Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 79 (2014) 366381

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Journal of Asian Earth Sciences

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Spatial analysis of soil and shallow groundwater physicochemical

parameters in El-Mujib Basin-central Jordan
Abeer Salman a,, Mohammed Al-Qinna b, Mustafa Al Kuisi c
a

Department of Geography, King Saud University, Ryiad, Saudi Arabia

Department of Land Management and Environment, Hashemite University, Zarqa, Jordan
c
Department of Geology, Faculty of Science, The University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan
b

a r t i c l e

i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 26 May 2012
Received in revised form 19 September 2013
Accepted 7 October 2013
Available online 18 October 2013

In this study statistical and geostatistical methods were applied to a monitoring data set in order to
assess contamination risk in soil and shallow groundwater. The study covered an area within El-Mujib
Basin in central Jordan, where the barren land is dominating with a small number of irrigated areas in
the vicinity of Wadi El-Mujib and in the northern part of the basin. A total of 77 soil and 104 water samples were collected randomly and analyzed physically, chemically, statistically and spatially using ordinary and indicator kriging techniques. Phosphate, nitrate, organic matter and effective eld capacity in the
soil system were spatially investigated and correlated to current landuse. Maximum soil maximum
nitrate (125.6 mg/L), phosphate (9.7 mg/L), and organic matter (3%) contents are encountered in the central area at Wadi El-Mujib, Qattrana and Umm Rasas due to the use of fertilizers and existence of solid
landll. The soil has low water holding capacity as it is dominated by coarse texture and therefore subjecting the groundwater for potential risks through the fast soil system. The major cations and anions in
the groundwater were mainly concentrated in the Wadi El-Mujib and in the central part of the Basin
increases along the groundwater ow direction. Spatial groundwater indicator maps of salinity; nitrate
and sulfate contents proves the high susceptibility of the study area to be contaminated. By determining
the impacts, more effective (specic to contamination sources) measures for preventing groundwater
quality could be implemented.
2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Ordinary kriging
Spatial maps
Nitrate and phosphate contamination

1. Introduction
Due to the rapid growth of human needs in many sectors, fragile
natural resources are always subjected to signicant challenges
accommodated by pollution and health hazard risks. Generally, soil
and groundwater are the major environmental components subjected to potential contaminations, the rst might fall within the
initiative point while the latter at the end point. Therefore, soil
and groundwater quality assessment are necessary to provide
information on the historic water-quality conditions and to determine the source(s) and the potential of groundwater
contaminations.
Both point and non-point contamination sources and their adverse imposed environment human health risks have been widely
and intensively studied during the last decade. Groundwater contamination, particularly from nitrate NO
3 , is the most frequent
emerging global problem in many countries with both human
and ecosystem health consequences (Spalding and Exner, 1993;
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: abalsalman@ksu.edu.sa
(M. Al-Qinna), mkuisi@ju.edu.jo (M.A. Kuisi).

(A.

Salman),

qinna@hu.edu.jo

1367-9120/$ - see front matter 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jseaes.2013.10.008

EEA, 2000; McLay et al., 2001; Al-Masri and Kaluarachchi, 2004;

Choi et al., 2007). Human activities caused by intensive or improper land-use and the employment from non-point sources as agricultural practices and the use of nitrogen fertilizers and manure, or
point sources of cattle feed lots, septic tanks, sewage discharge and
the oxidation of organically bound nitrogen in soils and landlls
constructions are considered the primary anthropogenic source
of nitrogen contamination in groundwater (EEA, 2000; Appelo
and Postma, 2005; Nolan, 2001; Howarth, 2004; Babiker et al.,
2004; Choi et al., 2007).
Due to the high water solubility, NO3- has a high leaching
potential that can only be removed from groundwater through
reduction processes (Appelo and Postma, 2005). A drinking water

guideline value of 11.3 mg/L NO
is
3  N or 50 mg/L NO3
considered by the Jordanian Water Standards (Ministry of Water
and Irrigation MWI, 2004) and the World Health Organization
(WHO, 2006), whereas the Environmental Protection Agency of
the USA considers a maximum contaminant level of 10 mg/L NO3
as primary drinking water standard (EPA, 2003). Groundwater with
nitrate concentration exceeding the threshold of 3 mg/L NO
3 N
or 13 mg/L NO
3 is considered contaminated due to human activities (the so-called human affected value; Bukart and Kolpin,

A. Salman et al. / Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 79 (2014) 366381

367

Fig. 1. Location of the study area (El-Mujib Basin).

