Modeling Earth Systems and Environment

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40808-018-0503-4

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Groundwater recharge estimation and its spatial distribution in arid

regions using GIS: a case study from Qatar karst aquifer
Husam Musa Baalousha1,2   · Nicolas Barth1 · Fanilo H. Ramasomanana1 · Said Ahzi1,2

Received: 18 February 2018 / Accepted: 10 July 2018

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2018

Abstract
Groundwater recharge from rainfall is a major input into aquifers, especially in arid and semi-arid areas, where little or no
surface water exist. However, estimation of rainfall recharge is not an easy task as it is highly variable spatially and tempo-
rally. In arid areas, recharge occurs indirectly after rainfall-runoff accumulates in low lands such as Wadis and percolates the
aquifer. The method proposed in this study to estimate rainfall recharge is based on soil–water budget model and utilizing
geoprocessing tools in GIS. It uses digital elevation model (DEM), land-cover and rainfall distribution to estimate runoff
accumulation in low lands. The soil–water budget model is then applied to estimate the groundwater recharge in areas of
runoff accumulation. The proposed methodology was applied on Qatar karst aquifer as a case study. The spatial resolution
of raster maps was 350 by 350 m and the temporal resolution is one day. Results obtained in this study for the hydrological
year 2013/2014 show the total groundwater recharge is approximately 14 million ­m3, and concentrated more in the northern
part of Qatar. The method can be applied on any arid region.

Keywords  Groundwater recharge · Arid areas · GIS · Runoff · Karst · Soil–water budget · Qatar

Introduction
Recharge estimation is essential for water resources manage-
ment, groundwater modelling and groundwater protection
as it is a main component in the water balance. Knowledge
of aquifer recharge helps identify the sustainable yield of a
catchment and thus protecting the groundwater resources.
Unfortunately, it is not an easy task to estimate this compo-
nent, especially in arid regions where it is highly variable
spatially and temporally. Unlike humid regions, recharge
in arid climate takes place indirectly through surface run-
off into Wadis, Sabkhas and karst features (Seiler and Gat
2007). Therefore, it is necessary to consider several factors
such as surface geomorphology, land cover, and terrain when
recharge is estimated in arid areas.
Several methods of recharge estimation can be found in
the literature. Healy (2010) classified recharge estimations
* Husam Musa Baalousha
baalousha@web.de
1
Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute (QEERI),
Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), Doha, Qatar
2
College of Science and Engineering, Hamad Bin Khalifa
University (HBKU), Doha, Qatar
into seven methods. Each method suits certain study area
depending on climate and data availability. Kinzelbach
et al. (2002) surveyed the most common recharge estima-
tion methods for arid areas, with advantages and disadvan-
tages of each. They classified recharge estimation methods
into four categories: (1) direct measurements such as the
use of lysimeters; (2) water balance methods; (3) Darcian
methods and (4) tracer methods. The conclusion of Kin-
zelbach et al. (2002) is to utilise a variety of independent
methods to estimate recharge. Xu and Beekman (2003)
reviewed 16 methods of recharge estimation in Southern
Africa arid areas. They assessed each method applicabil-
ity, data requirements and limitations. In the end, they
rated each method based on accuracy, ease of application
and cost. They concluded that six methods can be applied
with more certainty and ease of use. These methods are
Chloride Mass Balance (CMB), Cumulative Rainfall
Departure (CRD), Extended model for Aquifer Recharge
and soil moisture Transport through unsaturated Hardrock
(EARTH) (Beekman et al. 1996), Water Table Fluctua-
tion (WTF), Groundwater Modelling (GM) and Saturated
Volume Fluctuation (SVF) methods. These methods were
applied in many studies to estimate groundwater recharge

