Spatialized flood resilience measurement in rapidly urbanized coastal areas with a complex semi-arid environment in northern Morocco

Abstract

Abstract. Enhancing resilience is critical for coastal urban systems to cope with and minimize flood disaster risks. This issue is certainly more important in Africa, where the increase in flood frequency is a significant concern for many areas. In this context, urban planners need accurate approaches to set up a standard for measuring the resilience to floods. In Morocco, this issue is still not fully covered by the scientific community despite the obvious need for a new approach adapted to local conditions. This study applied a composite index and geographic-information-system approach to measure and map resilience to floods in three northern coastal municipalities. The approach is also based on a linear ranking of resilience parameters, offering a more optimal classification of spatial resilience variation. The results allowed us to identify specific areas with different resilience levels and revealed the relationship between urban dimensions and the flood resilience degree. This approach provides an efficient decision-support tool to facilitate flood risk management, especially in terms of prioritizing protective actions.

Flood hazard management in a multiple hazard context: a systematic review of flood hazard management during the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa

“…Rains do not occur as frequently in arid Northern Africa as they do in other parts of the world, but they have a significant impact when they do. However, floods can also benefit the region by recharging desiccated soils and underground water storage [ 15 , 36 ]. Aside from material destruction, several aspects of repercussions from flood risk in -Western Africa include health impacts and economic losses [ 44 ].…”

Climate risk assessment of the Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima coastal Region (Morocco)

“…Indeed, being a sand-deficient system, the coast will not be able to cope with the rise of the sea level, if no adaptation measures are undertaken. Satour et al (2021) estimated the resilience index of this coast to flooding and showed that nearly 9000 households (18.4%) are in areas of very low to low resilience. Furthermore, Flayou et al (2021) attempted a first assessment of the monetary losses that may be incurred by the tourism sector of the Tetouan coast, if the beaches were to disappear, which they estimated at 71.5 million US$ annually.…”

Review article: Towards improved drought prediction in the Mediterranean region – modeling approaches and future directions

“…Throughout time, adaptation to this kind of climate event has been an important issue for the development of many countries in the region. Yet, with the disruptive accelerated impact of global warming, already reflected in more regular and intense droughts around the Mediterranean in the last few decades, building resilience to extreme weather conditions remains a true challenge (Satour et al, 2021). For these reasons among others, the region is often described as a hotspot for climate change (Tuel and Eltahir, 2020).…”