1993; Eckhardt and Stackelberg, 1995). Elevated NO

3 levels in
drinking water can increase an infants susceptibility to methemoglobinemia which decreases blood oxygen levels that can result in
infant death (Walton, 1951; Spalding and Exner, 1993). However,
several other risks are recently investigated as gastric cancer, and
non-Hodgkins lymphoma (Lhirondel and Lhirondel, 2001; Addiscott, 2006).
Researchers were able to quantify and evaluate the chemical
groundwater contaminations through investigating their direct
relations to geological settings (lithology), landuse, irrigation water
supply source using different indicator methods as statistical
methods of bivariate analysis and factorial analyses (Andrade and
Stigter, 2009; Benze cri, 1973; Stigter et al., 2006), or spatial analyses as kriging and indicator kriging (Ribeiro, 1998; Deutsch and
Journel, 1998; Stigter et al., 2005; Hu et al., 2005).
Jordan is one of the developing countries that suffer from severe
scarcity of water resources. The water demands in Jordan have increased in parallel with the population growth and industrial
development over the past two decades. The limited availability
of surface water resources in Jordan forced the government to increase exploitation of the groundwater basins, thereby causing
extensive overpumping of groundwater wells for drinking, industrial and agricultural uses. Improper landuse by human activities
may threaten the vital limit water resources. Both Wadi Walah
and Wadi El-Mujib are considered the second major vital water resources after Zarqa River used to meet drinking, agricultural and
industrial needs, where two dams were built on them; El-Mujib
Dam and Al-Walah Dam. They were constructed as Roller Compacted Concrete (RCC) with earth ll constructions in both sides.
The maximum storage capacity of the Walah Dam is 9.3 MCM
and mean annual inow was estimated at 17.7 MCM (Margane
et al., 2009). The maximum storage capacity of the Mujib Dam is
31.2 MCM and it has an annual safe yield of 16.6 MCM (Margane
et al., 2008). El-Mujib Dam Formations are partly covered by

landslide materials and it faces landslide problems as well as the

problem of a signicant accumulation of debris and sediment at
the bottom of the lake at the short time. In addition, H2S bubbles
were seen rising in the lake and the smell was recognized as a result of large scale reducing processes.
Geostatistical techniques are being recently recognized as a
powerful tool for managing and analyzing spatial environmental
data particularly to investigate groundwater contamination and
to establish spatial association with pollution sources (Levallois
et al., 1998; Ahn and Chon, 1999; Rodda et al., 1999; McLay
et al., 2001). Along different type of spatial interpolation, indicator
krig techniques are helpful in providing indicative maps to the
probability of concentrations in groundwater exceeding predetermined threshold values (Andrade and Stigter, 2009). Such techniques allows the detection and modeling of spatial dependency
patterns of the variables and to evaluate the associated risk (Deutsch and Journel, 1998; Stigter et al., 2005; Hu et al., 2005). Along
with statistical techniques (e.g. correlation, multivariate, Principal
component and cluster analyses), spatial maps can be inferred to
delineate the extent of pollution or determines areas where
groundwater is at risk of nitrate contamination and which factors
mainly inuence nitrate presence in groundwater that represents
an important step in managing and protecting this resource and
human health (Fest et al., 2007; Masetti et al., 2008; Kulabako
et al., 2007). Generally, land use, geological lithology and soil properties were outlined to be the most responsible variables for
groundwater quality composition (Choi et al., 2007; Babiker
et al., 2004; de Andrade et al., 2008; Elmi et al., 2004), however
the quantitative effects of these factors on the groundwater system
have so far been poorly studied (Batelaan and De Smedt, 2001).
The main objectives of this study are to evaluate the potential
contamination levels in groundwater (especially aquifer B2/A7)
as allied by geological lithology and soil characteristics using
traditional and advanced geostatistical techniques, and to provide

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A. Salman et al. / Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 79 (2014) 366381

Fig. 2. Digital elevation model (DEM) for the study area.

a correlative assessment of the groundwater pollution risks derived from various anthropogenic activities (landuses).

2. Description of the study area

and humid winters. Rainfall decreases towards southeast from

more than 300 mm/y to more than 80 mm/y (MWI, 2004). In highly
wet seasons, rainfall at the western part of the Mujib catchment can
reach a maximum of about 700 mm/y, whereas the minimum in dry
years may be as low as 100 mm/y (Margane et al., 2008).

2.1. Geographic location and climate

2.2. Geological and hydrgeological settings
The study area El-Mujib Basin is located in central Jordan,
about 81 km south of Amman (Fig. 1) and is determined by the
coordinates 31.91431.032N and 35.57236.336E. It covers an
area of approximately 6400 km2. The study area represents a semiarid region that is characterized by hot and dry summers and cold

The study area is considered vital from economical, hydrological, and archaeological aspects. It is economic mineral resources include tripoli, gypsum, dolomite, coquina, limestone, chalk, oil
shale, basalt, volcanic tuff and aggregates.

A. Salman et al. / Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 79 (2014) 366381

369

Fig. 3. Geological map of the study area.