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in arid regions (Bazuhair and Wood 1995; Xu and van
Tonder 2001; Xu and Beekman 2003; Baalousha 2005).
The problem that faces recharge estimation is uncer-
tainty, as the actual recharge is always unknown (Healy
2010). To cope with uncertainty in recharge, some studies
coupled sampling methods such as Monte Carlo simula-
tion with recharge estimation methods (i.e. Bekesi and
McConchie 1999; Baalousha 2009; Zhen-min 2011). The
Geographical Information System (GIS) has widely been
used in recharge estimation using different methods and
techniques (i.e. Machiwal and Jha 2015). The utilisation
of GIS in recharge estimation has many advantages, as it
considers spatial and temporal distribution. Maps calculus
can easily be done in GIS, in addition to geoprocessing,
which makes GIS a powerful tool for recharge estimation.
Several studies were undertaken to estimate groundwa-
ter recharge in Qatar, with a high variation in their results.
The big variation reflects the high uncertainty in recharge
estimation depending on the method used.
Pike et al. (1975) estimated groundwater recharge using
surface catchment analysis, and found recharge to vary
between 9.6 and 38.7 million ­m3 per year, for the period
1971–1974.
Yurtsever and Payne (1978) used tritium data to esti-
mate groundwater recharge. Results of tritium study show
groundwater recharge occurs mainly in the northern part
of Qatar, and varies between 7 and 24 million m ­ 3 per year.
Eccleston et al. (1981) stated that recharge in Qatar
occurs by two mechanisms: direct recharge over bare out-
crop; and indirect recharge through flow accumulation
in land depressions. The indirect recharge was found to
be five times greater than the direct one (Schlumberger
Water Services 2009). Eccleston et al. (1981) estimated
rainfall recharge at 27 million ­m3 per year of which a small
proportion is a direct recharge. Due to high variability in
recharge, Eccleston et al. (1981) adopted an average value
over many years. According to their analysis, a recharge
value of 15 million ­m3, for example, has a return period
of 1.5  years. Another study by Eccleston and Harhash
(1982) found groundwater recharge to vary between 0.5
and 27 million ­m3 per year.
Harhash and Yousif (1985) estimated annual groundwater
recharge in a range between 21 and 166 million ­m3, depend-
ing on rainfall variation.
Schlumberger Water Services (2009) used surface catch-
ments water balance model and found the indirect ground-
water recharge to vary between 5 and 68.5 million ­m3 per
year. Their calculations were based on 14 years average.
Baalousha (2016a) estimated annual groundwater
recharge at 65.6 million ­m3, using numerical modelling.
Another study (Baalousha 2016b) estimated groundwater
at 58.7 million ­m3 based on Darcian method, coupled with
Monte Carlo Simulation.
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Modeling Earth Systems and Environment
In this study a GIS-based methodology is used to estimate
indirect groundwater recharge in arid areas. The proposed
method uses soil–water budget model coupled with land
cover, soil properties and topography within the Geographi-
cal Information System (GIS) framework. The geoprocess-
ing tools in GIS such as flow direction and flow accumula-
tion in Spatial Analyst were utilised. The application of the
proposed methodology in GIS makes it easy to cover the
entire area of study, and to run maps algebra. The method
was applied to the entire area of Qatar.
Methodology
The recharge estimation method proposed in this study is
based on a modification of the soil–water budget model by
Thornthwaite and Mather (1957), coupled with geoprocess-
ing tools in ArcGIS as shown in Fig. 1. The geoprocessing
tools were used to calculate surface runoff and rainfall accu-
mulation based on land cover, precipitation, topography, and
soil. Recharge can be calculated as the difference between
input and output. Based on Thornthwaite and Mather (1957),
and in absence of any surface water bodies or snow melt,
recharge R is given by:
R = P − RO − ETa − ΔS (1)
where P is precipitation, ETa is the actual evapotranspira-
tion and ΔS is the change in soil moisture content. In arid
regions like deserts, rainfall is low and evapotranspiration
is high. In this case, recharge occurs only in winter seasons
when rainfall-runoff accumulates in low land and eventually
percolates the aquifer (Kimrey 1985). Eccleston et al. (1981)
reported that recharge occurs in Qatar if rainfall events are
more than 10 mm per day. Accordingly; Eq. (1) can be re-
written as follows:
R = AC − ETa − ΔS (2)
where AC is the accumulated flow in low lands after a rain
event. Flow accumulation normally happens when a rain
event is big enough to generate runoff. In this proposed
method, soil characteristics, land-cover and precipitation,
were considered when flow accumulation was calculated.
The Flow Accumulation Tool in Spatial Analyst calcu-
lates the accumulated flow in a given area based on topog-
raphy; with an optional weight factor (default value is 1).
Within the Geographical Information System (GIS), this tool
can be applied to any area of study. If no weight is given, the
tool assigns an equal weight of unity to all cells in the map.
In this study, it is proposed to use a weight map based
on the amount of precipitation, soil characteristics and soil
cover. For runoff computation, the surface runoff curve
number (CN) is an empirical parameter for prediction of
infiltration or direct runoff from excess rain (United States
Modeling Earth Systems and Environment

