*Article* **Geospatial Assessment of Groundwater Quality with the Distinctive Portrayal of Heavy Metals in the United Arab Emirates**

**Imen Ben Salem <sup>1</sup> , Yousef Nazzal <sup>1</sup> , Fares M. Howari <sup>1</sup> , Manish Sharma 1,\* , Jagadish Kumar Mogaraju <sup>2</sup> and Cijo M. Xavier <sup>1</sup>**


**Abstract:** Groundwater is a valuable resource, and its quality is critical to human survival. Optimal farming and urbanization degraded groundwater reserves. This research investigates and reports the spatial variability of selected heavy metals developed in the Liwa area of the United Arab Emirates. Forty water samples were collected from existing wells and analyzed for different elements. Principal components analysis was applied to a subgroup of the data set in terms of their usefulness for determining the variability of groundwater quality variables. Geographic information systems were used to produce contour maps to analyze the distribution of heavy metals. Ordinary kriging was used with Circular, Spherical, Tetraspherical, Pentaspherical-Bessel, K-Bessel, Hole effect, and Stable models for better representation. The water quality index was constructed using heavy metal concentrations and other variables. This yielded a value of 900 beyond the limit stated by WHO and US EPA. Nugget analysis showed that Cd (0), K (7.38%), and SO<sup>4</sup> (1.81%) variables exhibited strong spatial dependence. Al (27%), Ba (40.87%), Cr (63%), Cu (34%), EC (27%), HCO<sup>3</sup> (56%), NO<sup>3</sup> (36%), Pb (64%), and TDS (53%) represented moderate spatial dependence. As (76%), Mn (79%), Ni (100%), pH (100%), Temp (93%), and Zn (100%) exhibited weak spatial dependence.

**Keywords:** geostatistics; GIS; heavy metal pollution; groundwater; UAE