The catchment is composed of two major drainage systems,

Wadi Walah (1700 km2) and Wadi El-Mujib (4700 km2). Wadi ElMujib groundwater is one of the major water resources in Jordan
by which the management of such identity is very important to
meet the increasing demand of water for domestic, agricultural
and industrial uses. Topography of the Wadi El-Mujib is characterized by smooth rolling hills, steep slope, and the presence of talus
sediments produced by landslides. Elevation in the area is varying
from 335 m below sea level in Wadi El-Mujib, to 1279 m above sea
level southwest of the study area (near Al-Mazar) as shown in
Fig. 2. The geomorphology of Wadi El-Mujib is the result of headward erosion of the principal wadis into the Arabian Plateau
(Quennell, 1956).
The study area has a stratigraphic sequence from Cambrian to
recent sediments. This includes Rum, Kurnub, Ajlun, and Belqa
groups, Quaternary sediments and volcanic rocks as shown in
Fig. 3 and Table 1. The oldest rocks belong to the Umm Ishrin

Formation, while the youngest belong to the Shihan Basaltic Group.

Structurally, most of the tectonics of the study area are related to
the formation of the Dead Sea as result of the tectonic movement
which took place during the late Tertiary to Recent time (BGR,
1987). Siwaqa and Zerqa Main Faults are the main structural features in the area as shown in Fig. 3. The Siwaqa Fault is an E-W
strike slip fault with dextral movement of around 5 km (Al-Masri,
2003).
From a hydrological point of view the study area comprises
two sub-basins, the Wadi Walah catchment in the northern side
and the Wadi El-Mujib catchment in the southern side, separated by the Siwaqa Fault, which possibly acts as a groundwater
barrier.
Three aquifers and two aquitrards are distinguished in El-Mujib
Basin; those are Kurnub, A7/B2 and B4 aquifers and A1/6 and B3
aquitrards as shown in Fig. 4. The deepest aquifer is the Kurnub,
while the youngest is B4 as shown in Table 1. The groundwater

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A. Salman et al. / Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 79 (2014) 366381

Table 1
Lithostratigraphy and hydrogeological classication of rock units in El-Mujib area Margane et al. (2008).

ow in B2/A7 aquifer is mainly directed towards northeast in the

southern part of the study area (Margane et al., 2008). The groundwater in the Siwaqa area moves towards northwest in the B2/A7
aquifer, while the groundwater moves towards the west in the

middle area (Bader, 1992) as shown in Fig. 5. The strata in the

northern part of the Wadi El-Mujib dip in a northeasterly direction
so that groundwater ows towards Wadi Walah (Margane and Hobler, 1994).

A. Salman et al. / Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 79 (2014) 366381

371

Fig. 4. Hydrological system and locations of groundwater samples.

2.3. Soil types and landuse

The soils of the study area in general are moderate to high calcareous varying in color, texture and thickness. In the northern
side of the study area, the soil is thicker and more fertile reaching
a depth of 2 m, while in the southern side it is shallower, coarser
and poorly aggregated reaching a depth of 0.5 m. The characteristics of the major associated soil series are presented in Table 2.
According to Hunting Technical Services LTD. (HTS, 1994) in association with Soil Survey and Land Research Center in the Ministry
of Agriculture, 30 soil map units are present in the study area
(Fig. 6). Most of these soils belong to loamy textural groups ranging
from clay loams at the northern part that have moderate inltration rates to gravelly and stony sandy loams at the southern part
with very fast inltration rates.

According to eld surveying, 10 different landuse/land cover

(LULC) were recognized (Table 3). The major LULC in the study area
consists mainly of barren land (53%) that is dominating in the
southern area. However, in the northern and western side of the
study area there is a growing number of small agricultural farms
(14.3%) such as olives, grapes, tomatoes, and melons.

3. Methodology
3.1. Sampling and laboratorial analysis
A total of 104 groundwater and 77 soil surface samples (20 cm
depth) were collected from the study area (Figs. 4 and 6). The
groundwater temperature, pH, electrical conductivity (Ec, lS/cm)

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A. Salman et al. / Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 79 (2014) 366381

Fig. 5. Groundwater contour map and ow direction.

were measured on site using portable instruments (Field Ec, pH,

DO-meter WTW instrument) during 2008. Alkalinity was measured by titration method using 0.2 M H2SO4. The water samples
were collected in cold storage in polyethylene bottles, and ltered
within 45 lm cellulose nitrate membrane lters using a vacuum
pump. Samples were acidied to protect them from absorption
and chemical precipitation by using concentrated analytical-grade
HCl. All water samples were kept at 4 C until analysis.
Groundwater samples were examined for major cations, anions,
and salinity as shown in Table 4. Analysis of the cations and anions
were performed with an Ion Chromatograph, Inductively Coupled
Plasma (ICP-Ms) and Flame Emission Photometer at the laboratories of the Acme analytical laboratories Ltd., in Canada, Jordan

University, and Water and Environment Ministry using the standard methods recommended for analysis (Arnold et al., 1998).
Bottles for heavy metals analysis were sealed in double zipperlocked bags before and after sampling. The samples were placed
without ltering and treated with trace metal grade nitric acid diluted to 50% with double-deionized water, for a period of 3 days.
Disturbed surface soil samples were collected from different
soil map units (Fig. 6) in 6 months interval between December
2007 and June 2008. Soil samples were collected randomly from
each map unit and were subjected to physical and chemical analyses (Table 5) at the Hashemite University and the University of
Jordan labs after being dried in glass house and sieved at 2 mm
mesh.

