## 3 Results and Discussion
### Coupling Impacts  
Both climate and LULC changes play a significant role in water quality and water resources management. The analysis of the combined effect of climate and LULC changes on water resources in the city of Multan indicates three main deleterious impacts. These impacts must be suitably integrated in the water resources management of Multan, particularly in the view of the alarm, predicted climate and LULC changes. **Impact 1: reduction of groundwater resource. ** It was found that the increase in urbanization comes along with the increase of runoff and a decrease in infiltration rate (natural groundwater recharge). The reduction of groundwater recharge in the region has been exacerbated by the decrease of precipitation which was found to have a decreasing trend, particularly between July and February. The direct consequence of the combination of these mechanisms is that the depth of the water table is also declining with time. According to [PERSON] et al. [57], the water table in Multan city dropped by 0.3 m/year. Shallow aquifer accesses are found at a depth of 9.1-12.1 m, but the water extraction for drinking purposes is not fit at this depth due to pollutants (See **Impact 2**). More generally, over the last few decades, the Punjab plains have been subjected to a significant decline in depth to water level due to the high expansion of groundwater pumping [58]. In Punjab, most of the crops are grown using groundwater, where more than 20% of the agricultural area is irrigated by groundwater and 55% of irrigated land receives groundwater and canal water. Punjab's groundwater discharge rate exceeds the recharge rate, resulting in a significant decline in groundwater levels in parts of the Punjab province, specifically in lower Bari Doab [57]. Results show that the depth to water table declined approximately by 3-6 m across the study area's western and eastern parts, respectively, from 2002 to 2014 [57; 58]. We speculate that these variations are also influenced by the Monsoon season. In Pakistan, the Monsoon season brings appalling climate conditions, i.e., heavy rainfalls, sudden and flash floods, droughts, sea-level rise, ice retreat, and so forth, influencing the water resources and overall economy. Groundwater table depth was identified between 6 m to 12 m in 2002 and reached almost 9 m to 18 m up to 2014. Variations (rise or fall) in depth to water table for  
Figure 11: Relation between SCS curve number and peak runoff discharge. pre-monsoon and post-monsoon are shown in Figures 12 and 13 In the future, modern information technologies, i.e., artificial intelligence [59; 60; 61; 62; 63; 64], global position system, and remote sensing, should be adopted to investigate the impact on water resources due climate and land-use land variations. **Impact 2: deterioration of water quality**. This impact is concomitantly caused by the magnitude of land use and behavior of water cycle. The unplanned and high rate of urbanization in major cities of Pakistan has made it difficult to dispose of solid wastes properly. Multan is among those cities where solid wastes are d  
Figure 12: Spatial variability in pre-monsoon water table depth from 2005 to 2018. Figure 13: Spatial variability in post-monsoon water table depth from 2005 to 2018.  
along roadsides without considering water pollution issues. In fact, leachate from waste dumping sites typically possess physicochemical parameters, including color, electrical conductivity (EC), total dissolved solids (TDS), total suspended solids (TSS), biological oxygen demand (BOD), NH\({}_{3}\)-N, PO\({}_{4}\)-P, SO\({}_{4}\)\({}^{2-}\), and Fe, beyond the WHO threshold [65]. Consequently, the contamination of surface and groundwater in the study area result from the absence of proper and planned disposal sites [65; 66]. Infiltration of water containing complex leachate alters water chemistry in shallows aquifers.