Fig. 1  Stepwise methodology

Department of Agriculture 1986). The surface runoff curve 1000

number (CN) map was prepared based on the land cover type
S = − 10 (5)
CN
and soil group, as classified by the United States Depart-
Substituting from (4) and (5) in (3) gives:
ment of Agriculture (1986) and shown in Tables 1 and 2.
In this case, the dry soil conditions were used as the soil is ( ( ))2
mostly very dry. Table 1 shows the Hydrologic soil groups P − 0.2 1000
CN
− 10
and Table 2 shows the curve number based on soil group and RO = ( ( )) (6)
1000
P − 0.8 CN − 10
cover type. Using classification given in Tables 1 and 2, the
map of surface runoff number (CN) for the study area was
created. The surface runoff (RO) can be calculated as follows Obviously Eq. (6) considers precipitation, soil properties,
(United States Department of Agriculture 1986): and land cover. For daily rainfall records, raster maps of RO
were created based on Eq. (6) and using Raster Calculator
(P − Ia )2 in ArcGIS.
RO = (3) The hydrologic condition shown in Table 2 is based on
(P − Ia ) + S
combination factors that affect infiltration and runoff, includ-
where Ia is the initial abstraction, which is the amount of ing land cover over time and surface roughness. According
rainfall before any runoff is generated, and S is the potential to the United Stated Department of Agriculture (1986), Poor
maximum retention after runoff begins. According to the hydrologic conditions mean (litter, grass, and brush over-
United States Department of Agriculture (1986), S is related story) cover less than 30% ground cover, whereas fair and
to Ia as follows: good hydrologic conditions mean 30 to 70%, and more than
70% coverage, respectively. In this study, poor hydrologic
Ia = 0.2S (4) conditions were assumed as the desert shrub coverage is
And S is related to CN by: very low.

Table 1  Hydrologic soil groups based on the United States Department of Agriculture (1986)
Soil group Soil properties

A Sand, loamy sand, or sandy loam. Infiltration rate > 0.3 inch/hr when wet
B Moderate infiltration (moderate runoff). Silt loam or loam. Infiltration rate 0.15 to 0.3 inch/hr when wet
C Low infiltration (moderate to high runoff). Sandy clay loam. Infiltration rate 0.05 to 0.15 inch/hr when wet
D Very low infiltration (high runoff). Clay loam, silty clay loam, sandy clay, silty clay, or clay. Infiltration
rate 0 to 0.05 inch/hr when wet

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 Modeling Earth Systems and Environment

Table 2  Runoff Curve numbers (CN) for arid and semiarid regions (United States Department of Agriculture 1986)
Cover type Hydrologic Curve numbers for hydrologic
condition soil group
A B C D

Herbaceous-mixture of grass, weeks, and low-growing brush, with brush the minor element Poor 80 87 93
Fair 74 81 89
Good 62 74 85
Oak-aspen-mountain brush mixture of oak brush, aspen, mountain mahogany, bitter brush, Poor 66 74 79
maple, and other brush Fair 48 57 63
Good 30 41 48
Pinyon-juniper-pinyon,juniper, or both; grass understory Poor 75 85 89
Fair 58 73 80
Good 41 61 71
Sagebrush with grass understory Poor 67 80 85
Fair 51 63 70
Good 35 47 55
Desert shrub-major plants include saltbush, greasewood, creosotebush, blackbrush, bursage, 63 77 85 88
palo verde, mesquite, and cactus 55 72 81 86
49 68 79 84