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A. Salman et al. / Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 79 (2014) 366381

Table 2
Soil map units of the study area HTS (1994).
No.

Map unit

Name

Region

General texture

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30

ALL
DAT
HIM
MUJ
ALI
BAN
IRI
JAL
MAD
SUF
YAD
HUM
JAD
MUG
RAB
WER
ABY
BAY
BRA
DAB
DEI
SIS
YAB
ZIL
UFA
HAR
HEI
MAG
NAD
QAL

Tell Alluba
SuEidat
Himara
Mujib
Abu Salih
Hisban
Tell Umeiri
Jalul
Madaba
Sufa
Yadudah
Humud
Jadah
Mughayyir
Rabba
Ghuweir
Abyad
Dubayn
Kabra
Qasr Dabah
Mudeisis
Mudeisisat
Yabis
Manzil
Sufayrat
Hara
Musheish
Maghar
Nadiya
Qalat

4
4
4
4
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
9
9
9
9
9
11
11
11
11
11
11
11
11
13
14
14
14
14
14

Silty clay
Clay loam
Sandy clay loam
Silty loam
Sandy clay loam
Sandy loam
Loam
Sandy loam
Sandy loam
Loam
Loam
Sandy clay loam
Sandy clay
Silty clay loam
Silty clay
Sandy clay loam
Sandy loam
Silty clay loam
Sandy loam
Silty loam
Loam
Silty clay loam
Loam
Silt loam
Gravelly
Silty clay
Gravelly
Stony
Silty clay loam
Stony

histogram views and Voronoi maps. The second stage represented

tting the best representative semivariogram model. The nal
stage involved the constructing the spatial distribution maps for
some variable based on kriging interpolation techniques. All the
geostatistical analyses were performed using ArcGIS Geostatistical
Analyst (ESRI version 10) software. The semivariogram was calculated according to the following formula:
Nh

ch

1 X
2
Zx  Zx h
2Nh i1

where c(h): the semi-variance, z(x): the value of initial potential at

site x, z(x + h) is the value of potential at site (h) distance apart from
(x), and N: the number of sample pairs.
Two kriging techniques were adopted for the estimation of concentrations at unknown locations; Ordinary Kriging (OK), and Indicator Kriging (IK). The OK method assumes a constant unknown
mean, where the value at the unsampled point can be predicted
by a linear weighing of the variation between the surrounding
points derived from variogram analyses (Eqs. (3a) and (3b)), while
IK method was used to provide potential contamination maps
(probability maps) for groundwater in terms of salinity, nitrate
and sulfate. The IK method applies the creation of binary data
through the use of threshold levels (Eqs. (4a) and (4b)). The thresholds levels for groundwater salinity (1000 mg/L), nitrate (50 mg/L)
and sulfate (200 mg/L) were implemented according to Jordanian
Standards for drinking purposes (JISM, 2008).

ZX 0 l eX 0
X

ki cxi ;

3a
X

3.2. Statistical analyses

ZX 0

The soil and groundwater data were statistically analyzed using

JMP 7.0.1 interactive statistics and graphics software. The analyses
included descriptive, linear modeling, multivariate, and mean categorical comparisons tools. Univariate analysis for numerical variables included measures of central tendency (e.g. mean, mode, and
median), and measures of dispersion (e.g. range, standard deviation, variance, and coefcient of variation), and shape (skewness
and kurtosis). Data were tested for normality using ShapiroWilk
distribution test (Royston, 1982). Bivariate platform have been
used to explore the relation between two numerical variables,
while multivariate analyses where used to derive a Pearson correlation coefcient matrix (Eq. (1)) to indicate how strong are the
relationships between soil and water properties. Finally, categorical analyses were adopted to investigate for the signicance of
each categorical variable (as soil map unit, geological lithology,
and LULC) on the groundwater chemistry using Tukey-HSD test
(Kramer, 1956; Tukey, 1991).

where l is an unknown constant and e(X0) is the error associated

with an unknown location X0, Z(X0) is the estimated value of Z at
X0, and ki is the weight that gives the best possible estimation from
the surrounding points.

v
Xn
u

^i 2
u
xi  xyi  y
y  y
1 i
t
qX

1

r q
Xn
n
n
 2
y  y
 2
x  x2
y  y
1 i
1 i
1 i
Xn

where Y is the mean, s is the standard deviation, and N is the number of data points.
For the purpose of this study, the strength of the correlation was
classied into three levels: weak correlation when 0 6 |r| < 0.3,
moderate correlation when 0.3 6 |r| < 0.7, and strong correlation
when 0.7 6 |r| 6 1.0.
3.3. Geospatial analyses
Geostatistical analyses were performed to determine the spatial
extent of the soil and groundwater quality in the study area. The
variables were subjected to three stages of analysis; the rst involved determining the type of distribution using Moran I tests,

ki 1

Is l es

3b

4a

where l is an unknown constant and I(s) is a binary variable.

