Sustainable fresh water resources management in northern Kuwait—A remote sensing view from Raudatain basin

The paper presents time and cost effective remote sensing technology to estimate recharge potential of fresh water shallow aquifers for their sustainable management of water resources in arid ecosystem. Precipitation measurement of Raudatain basin in Kuwait from TRMM data has been made and integrated with geological, geomorphological and hyrological data, to estimate the recharge potential of this basin. The total precipitation in the basin is estimated at 334 MCM for the year 2003. The initial losses are estimated at 78.43% and the transmission loss at 14.866% of the net precipitation.For sustainable management of the ground water resources, recharge wells have been proposed in the higher order streams to augment the Raudatain aquifer in Kuwait. If the available quantity of precipitation can be successfully utilized, it will reduce considerable pressure on desalination, which leads to increased salinity at the coast in Arabian Gulf.