The flow accumulation tool in ArcGIS uses a weight
for each cell when performing map algebra. If no weight
is specified, the default value of 1 will be assigned to each
cell. Flow accumulation is based on flow direction map.
For example, cells that receive flow and not contribution
to flow to other cells will have high accumulation. The
reader can refer to ArcGIS user manual for more details
about flow accumulation.
The resulting RO maps were then used as a weight to
generate the flow accumulation maps (AC), as shown in
Fig. 1. The potential evapotranspiration (ETp) values for
the study area are available in the literature based on field
measurements (Bazaraa 1989). The actual evapotranspira-
tion equals the potential when precipitation P is greater
than or equals ETp. If P is less than ETp, then the ET equals
P plus the soil moisture that can be extracted. The final
recharge maps were calculated using Eq. (2). The result-
ing maps show the spatial distribution of recharge and the
recharge depth.
Data requirements for this study include daily records
of rainfall, Digital Elevation Model (DEM) for topography,
soil-moisture holding capacity, land-use map and potential
evapotranspiration. Maps resolution are 350 by 350 meters.
Soil map was based on Qatar Soil Atlas (Ministry of Munici-
pal Affairs and Agriculture 2005), and the land use map was
obtained from the Ministry of Municipality and Environ-
ment and soil moisture map was based on field work done
by Schlumberger Water Service (2009). Recharge was calcu-
lated for each cell, and summed to provide the total amount.
The proposed methodology was applied on the entire coun-
try of Qatar using the hydrological year 2013–2014 and
daily time steps. This year was selected because continuous
daily rainfall data was available for this period.
Application of the method
The study area
Qatar is an arid country, located in the eastern part of Ara-
bian Peninsula and extending approximately 160 km in the
North–South direction (Fig. 2). The total area of Qatar is
approximately 11,500 km2, and its width varies between 55
and 90 km. The country is surrounded by the Arabian Gulf
from all direction but the south, where it borders Saudi Ara-
bia. The climate in Qatar is characterized by hot summer,
where the mean air temperature in July is 35.1 °C (Minis-
try of Development Planning and Statistics 2014). No sur-
face water exists in Qatar and rainfall is very little. Rainfall
occurs between October and May, with a long-term average
of 75.2 mm (Ministry of Development Planning and Statis-
tics 2014). As such, Qatar is one of the driest countries in
the region.
As a result of rapid socio-economic development in
Qatar, especially over the last two decades, the population
of the country has increased from 1.54 million in October
2008 to 2.47 million in July 2017 (Ministry of Development
Planning and Statistics 2017). This sharp increase in popu-
lation has increased the stresses on the country’s resources
including among other things water.
Qatar relies on desalination plants to meet the pop-
ulation needs for domestic and industrial use. The

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Modeling Earth Systems and Environment
Fig. 2  The study area
current total water industrial and domestic demand
is 1,650,232  m 3/days, and totally met by desalination
plants (Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics
(MDPS), 2016). Agriculture in Qatar relies on the precious
groundwater, and the current total abstraction is approxi-
mately 250 million ­m3, which is far beyond the sustain-
able yield of the aquifer (around 60 million ­m3 per year,
Schlumberger Water Services (2009)).
The topography of Qatar is characterized by flat terrain
except in some areas in the west where some hills reach an
elevation of 100 meters. In general, the land elevation var-
ies between 0 and 107 meters above mean sea level. Many
land depressions spread all over the country, as shown in
Fig. 3. These depression are resulted from weathering of
limestone rock and dissolution of evaporate rocks in the
sub-surface geology (Duggan et al. 2014). This dissolution
created cavities and sinkholes, especially in the southern
part of the country. These land depressions vary in diameter
from few meters to more than 1 km, and play an important
role for localized groundwater recharge after rain events.
Some of these land depressions have a depth of 20 m below
Fig. 3  Land depression and hill-shade model
the surrounding ground (Eccleston 1981), which enable flow
runoff accumulation, transporting soils and recharging the
aquifer.
Precipitation
Precipitation in Qatar is very erratic and highly variable. It
occurs mainly between October and May, whereas the rest
of the year is normally dry. The intensity of precipitation
increases from north to south. Precipitation has two types:
winter frontal covering the whole country with high inten-
sity and occurs only between December and February, and
winter thunderstorms during early and late winter months
of localized high intensity (Eccleston et al. 1981). Based
on rainfall data from 1962 to 2011 at Doha International
Airport, the average rainfall is 76.5 mm/year, and the aver-
age annual variation ranges between 10 and 250 mm (Al
Mamoon and Rahman 2014). Rainfall intensity in Qatar is
higher than elsewhere in the Eastern Arabia (Eccleston et al.
1981).
In this study, daily rainfall data was obtained from the
Qatar Meteorological Department (QMD) for the years
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 Modeling Earth Systems and Environment