Is

1 if Zx 6 Z 0
0 otherwise

4. Results and discussion

4.1. Descriptive and geospatial analyses of soil parameters
According to laboratory analysis and geospatial modeling, loamy soil texture is being more dominant (37%) at the study area followed by sandy clay loamy texture (27%). Generally, loamy soils
are characterized by having large macropores and low micropores
sizes with moderate to low water holding capacity as reected by
low effective eld capacity (Scott, 2000). The presence of the coarse
textures especially at some landuses as liquid and solid landlls in
Wadi El-Mujib might accelerate contaminants movement and preferentially percolate downward to the groundwater.
Ordinary and spatial statistics were able to estimate the spatial
distribution of soil physical and chemical properties at the study
area. Soil properties varied considerably in their spatial behaviors
due to the inuence of human activities. The existed variations in
soil chemistry are mainly attributed to the extreme values observed at agricultural farms, which intern forced the distributions
to be skewed and thus becoming non-normal (Table 6).
Soil chemical properties of salinity, nitrate, phosphate, and organic matter contents appeared to be skewed to the right with
skewness coefcients of 6.3, 3.0, 0.8, and 5.3, respectively. The high

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A. Salman et al. / Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 79 (2014) 366381

Fig. 6. Soil map unit and soil samples collected from the study area HTS (1994).

kurtosis values of 43.7, 10.6 and 39.0 associated with soil salinity,
nitrate, and organic matter contents data, respectively, are indicative of the presence of high concentrations at some sampling
points far from the mean range. These sampling points; regardless
their spatial location, reects more of pollution points induced by
human activities as agrees with Davis (1986). ShapiroWilk W-Test
suggests the appropriateness of the soil chemical properties data to
be transformed using either lognormal or power (Cox Box) functions (Table 6). On the other hand, soil effective eld capacity data
was found to be normally distributed and thus requires no further
transformation.
Based on the semivariance modeling, soil chemical and physical
properties are spatially anisotropic. Although the trended models
of their spatial distributions are different, their soil chemical properties were found to behave similarly in the directional inuence of
the major range. This means that the same factor is affecting the

spatial distribution of the soil chemical properties suggesting thus

being a non-point source of pollution. This result coincide with
Andrade and Stigter (2009) in which land use (crop type) is the ma-

Table 3
Percentage cover of each landuse at the study area.
Landuse

Percentage cover

Barren soils
Irrigated agriculture lands
Poultry houses
Liquid landll
Solid landll
Mujib Dam
Walah Dam
Quarry
Urban

53.2
14.3
3.9
3.9
2.6
6.5
3.9
3.9
7.8

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A. Salman et al. / Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 79 (2014) 366381

Table 4
Analytical methods used for measuring parameters of the water samples.
Parameter


EC (lS/cm), pH value, DO (mg/L), temp. (C)

Ca2+
Na+, K+
HCO3
Cl
2
NO
3 ; SO4

PO3
4

Unit

Analytical method

Detection limits

Reference and method number

mg/
L
mg/
L
mg/
L
mg/
L
mg/
L
mg/
L

Field EC, pH, DO meter WTW instrument

Ion chromatography

0.1% of measured value

1.03

Standard methods 20th ed. 2510 B

Standard methods 20th ed. 3500 Ca B

Flame emission photometric

0.05 and 0.2

In-house standard operating procedure

Titrimetric method

0.1

In-house standard operating procedure

Ion chromatography

0.01

Standard methods 20th ed. 4110 B

0.009

Standard methods 20th ed. 4500 D/P

Ion chromatography 0.292 and 0.04

Stannous chloride

jor factors affecting the variability of soil properties in small landscape. On the other hand, soil effective eld capacity is assumed to
be rather inherited naturally according to soil formatting factors.
Among all soil properties, soil salinity had the highest spatial
major range of inuence i.e., of about 0.689 km followed by soil nitrate of about 0.322 km, while all other soil properties had very
small major ranges varying from 0.008 to 0.049 km. The high
dependence range indicates the extent to which the property values are spatially related (i.e. soil salinity and nitrate content are
high spatially dependent).
The high nugget effect associated with soil salinity and nitrate
content spatial models (1.536 and 0.713, respectively) compared
to their partial sill (i.e. sill minus the nugget of 0.434 and 0.790,
respectively) might be indicative of the sampling errors are inherited randomness.
Kriging prediction maps indicate that maximum nitrate, phosphate and organic matter contents are almost identical in their
locations. Maximum soil nitrate, phosphate and organic matter
contents are encountered in the central area at Wadi El-Mujib
and Umm Rasas area, while minimum loads occur at Wadi Walah
and to the north of Madaba (Fig. 7ac). The presence of high nitrate, phosphate and organic matter contents at the center is probably due to fertilizers and manure (mainly from poultry)

Table 5
Analytical methods used for measuring parameters of the soil samples.
Parameter

