Impact of Urban expansion on groundwater and land use/land cover in Duhok city: A GIS and remote sensing approach

Abstract

: Unplanned urban development and population increase have notable impact on the land-use changes and groundwater dynamics. This research analyzes the impact of land use/land cover (LULC) changes and its correlation with the groundwater levels in Duhok city, Iraq, over the period of 10 years (2015–2025) by integration the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) with Remote sensing techniques. The Sentinel 2 imagery were used for LULC mapping, while 83 wells were monitored for groundwater trends. The results showed notable trends of changes in land features. Noticeable regions of vegetation were declined from 788.17 km2 to 675.39 km2. However, significant regions of built-up and barren lands were expanded by 27.5 km² and 84.73 km2, respectively. Moreover, the groundwater depth, static water level, and dynamic water level showed negative increases in Duhok, Semel, and Zawita regions. The results of NASA GRACE Satellite also aligned with the ground real well data, highlighting the declining pattern of groundwater storage availability in the region for the period of 10 years (2015-2025). Results of this investigation provide valuable insights for policy makers and government entities to implement sustainable measures such as green infrastructure to preserve the groundwater resources in the region.