Table 3  Major rainfall events [mm] in hydrological year 2013–2014

Station x y 17 Nov 2013 19 Nov 2013 20 Nov 2013 05 Jan 2014 06 Jan 2014 11 Jan 2014 26 Mar 2014

Guwairia 203439.1 452,817 9.40 26.5 25.1 4.6 10.0 10.4 22.5
Alruwais 199430.4 486052.3 15.00 43.9 8.2 6.2 14.1 8.6 3.4
Alkhor 229541.2 437339.7 11.40 0 19.0 1.0 9.8 11 22.8
Dukhan 157173.2 407465.2 9.20 4.8 17.4 1.6 4.4 9.8 6.8
Qatar University 227493.2 402453.7 7.20 0 21.2 1.0 4.6 11 6.8
Ummsaid 235782.9 354271.7 1.40 0 25.8 0 1.4 15.0 34.4
Mukenis 200084.9 374417.2 5.80 0 14.8 0.8 1.4 14.8 16.2
Alkharannah 192352.7 352012.1 6.00 0 20.3 0.4 2.0 17.2 10.2
Alwakra 238493.9 379609.6 4.60 0 17.2 0 1.8 18.6 10.0
Doha 235690.2 389719.3 4.80 0 19.3 0.8 4.9 7.5 14.0

between 2012 and 2015, at 10 stations spreading over the Table 4  Average monthly Month Potential evapo-
entire country. As an example of implementation of the potential evapotranspiration in transpiration
Qatar for a hydrological year
proposed methodology of this study, the hydrological year (mm)
based on data for the period
2013–1014 was considered, which spans the period from 1972–1979 (Eccleston et al. October 137
September 2013 August 2014. The major rainfall events 1981)
November 94
during this hydrological year are shown in Table 3. Rainfall
December 71
units are mm and coordinates are in meters. Rainfall maps
January 70
were created by interpolating data at stations using kriging
February 78
in ArcGIS.
March 120
April 145
Evapotranspiration May 190
June 220
Actual evapotranspiration ET is important in the total water July 222
balance, as shown in Eq. (1). It depends on the potential August 206
evapotranspiration and other climate factors such as precipi- September 173
tation and temperature, in addition to soil properties. Many
empirical formulas can be used to estimate evapotranspira-
tion. The most widely used one is the Penman method and
the modified one (Penman 1948). Table 5  Areas at which potential evapotranspiration was estimated in
Eccleston et al. (1981) presented values of mean monthly Bazaraa (1989) study
potential evapotranspiration for the period from 1972 to Area Easting Northing Altitude (m)
1979, based on experimental station in Rodat Al Faras area
in central Qatar. The station provided measurements of tem- Rodat Al Faras 51°20′E 25°49′ N 14.10
perature, relative humidity, solar radiation, sunshine hours, Al-Utoreyah 51°12′E 25°31′ N 33.85
wind speed, soil temperature and pan evaporation, in addi- Abu Samara 51°50′E 24°44′ N 3.10
tion to daily rainfall. The data shows monthly evapotran-
spiration ranges from 70 mm in January to 222 mm in July
(Table 4). Faras, Al- Utoreyah and Abu Samara. Tables 5 and 6 show
Al-Kaabi (1987) presented estimation of the monthly the coordinates of locations and the results; respectively.
evapotranspiration, based on the modified Penman formula Schlumberger Water Services (2009) reported that daily
at three sites in Qatar: Rodat Al-Faras, Al-Utoreyah and Abu potential evapotranspiration varied between 2.5 mm in win-
Samra. The results at Rodat Al-Faras are very similar to ter to 11.5 mm in summer. The actual evapotranspiration
those calculated by Eccleston et al. (1981). (ET) was calculated based on the potential evapotranspi-
Another study estimated the potential evapotranspiration ration (ETp ) . If precipitation (P) is more than (ETp ) then
at three locations in Qatar, based on five different meth- ET = ETp . If P is less than the ETp , then ET = P + ΔS ( ΔS
ods (Bazaraa 1989). These methods are: Blaney Criddle, is the change in moisture storage). Evapotranspiration maps
Thornthwaite, Pan Evapotranspiration, Radiation and Pen- were created by kriging interpolation of the available data
man. The estimation was done for the locations: Rodat Al at the mentioned locations.

