Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10040-021-02445-6 REPORT The efects of urbanization on the groundwater system of the Kabul shallow aquifers, Afghanistan Abdulhalim Zaryab 1,2  · Hamid Reza Nassery 1  · Farshad Alijani 1 Received: 19 June 2021 / Accepted: 26 December 2021 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2022 Abstract The capital city of Afghanistan, Kabul, has experienced rapid urbanization since the end of 2001. The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of rapid urbanization on the Kabul aquifer system, which is the main source of water for domestic, agricultural and industrial use in the area. Satellite imagery, groundwater levels and rainfall historical data were analyzed in conjunction with physico-chemical parameters that were measured at 27 water wells located in the Kabul Plain in 2020. Land-cover maps indicate that the urban surface area increased by 40% between 2000 and 2020, whilst the agricultural surface area simultaneously decreased by 32%. Meanwhile the Kabul Plain has globally experienced a severe decrease in groundwater levels (-0.8 m/year on average, and a fall of 60 m in some places) due to overabstraction, which has also seen changes in groundwater fow directions. Hydrochemistry, on the other hand, reveals that chloride concentrations and salin- ity increased throughout the aquifer between 2005 and 2020, while the nitrate concentration decreased in most places of the Kabul Plain over the considered period. The results suggest that rapid urbanization has had serious detrimental efects on both groundwater quantity and quality. Without urgent preventive policy and the implementation of efective practices, groundwater resource depletion and groundwater quality deterioration in the Kabul shallow aquifers are likely to continue in the future. Keywords Urbanization · Groundwater management · Over-abstraction · Land-use changes · Afghanistan Introduction Groundwater plays a signifcant role in terms of the eco- nomic and social health of the urban population of devel- oping countries (Rodell et al. 2009; Wakode et al. 2017; Jia et al. 2019; Foster 2020). More than half of the global population lives in cities, a proportion that is expected to increase in the few next decades (Schirmer et al. 2013; McDonald et al. 2014). Many large cities depend mainly on groundwater resources, for instance, Beijing in China (Zhou et al. 2012), Delhi (Dash et al. 2010) and Kolkata (Sahu et al. 2013) in India, Hong Kong in China (Jiao et al. 2008), Seoul in South Korea (Choi et al. 2005), Dhaka in Bangladesh (Morris et al. 2003), and Mexico City (Ramos- Leal et al. 2010), amongst others. Such population growth has resulted in intense abstraction of aquifers and reduction in recharge beneath the cities, bringing signifcant changes in groundwater quality and quantity. The rapid urbanization has led to groundwater deteriora- tion in many cities such as Taejon (Jeong 2001) in South Korea, Beijing (Zhou et al. 2012) and Shanghai (Dong et al. 2013) in China, Solapur (Naik et al. 2008) and Shimla (Sahil and Bhardwaj 2020) in India, Nairobi in Kenya (Oiro et al. 2020) and so forth. These cities depend heavily on ground- water as the main water resource. Generally, urbanization has many consequences for the hydrological cycle and water resources, including water shortage due to rising con- sumption, fooding as a result of increased soil compaction, changes in the river and groundwater regimes and associ- ated water quality deterioration, land subsidence and salt- water intrusion due to overabstraction of groundwater, and increase in groundwater recharge because of leakage from water distribution systems (Rogers 1994; Takizawa 2008; * Hamid Reza Nassery h-nassery@sbu.ac.ir 1 Department of Minerals and Groundwater Resources, Faculty of Earth Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran 2 Department of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology, Faculty of Geology and Mines, Kabul Polytechnic University, Kabul, Afghanistan / Published online: 17 January 2022 Hydrogeology Journal (2022) 30:429–443