Analytical method

Soil moisture content

Soil texture
Nitrate
Phosphorus
Organic matter
Effective eld
capacity
Soil color

Gravimetric method
Bouyoucos hydrometer
Kjeldahl (wet oxidation) Bremner and Keeney (1966)
Molybdate blue method Miller and Keeney (1982)
WalkleyBlack method
Sorption technique using ceramic plate apparatus
Munsell soil color chart

applications. Animal wastes are considered as highly concentrated

pollutants that may reach the water table as nitrate (Adriano,
1971). Nitrate fertilizers are quite soluble and can bypass the soil
solum by leaching in coarse texture soil especially in areas with
high rainfall (Tisdale and Nelson, 1966).
On the other hand, effective eld capacity shows quiet opposite
spatial distribution compared to soil chemical properties as shown
in Fig. 7d. According to predicted kriging interpolated map, the high
magnitudes of effective eld capacity are located at the western part
and are associated with four map units of ne texture soils of clay
loam and clay soils. The EFC is related to clay percent where ne
or heavy soils of high clay percentages of clays and clay loam groups
are generally characterized by having high potential for holding
water for plant uptake if not altered by anthropogenic activities as
compaction (Scott, 2000). Generally, the study area has low potential for holding water since it is dominated by coarse texture soils,
thus groundwater has a great potential for ease contamination.
In an attempt to investigate the relation between soil salinity,
nitrate and phosphate contents and landuse, categorical response
testing by Tukey Kramer HSD were performed using oneway categorical platform. Results indicated that landuse and anthropogenic
activities had a major direct effect on soil chemical contents distribution. High nitrate concentrations were encountered within ElMujib Dam (behind), in solid landll, and in irrigated areas, indicating the sequence of direct risk of each landuse. There is no signicant difference between soils behind or in front of the El-Mujib
Dam, and at the same time, between poultry or irrigated farms.
However, nitrate concentrations occurring at barren, quarries and
urban soils are considered the least factors affecting groundwater
resources.
On the other hand, the highest soil organic matter content was
found to be associated with agricultural lands with an average of
3%, followed by Walah dam, however, the variations in soil organic
matter content are not signicantly different at the 95% condence
level due to the natural low ranges of existence under arid climates. Also, soil phosphate is concentrated at irrigated agricultural

Table 6
Statistical and spatial analyses of the soil samples.
Soil property

Max.

Min.

Mean

Std.
dev.

Skewness

Kurtosis

Distribution
type

Model

Direction

Major
range

Minor
range

Partial
sill

Nugget

Salinity
Nitrate (mg/L)

126200
263

7.18
1

5398.4
31.8

17498
56.5

6.3
3

43.7
10.6

L
L

36
9

0.689
0.322

0.276
0.049

0.434
0.79

1.536
0.713

Phosphate
(mg/L)
Organic
matter (%)
EFC (mm/m)

19.5

6.8

4.9

0. 8

2.9

P (0.5)

Circular
Penta
spherical
Exponential

0.023

0.022

4.9111

0.328

11.2

0.4

1.6

1.3

5.3

39

Pentaspherical

90

0.015

0.008

0.454

328

91.5

207.9

58

0.04

2.1

Exponential

360

0.091

0.036

2458.8

976.44

EFC is the effective eld capacity, L is log-normal, P is power and N is normal.

376

A. Salman et al. / Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 79 (2014) 366381

areas with contents of about 9.7 mg/L followed by solid landll

with an average of 7.6 mg/L (Table 7). Never the less, there is no direct signicant relationship between soil phosphates content and
landuse according to TukeyKramer test. This might be attributed
to the originality of the soil derived from phosphate rocks. On the
other hand, categorical analysis showed that the maximum mean
concentrations of phosphate are related to Umm Rijam Chert
Limestone Formation (19.17 mg/L) and Al-Hisa Phosphorite Formation (8.01 mg/L) from Belqa Group.

4.2. Water analyses

Studies of variations in major ions help in identifying the chemical processes and interactions between soil and groundwater that
are responsible for the changes in groundwater quality.
Groundwater chemistry was found to be spatially dependent;
however, the spatial behavior of the chemical contents varies
according to statistical interpretation as shown in Table 8. Pearson
product matrix for the groundwater chemistry shows strong to
moderate positive correlation between Ec and ions and negative

Fig. 7. Ordinary kriging map of the some soil properties.

377

A. Salman et al. / Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 79 (2014) 366381

correlation between Ec and (NO3 and PO4) as shown in Table 9.

