TITLE:
Spatial Assessment of Water Quantity Stress in Sultanate of Oman Provinces: A GIS Based Analysis of Water Resources Variability
AUTHORS:
Talal Al-Awadhi, Shawky Mansour
KEYWORDS:
GIS, Spatial Assessment, Water Quantity, Omani Provinces
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Geographic Information System,
Vol.7 No.6,
November
20,
2015
ABSTRACT: Water quantity planning
and management require understanding of spatial variations of water catchment
availability. Several environmental indicators are associated with water
quantity such as flood occurrence, drought severity, seasonal supply and
groundwater stress. Analyzing water stress at national geographic scale is
crucial to detect and explore geographic shortage of water resources at
national scale. In this study, Geographical Information Systems (GIS)
techniques were employed to analyze the spatial variations of water scarcity
across Sultanate of Oman provinces. For this main objective, various spatial
and attribute datasets were prepared. Many variables were selected based on
their importance and correlation with water quantity. GIS overlay function then
was used to produce maps for each water indicator. This was followed by
employing raster zonal statistics to aggregate the values of each catchment
area within each province. The findings of this analysis indicated that
significant spatial variation was found among Omani provinces in terms of water
quantity stress and its determinants. The most important factors affecting the
water quantity stress were drought severity and flood occurrence. Furthermore,
physical risk of water quantity was higher in Mascut and Dhofar provinces while
it was moderate in Al-Batinah, A’Dakhiliyah and
Al-Wusta. Lower risk of water quantity was observed in A’Sharqiyah, Masandam,
and A’Dhahriah provinces. Thus, in order to mitigate the impacts of water
scarcity on agriculture, cultivation and domestic usages, policy makers in
water sector should include spatial strategies for water resource maintain and
allocation.