1 | INTRODUCTION

The fast growth in the population nowadays has made increasing in freshwater demand globally. The population growth has impacted on the land-use changes and consequently influenced the availability of freshwater resources more than the impact of climate change (Okello et al., 2015). From ancient times until today, groundwater is still a vital resource (Fitts 2012).
Saudi Arabia lies in the arid region with low precipitation and no permanent rivers or natural lakes. Therefore, groundwater is a critical resource in the arid region, especially in Saudi Arabia (SA), since it lies in the desert region and the recharge of the groundwater is mostly depending on the rainfall. The average annual rainfall in Saudi Arabia in 2014 was only 59 mm/year (World Bank Group, 2019).
Increasing water demand in Saudi Arabia requires proper management and understanding of groundwater dynamics. It is necessary to derive a better understanding of water table fluctuations, based on coupling both spatial and temporal analyses. Geostatistics is the best method to study the variability in water resources (Rouhani,1989). Delhomme (1978) used a Kriging technique to analyze precipitation data. Spatial-temporal Kriging was applied to groundwater quantity in South Georgia with low estimation variances (Rouhani & Hall, 1989). Geostatistical methods are beneficial for water resources management studies (Kumar et al., 2005). The strong dependence of the Kriging technique was shown in spatial and temporal distribution analysis of 12 years water table decreased in Iran (Ahmadi & Sedghamiz, 2007). Strong dependence was shown in spatial analysis of water quality from several parameters Ca2+, Mg2+, Cl, NO3−, and salinity (Kuswantoro et al., 2014). Kriging technique has the advantage of getting the variance of the estimation error at any point without having measurement on the field (Ahmed & Devi, 2008). Based on all information above, it is confirmed that Kriging technique on geostatistical analysis is suitable to evaluate the spatial and temporal correlation structures in hydrological parameters.
Utilization of geographic information system (GIS) software (e.g., ArcGIS) in analyzing the spatial distribution of groundwater has been studied by many researchers such as Mehrjardi et al. (2008) and Kuswantoro et al. (2013). In GIS, geostatistical analysis can easily create continuous surface or map, such as elevation, depth and water table, or levels of pollution. (ESRI, 2010).
The objective of this study is to analyze and map the spatial distribution of water table, the temporal water table fluctuation, and groundwater flow direction in Experimental Station at Hadat As-Sham, Wadi Al-Lusub, Saudi Arabia. Water table data from 11 wells were observed in Hadat As-Sham every week for 16 months since November 2018. Analysis of the results from this study is required to evaluate the groundwater conditions for the best groundwater resources management in the farm.