Groundwater salinity map shows a spatial dependence of salinity
concentrated at the center of the study area with huge ranges between 682 and 2379 lS/cm (Fig. 8a). The large variation in salinity
is mainly attributed to anthropogenic activities and to geochemical
processes prevailing in this region (Jeevanandam et al., 2007). The
salinity increased in the center of the study area and in the southeast of Amman (Muwaqqar area), while low salinity zones can be
recognized in the north of the Madaba and in the southwest of
the study area. The salinity increases along the groundwater ow
direction towards the center of the study area and in the Muwaqqar area due to over exploitation were the discharge exceeds the
recharge (Al-Raggad, 2005). Also salts may increase due to evapotranspiration and mining processes that lead to a concentration of
salts in drainage waters. In addition, encountered high salinity
might be attributed to the prevailing arid climate where the leaching of the rainwater is not effective. The low salinity zones in Mad-

aba and Karak may be explained by high groundwater recharges

that minimize the salinization.
Sulfate, nitrate and phosphate exhibit an exponential spatial
distribution (Fig. 8bd). Generally, they show an increasing trend
in the central part of the basin towards the ow direction of
groundwater. The increase (as well as salinity) indicates that they
have been derived from the same source.
Since the central part type soil is less effective in holding more
water as indicated by its effective eld capacity and its textural
class, the only reason that may explain the high concentration
loads in its groundwater is the direct and indirect movements of
salts and ions through and/or below the soil surface and within
the ow direction of groundwater as inclined by the geological
lithology of the area.
Groundwater nitrate concentration in the study area ranges
from 0.12 to 50 mg/L. The concentrations of nitrate are under
the maximum allowable limit of the Jordanian Standards for

Table 7
TukeyKramer mean comparisons of soil chemical and physical properties by landuse.

Mujib Dam-behind
Solid landll
Irrigated agriculture
Poultry
Mujib Dam front
Liquid landll
Walah Dam
Barren
Urban
Quarry

Salinity

Nitrate

Organic matter

Phosphate

EFC

5912.4 b
68230.0 a
8667.8 b
1198.0 b
3790.0 b
3510.0 b
960.3 b
1575.5 b
1815.3 b
1221.0 b

125.6 a
123.9 ab
85.4 ab
35.2 abc
21.6 abc
18.0 abc
11.5 c
11.3 c
10.1 c
7.2 bc

1.3
1.0
3.0
1.2
0.5
1.2
2.1
1.4
1.6
1.2

3.9 b
7.6 ab
9.7 a
6.9 ab
7.5 ab
2.9b
7.2 ab
6.6 ab
7.2 ab
6.2 ab

165.1
210.2
226.6
185.8
200.8
164.8
180.7
210.1
239.1
224.3

ab
ab
a
ab
ab
ab
ab
b
ab
ab

a
a
a
a
a
a
a
a
a
a

Levels not connected by the same letter are signicantly different at 95% condence level.

Table 8
Statistical and spatial analyses of the groundwater chemistry.
Parameter

Max.

Min.

Mean

Std.
dev.

Skewness

Kurtosis

Distribution
type

Model

Iso

Major
range

Minor
range

Direction

Nugget

Partial
sill

EC (lS/cm)
pH
Ca (mg/L)
Mg (mg/L)
Na (mg/L)
K (mg/L)
HCO3 (mg/
L)
Cl (mg/L)
SO4 (mg/L)
NO
3 (mg/
L)
PO4 (mg/L)

3620
8.1
212.4
77.3
465.8
60.6
494.1

485
6
25.9
14.6
15.0
1.5
175.7

977
7.3
92.7
36.7
73.2
4.8
325.9

406.1
0.36
28.0
14.2
65.8
6.3
73.2

3.3
-1.7
1.6
0.6
4.3
7.2
0.5

19.6
7.5
7.8
2.9
25.7
62.7
2.3

Log
P 7.5
P 0.08
P 0.13
Log
Log
Log

Exp
TetraSph
Exp
Exp
Exp
Exp
Exp

N
N
I
I
N
N
N

63958.9
81338.5
22551.2
51164.2
84931.6
81348.6
81466.5

38367.4
20249.8

283.9
333.5

81518.6
23828.3
73494.4

245.7
325.9
66.0

0.019
0
0.043
0.163
0.078
0.139
0.011

0.112
0
0.159
0.304
0.461
0.208
0.060

801.2
415.7
49.6

27.0
12.5
0.1

125.3
84.4
13.8

103.0
70.7
13.0

3.6
2.1
0.92

21.5
9.2
2.9

Log
L
P 0.37

Exp
Exp
Exp

N
N
N

81399.3
81385.2
41224.5

73713.3
56073.9
39221.8

264.1
61.2
50.4

0.133
0.283
4.019

0.348
0.523
6.415

0.9

0.0

0.2

0.3

1.4

3.7

Log

Exp

69915.9

60339.6

306.5

0.587

1.665

Table 9
Pearson product (correlation coefcients) matrix for the groundwater chemistry at 95% condence level.

pH
EC
Ca
Mg
Na
K
HCO3
Cl
SO4
NO3
PO4

pH

EC

Ca

Mg

Na

HCO3

Cl

SO4

NO3

PO4

1.00
0.35
0.34
0.32
0.35
0.27
0.41
0.33
0.30
0.18
0.25

1.00
0.85
0.68
0.85
0.72
0.51
0.91
0.81
0.29
0.39

1.00
0.55
0.75
0.45
0.62
0.77
0.76
0.19
0.40

1.00
0.49
0.36
0.71
0.59
0.62
0.45
0.39

1.00
0.64
0.36
0.93
0.82
0.31
0.52

1.00
0.16
0.68
0.59
0.14
0.25

1.00
0.34
0.48
0.50
0.40

1.00
0.73
0.22
0.44

1.00
0.46
0.50

1.00
0.42

1.00

378

A. Salman et al. / Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 79 (2014) 366381

Fig. 8. Spatial distribution of salinity, sulfate, nitrate and phosphate in groundwater.

