The Middle East in general and the Gulf region, including the United Arab Emirates, are among the areas facing serious challenges concerning water scarcity. For example, the average calculated water scarcity index for 2018 in arid areas is 12.4, which means that the rate of freshwater exploitation is more than 12 times its renewability rate. This situation has created many problems, such as groundwater depletion, aquifers dewatering, and salt-water intrusion into coastal aquifers. Over the last few decades, water demand has increased rapidly due to population growth, remarkable expansion in the urban areas, economic development, and changes in lifestyle, which effectively have led to the increase in water demands for irrigation, domestic uses, touristic activities, and industrial processes. In addition, due to climate change variability, sustainable long-term supply of fresh water is becoming more challenging than ever before. Irrigation is the largest water consumer in the UAE with three main sectors: agriculture, forests, parks and landscaping, whose needs are met by groundwater, treated wastewater, and desalinated water. Freshwater scarcity has driven the country to desalinate large volumes of seawater to meet the domestic water demand.
The UAE government is constantly working to improve water resource management and conservation standards, to devote attention to ways to conserve, develop and develop non-conventional water sources. Apply and adapt to the integrated water resources management system to coordinate the demand for freshwater and conserve its limited and available resources as well as develop strategies for water conservation within the main objective of sustainable development through water conservation and integrated management for the benefit of current and future generations.
The following geopotential maps are produced to give a general view of water availability and the main hydrogeological parameters of the country s aquifers.
The lowest rainfall is observed in the desert foreland and the highest in the mountains and east coast of the region. The estimated mean annual rainfall of east coast is about 94 %, gravel plain is 82% and desert foreland is 57% of annual mean rainfall of mountain area .
Annual average precipitation in mm of UAE
The geological structure, stratigraphy, and lithological settings define the physical characteristics of the groundwater aquifers and determine the extent and patterns of groundwater flows. The mineral composition of bedrocks and the unconsolidated surficial deposits largely governs the chemical quality of groundwater. The lithology of the aquifers can be divided into consolidated and unconsolidated lithological units classified into fluviatile or alluvium, eolian, and sabkha deposits.
Geological map of UAE (modified from EAD, 2010)