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Modeling Earth Systems and Environment

Table 6  Average daily potential evapotranspiration based on Bazaraa

(1989)
Month Daily Potential evapotranspiration (mm)
Rodat Al Faras Al- Utoreyah Abu Samara

January 2.31 2.87 3.04

February 2.80 3.49 3.48
March 3.66 4.49 4.67
April 4.90 6.52 5.90
May 6.63 8.17 6.61
June 7.85 9.39 7.63
July 7.17 8.97 6.80
August 6.25 8.67 6.90
September 5.44 6.97 6.05
October 4.30 5.51 5.00
November 3.09 3.93 4.00
December 2.29 2.84 3.08

Soil cover and land use

The soil in Qatar is shallow, as the thickness varies between

10 and 30 cm with most of the soils are sandy loams cov-
ered by limestone debris (Eccleston et al. 1981). These soils
belong to Aridisols (Baalousha 2016c), which is typical in
an arid climate like Qatar. Figure 4 shows the soil map based
on data from Qatar Atlas (Ministry of Municipal Affairs and
Agriculture 2005).
The soil map is important to calculate the storage capac-
ity, which affects groundwater recharge. The soil moisture
is the amount of water the soil can hold, which is the maxi-
mum water holding capacity. It is roughly equal to the filed
capacity (United States Geological Survey 2010). Soil in
Qatar can be divided into four main categories (Eccleston
et al. 1981): (1) farm soil (locally known as Roda), which
occurs in land-depressions and composed of silty clay and
sandy loam; (2) sabkha soil, which occurs in salt flats and
composed of gypsiferous soil and sandy clay loam; (3) sandy
soil composed of calcareous loam and sand; and (4) lithosol
soil composed of calcareous sand and limestone fragments.
The vast majority of land in Qatar is bare land. The land
uses include agricultural areas, built-up areas, and industrial
areas. Agricultural farms are spread mainly in the northern
part of the country, whereas the main built-up area is the
Doha City in the central east part of the country, where the
main population of the country is concentrated. In addition,
there are a few smaller communities along the coastline like
Al-Khor in the north and Al-Wakra in the south.
The soil map was classified into soil groups using Table 1,
and the land-use map was classified using Table 2. Combin-
ing soil and land use classified maps, the curve number map
was created, as shown in Fig. 5. The curve number values
vary between 49 and 98. The higher the number is the higher
Fig. 4  Soil map (Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Agriculture 2005;
Baalousha 2016c)
runoff. Built-up areas have a higher number, as expected,
whereas land depressions have the lowest number. The curve
number map and daily precipitation map were used to create
the runoff map, using Eq. (6).
Runoff and flow accumulation
The Flow Accumulation tool in Spatial Analyst was used to
find out areas of runoff accumulation and the depth of accu-
mulated rainfall, as illustrated in the methodology shown in
Fig. 1. The surface runoff was computed using curve num-
ber map and precipitation map for each major daily rainfall
event, as given by Eq. (3). After creation of runoff maps,
flow accumulation was calculated. Flow accumulation is
normally computed based on land topography (Digital Ele-
vation Model DEM) by calculating the land surface gradi-
ent, which determines the flow direction. The flow direction
maps were computed using Flow Direction Tool in Spatial
Analyst, and then the Flow Accumulation Tool was used.
For each daily rainfall even map, the surface runoff map,
was used as a weight for flow accumulation calculation. By

