The study investigates the land use and land cover (LULC) in Errachidia province (Pre-Saharan of Morocco) in the period 2005–2020. To this end, remote sensing (RS) tools such as LULC, the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), the normalized difference water index (NDWI), the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite data, and precipitations were processed and combined. The monitoring of LULC over this period reveals different changes in this area. Generally, for water bodies, two trends can be observed, an increasing trend since 2006 and a decreasing trend from 2011 to the present. However, an increasing trend was recorded for the urban-and-built-up-lands and the grasslands categories. NDVI, NDWI, and EVI showed three major peaks recorded in the same periods (in 2007, 2009, and 2015). In terms of water storage, three phases were found. The first depicted the lowest groundwater quantities with a decreasing trend, which corresponds to a period of drought and/or human pressure. The second phase, the most important that recorded the greatest storage of water while the third phase corresponds to low storage with a decreasing trend. LULC of croplands reveals a slightly increasing trend from 2012 to 2020, which shows an orientation to an extension of crops mainly of date palm encouraged by government programs. A strong correlation between the seasonal NDVI and water storage using GRACE-Data for the period was found. In the end, recommendations on the adaptation to CC were proposed. The findings demonstrate that RS techniques are useful tools to detect hydrological droughts, observe, and conserve land resources. In arid areas such as Errachidia, the solution lies in rationalizing the use of water resources protecting them from uncontrolled anthropogenic events, which may alleviate the pressure. To support local sustainable development, environmental scientists and decision-makers may use the outputs of this study.
The authors, with the help of a team of researchers, have discovered twelve rock shelters with inside paintings on the southern slopes of the Jbel Bani Mountains in southern Morocco. The paintings vary in subject and time period and span multiple rock art styles. Majestic creatures that once inhabited southern Morocco are depicted next to hunters, pastoralists, and warriors. The shelters and paintings cast upon their walls illustrate a transfer of culture, beliefs, technology, and ideas between people groups of the Meridional and Central Sahara and the Jbel Bani region. These discoveries were all made along a mountain path in the Bani Mountains known as Foum Laachar and may help trace ancient human migration routes.
In 2009, the Moroccan Ministry of Health in collaboration with the World Health Organization confirmed that the transmission of schistosomiasis had ceased in all previously endemic provinces of Morocco. This achievement couldn't have been achieved without the effective participation and engagement of local communities. In this chapter, studies of community participation strategies for schistosomiasis control in Akka oasis were reviewed. Southern Morocco was known to be a foci site for urinary schistosomiasis since 1937. Combined efforts between health officials and local community participation have achieved the elimination of this neglected tropical disease, where the last cases in these foci were recorded in the early 2000s. The results of this chapter can be used to increase awareness of the need for community participation in controlling neglected tropical diseases such as schistosomiasis.
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