ASSESSMENT OF GROUND WATER LEVEL VARIATION IN RELATION TO LULC

This study aims to develop an intertwined approach for mapping and covering land use/ land cover (LULC) changes and to probe the impacts of LULC changes and population growth on groundwater position and quality using Landsat images and hydrological information in a Geographic information system (Civilians) terrain. All Landsat images (1990, 2000, 2010, and 2018) were classified using a support vector machine (SVM) and spectral analysis mapper (SAM) classifiers. The result of confirmation criteria, including perfection, recall, and F1, indicated that the SVM classier has a better performance than SAM. The attained LULC charts have an overall delicacy of further than 90. Each brace of enhanced LULC charts (1990 – 2000, 2000 – 2010, 2010 – 2018, and 1990 – 2018) were used as input data for an image difference algorithm to cover LULC changes. Charts of change discovery were also imported into a Civilians terrain and spatially identified against the spatiotemporal charts of groundwater position and groundwater quality. The results also show that the approximate Builtup area increased from227.26 km2(1.39) to869.77 km2(7.41), while vegetated areas (spreads, premises and auditoriums) increased from about76.70 km2(0.65) to290.70 km2(2.47). The observed changes in LULC are largely linked to the reduction in groundwater position and quality across the study area from the Oman Mountains to the littoral areas.