13

Fig. 5  Curve number (CN) map
doing this, precipitation, soil, and land cover are all consid-
ered. Figure 6 shows a sample of the calculated runoff after
a rain event on 26 March 2014. The same procedure was
followed to create runoff maps for all major rainfall events
in the hydrological year 2013–104 (see Table 3).
Recharge calculation
The final step is to calculate groundwater recharge using
Eq. (2). Recharge occurs in most conditions when there is a
surplus in soil moisture content (United States Geological
Survey. 2010). The soil moisture field capacity was used
based on a field work done by Schlumberger Water Services
(2009). The Raster Calculator in ArcGIS was used to cal-
culate recharge for daily rainfall events in the hydrological
year 2013–2014. Figure 7 shows the recharge distribution
and depth for rainfall event on 26 March 2014. The recharge
map is draped over the hill-shade model to show the relation
between recharge and topography. The total daily recharge
amount for any rainfall event was calculated by multiply-
ing the value at each cell by the cell area and summing all
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Modeling Earth Systems and Environment
Fig. 6  Flow accumulation (in mm) after 26 March 2014 storm
values. The rain event of 26 March 2014 resulted in approxi-
mately 2.8 million ­m3.
Results and discussion
Table 7 shows results of recharge estimates for all rain events
in the hydrological years 2013–2014. The total amount of
recharge is 14 million ­m3 per year for this particular period.
In this study, the cell dimensions are 350 by 350 meters,
which is good enough to produce fairly accurate results,
given the input data resolution. All other recharge maps pro-
duced similar spatial distribution, with variation in quantity.
After considering all rainfall events in this hydrological year,
it was found that only rain events averaged 5 mm or more
over the entire country produce recharge in land depressions.
Table 8 shows a comparison between results of differ-
ent methods of recharge estimation in Qatar. While the
lengths of these studies vary, results might provide indi-
cation of the range of recharcge for the sake of compari-
son. The estimated recharge value in this study falls well
within the range of the previous studies. Literature values
Modeling Earth Systems and Environment
Fig. 7  Recharge depth and distribution after 26 March 2014 rainfall
event
Table 7  Recharge estimated for
hydrological year 2013–2014
shown in the table show high variability in recharge esti-
mate. This high variability reflected the erratic nature of
rainfall in Qatar and the variability in the many factors
affecting groundwater recharge.
Conclusions
A methodology has been developed in this study to esti-
mate groundwater recharge in arid regions. The method-
ology is based on soil–water mass balance but utilizes
other factors such as geomorphology and land cover to
estimate the spatial distribution of groundwater recharge,
within GIS framework. The utilization of GIS and geo-
processing tools makes it easy and convenient to consider
spatial and temporal variability in many parameters used
in this study. The proposed methodology was applied to
estimate groundwater recharge in Qatar. Results obtained
show the annual groundwater recharge for the hydrologi-
cal year 2013–2014 is 14 million ­m3, which is comparable
to results obtained by other methods in previous studies.
It was found that rainfall events with an average of 5 mm
or more per day across the entire country may result in
groundwater recharge, which highlights the importance
of rainfall intensity.
The advantage of this method over others is the consid-
eration of the spatial and temporal variation, and the low
data requirements. The limitation of this method is the
maps resolution, as the accuracy of the quantitative analy-
sis depends on the cell size of raster maps of each input
parameter. The proposed method can be applied to any arid
region, where groundwater recharge occurs indirectly after
the runoff. While it may look tedious to prepare maps and
analyze them for daily events, the use of model builder
Rain event Estimated
in ArcGIS can automate the process. In addition, in arid
recharge
regions rainfall evens are few so the computation time is
­(m3)
less. Although the methods is applied to arid regions but
17-Nov 473,877 it can also applied to non-arid regions despite the compu-
19-Nov 4,041,002 tational time will be more.
20-Nov 3,979,231
05-Jan 40,029
06-Jan 331,124
11-Jan 2,653,834
26-Mar 2,839,534
Total 14,358,631
13

Table 8  Comparison of Reference
recharge estimates by different
methods
Pike et al. (1975)
Yurtsever and Payne (1978)
Eccleston et al. (1981)
Eccleston and Harhash (1982)
Harhash and Yousif (1985)
Schlumberger Water Services (2009)
Baalousha (2016a)
Baalousha (2016b)
This study
Acknowledgements  This paper was made possible by NPRP grant #
[NPRP 9-030-1-008] from the Qatar National Research Fund (a mem-
ber of Qatar Foundation). The findings achieved herein are solely the
responsibility of the authors.
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