 2006. Effects of climate and land use changes on groundwater resources in coastal aquifers. Journal of Environmental Management, 80(1); 25-35.
Sertel, E., M.Z. Imamoglu, G. Cuceloglu, A. Erturk, 2019. Impacts of land cover/use changes on hydrological processes in a rapidly urbanizing mid-latitude water supply catchment. Water, 11(5); 1075.
Singh, S., C. Singh, S. Mukherjee, 2010. Impact of land-use and land-cover change on groundwater quality in the Lower Shiwalik hills: a remote sensing and GIS based approach. Open geosciences, 2(2); 124-131.
Slama, T.,  A. Sebei, 2020. Spatial and temporal analysis of shallow groundwater quality using GIS, Grombalia aquifer, Northern Tunisia. Journal of African Earth Sciences, 170; 103915.
Soujanya Kamble, B., P.R. Saxena, R.M. Kurakalva, K. Shankar, 2020. Evaluation of seasonal and temporal variations of groundwater quality around Jawaharnagar municipal solid waste dumpsite of Hyderabad city, India. SN Applied Sciences, 2(3); 498.
Thomas, A., J. Tellam, 2006. Modelling of recharge and pollutant fluxes to urban groundwaters. Science of the total environment, 360(1-3); 158-179.
Venkateswarlu, G., G. Jayasankar, B. Saradhi, 2014. Impact assessment of land use change on ground water quality using remote sensing & GIS for zone V under municipal corporation hyderabad. IOSR Journal of Mechanical and Civil Engineering, 11(1); 36-42.
Verma, A., B.K. Yadav, N.B. Singh, 2020. Hydrochemical monitoring of groundwater quality for drinking and irrigation use in Rapti Basin. SN Applied Sciences, 2(3); 460.
Verma, P., P. Singh, S. Srivastava, 2019. Impact of land use change dynamics on sustainability of groundwater resources using earth observation data. Environment, Development and Sustainability, 22(6); 5185-5198.
Wakode, H.B., K. Baier, R. Jha, R. Azzam, 2018. Impact of urbanization on groundwater recharge and urban water balance for the city of Hyderabad, India. International Soil and Water Conservation Research, 6(1); 51-62.
World Health Organization (WHO), 2011. Guidelines for drinking-water quality. WHO chronicle, 38(4); 104-108.
Xiuwan, C., 2002. Using remote sensing and GIS to analyse land cover change and its impacts on regional sustainable development. International Journal of Remote Sensing, 23(1); 107-124.
Yazdani, V. H. Mansourian, 2019. The assessment vulnerability of Qazvin-plain aquifer, sensitivity analysis removing parameters by using GIS. Irrigation and Water Engineering, 10(2); 127-145.
Yazdanpanahi, A., K. Ahmadaali, M. Golafshani, 2019. Effects of Land Use on Spatial-Temporal Variation of Ground Water Quality (Case Study: Mashhad plain). Iranian Journal of Watershed Management Science and Engineering, 12(43); 108-116.
Zanganeh, M., H. Zare Abyane, M. Bayatvarkeshi, 2019. Simulation of Nitrate Concentration in Aquifer in Qazvin Plain Using Groundwater Modeling System (GMS). The Journal of Qazvin University of Medical Sciences, 23(3); 250-261.
Zarei, A.R., M. Bahrami, 2016. Evaluation of quality and quantity changes of underground water in Fasa plain, Fars (2006-2013). Irrigation and Water Engineering, 6(4); 103-111.