Table 10
Geospatial statistics of the groundwater chemical analysis using indicator kriging.

EC (lS/cm)
NO
3 (mg/L)
SO4 (mg/L)

Model

Iso

Major range

Minor range

Direction

Nugget

Partial sill

Exp
Exp
Exp

A
A
A

64177.4
19030.6
41224.5

46023.7
13088.1
39062.6

275.1
95.1
235.9

0.12581
0.0054102
0.019398

0.1391
0.03803
0.067931

A. Salman et al. / Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 79 (2014) 366381

379

Fig. 9. Indicator kriging interpolated groundwater salinity, sulfate and nitrate.

Drinking Water, which is 50 mg/L (JISM, 2008), and are mainly

concentrated in the vicinity of Madaba area and in the southern
part of the study area. Natural sources for nitrate are limited. Fer-

tilizers (compounds of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) are

very frequently applied to crops together with pesticides in the
study area. Anthropogenic resources for nitrate could be the

380

A. Salman et al. / Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 79 (2014) 366381

Table 11
TukeyKramer mean comparisons of groundwater chemistry by landuse.
Landuse

Bare

Irrigated Agriculture

Number of wells
pH
EC
Ca
Mg
Na
K
HCO3
Cl
SO4
NO3
PO4

50
7.3 a
1022.8 a
96.0 a
40.5 a
85.4 a
5.6 a
348.5 a
142.1 a
97.1 a
9.5 b
0.1 b

54
7.4 a
929.8 a
89.5 a
33.1 b
60.6 a
4.1 a
305.5 b
107.5
71.5
18.0 a
0.5 a

Levels not connected by the same letter are signicantly different at 95% condence
level.

byproduct of agriculture and human activities such as fertilizers,

waste disposal, wastewater and animal manure (Stadler et al.,
2008).
Spatial indicator maps of groundwater salinity; nitrate and sulfate contents proves the high susceptibility of the study area to be
contaminated (Table 10 and Fig. 9). The groundwater salinity indicator kriging map shows that the middle area is exceeding the
threshold by 7090%. On the other hand, groundwater nitrate
and sulfate indicator kriging maps show that the northern area under irrigated lands is the most susceptible to contamination areas.
Although the groundwater nitrate and sulfate thresholds were not
reached, however, the highest current potential as indicated by the
kriging interpolated maps are ranging between 60% and 70% (i.e.
close to thresholds), these results coincide with Wick et al.
(2012) in which indicator maps for groundwater pollution was
effective in delineation hot spots that were highly correlated with
the agricultural uses. Authors concluded that nitrate migration to
groundwater was preferable at poor soil quality indicators of low
eld capacity and high stone volume.
Comparing the groundwater chemistry according to categorical
responses using Tukey Kramer HSD-test indicates that only landuse had direct signicant effect, while soil map unit and soil texture categorical responses are insignicant at probability levels of
95% (Table 11). Among all groundwater chemistry, nitrate and
phosphate were found to be signicantly higher at irrigated lands
compared to bare lands. Same conclusion was given by Wakida and
Lerner (2005), on the other hand, all other groundwater chemistry
was not signicantly different. To summarize analyses prove the
hypothesis of the anthropogenic effect on groundwater chemistry
at the study area.
5. Conclusions
1. Coarse texture soils of low effective eld capacity are dominating the study area and thus might accelerate contaminants
movement to the groundwater upon the use of variant sensitive
landuses as liquid and solid landlls.
2. Ordinary kriging prediction and indicator maps were able to
provide clear visions on the susceptibility of Wadi El-Mujib
and Umm Rasas area to be contaminated by nitrate and sulfate
derived from non-point sources of pollution of fertilizers and
manure applications in close agricultural lands.
3. Exponential models were t to the experimental semivariograms
describing the spatial distribution of the studied variables.
4. Kriging maps of major groundwater anions and cations show an
increasing trend in the central part of the basin along the
groundwater ow direction. The detected increase as well as
salinity indicates that these ions have been derived from the
same source.

5. Since the central part soil type is less effective in holding water
as indicated by its effective eld capacity and its textural class,
the reasons that may explain the high concentration loads in
the central part groundwater is the direct application on the soil
surface and/or indirect movement of salts and ions below the
soil surface and through the ow direction of groundwater
according to geological lithology of the area.

Acknowledgements
Thanks are due to the anonymous reviewer of this journal for
highly improving the manuscript. Thanks and gratitude are also
due to the Deanship of Scientic Research at the University of Jordan and King Saud University for supporting and sponsoring this
research.
The authors owe a great deal of appreciation to Dr. Armin Margane from Federal Institute of Geosciences and Natural Resources
BGR Hannover for his support and guidance.

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