Spatio-temporal analysis of groundwater level in an arid area

Sustainable management of precious groundwater resources is vital to growth, especially in arid areas which they heavily depend on. In this study, monthly groundwater level time series of 322 observation wells in Sistan and Balouchestan province of Iran in the period 2002 to 2012 were used as a measure of sustainable development. Results show that 95.6% of areas of the province aquifers are non-stationary. In addition, 5.5%, 13.7% and 80.8% of studied wells show no increasing and decreasing trend at 5% significance level. Spatial analysis reveals that the groundwater levels of 7.3%, 11.3% and 81.6% area of groundwater resources have increased, sustained or decreased, respectively. According to calculated slope of trends, the province has experienced –69.72 (MCM) decline in groundwater resources per year in past ten years. It means that sustainable development criteria were totally neglected. Increasing in water use efficiency in the agriculture sector by 6% and of water reuse by 78% will solve the issue.