The Souss-Massa region in southwestern Morocco is characterized by a semi-arid climate with high variability in rainfall. Frequent droughts and flash flood events combined with overexploitation of water resources in recent decades have had a significant impact on the human security and the economy which is mainly based on agriculture, tourism and fishery. For better management of extreme events and water resources under changing climatic conditions, a study was carried out to quantify the seasonal and annual variability and trends in rainfall and temperature over the past three decades with data from three stations. Climatological representative of the Souss-Massa region. The Mann-Kendall (MK) non-parametric test and the Sen’s slope are used to estimate the monotonic trend and magnitude of the trend of the variables, respectively. Statistical analysis of the rainfall series data set highlights that the occurrence of rainfall is unpredictable and irregular and the both the seasonal and annual rainfall trend appears negative (downward) for all the three climatological stations. The minimum temperature shows a remarkable increasing trend both on annual and seasonal scale while the maximum temperature registers a slightly increasing trend. The study presents some new insights on rainfall and temperature trends that will have significant impacts on the surface and groundwater resources of the region under changing climatic conditions. The results can help to prioritize new strategies to mitigate the risk of droughts, of floods and to manage water resources to sustain the dependence of agriculture tourism and fishery sectors in the region. Doi: 10.28991/cej-2021-03091765 Full Text: PDF

Agricultural expansion in developing countries requires a strategy to develop the agricultural sector in a sustainable and rational manner, despite its complexity to be achieved. The objective of this work is to develop an agricultural Suitability map, based on a flexible and interactive model between several methods, which are the analytical hierarchy process (AHP), the Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW), and the multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA),integrated into the GIS. The factors selected in this study are slope, elevation, land use, minimum and maximum temperature,also rainfall for both the dry and rainy periods. The analysis of the suitability map revealed the effectiveness of this model, which allowed the detection of areas unsuitable for agricultural development. the Comparison of the suitability map with the 2019 classified map shows that agricultural expansion is highly developed and covers almost the total area, which has had negative consequences on the groundwater quality of the Coastal CHAOUIA aquifer.

The watershed Ouergha River located in the north of Morocco suffer from vegetation cover degradation, this geographic entity is experiencing intense water erosion linked to the combination of several natural factors, such as the roughness and abundance of rainfall and the predominance of soft geological formations. Human intervention in this vulnerable environment accentuates its fragility by the clearing and degradation of the vegetation cover and the cultivation of land with a steep slope. This work aims to map the spatiotemporal evolution of this degradation by using the spot and Landsat images and the Radar image over a period from 1990 to 2014 data and aims to model its processes of erosion. In fact, the analysis of satellite data identified six main types of land use (eau, foret, reboisement…). It has also shown that the most degraded soils aren’t necessarily those with the greatest erosion rates over the past 15 years and that some soils that have developed well over time have become major exporters of sediments after clearing and cultivation. The comparison of the results of land use has highlighted the harmful impact of human practices on the acceleration of soil degradation. Human intervention, coupled to frequent and severe drought periods, remain the most important factors in the weakening and increasing vulnerability of soils to degradation. The results obtained by this approach made it possible to identify and monitor vulnerable areas at Ouergha watershed where interventions are needed to limit the processes of degradation of the soil and the natural environment.