Analysis of the Water Management System in a Mountain Territory, the Case of the Nekor Watershed, Rif, Morocco

Integrated management has become an essential approach for sustainable water resource management. However, if the concept seems relevant, its concrete application at the local scale has yet to be undertaken, with all the difficulties related to the complexity underlying the issue. The Rif is characterized by the multiplication and interdependence of uses, the overlapping responsibilities between public and private actors, the superposition of sectoral regulations, which raises the following question: Is the current management of water resources in the Rif mountains suitable for a future constraining on several aspects: socio-economic and climatic? The general objective of this work is to analyze the current management of water resources scientifically, politically, institutionally and legally, to identify the innovations needed for sustainable management and adaptation to climate change in the Rif Mountains. The systemic approach allowed us to highlight and prioritize the structuring elements of water management in the Nekor basin and their interactions. The crossing of hydrological data with socio-economic data allowed us to have a global and multidisciplinary vision of both uses and water resources, and of all the components of the system’s environment, the interdependencies influence the management system, despite the complexity accentuated by the lack of data. Indeed, it was difficult to identify the influence of each component. The current degradation of resources is only a reflection of a socio-cultural crisis that can only be remedied by a change in mentality, economic development, social equity and more solidarity between the city and rural communities.

Water in Morocco, Retrospective at the Political, Regulatory and Institutional Levels

Water, a primary source of life, in Morocco, is recognized as a major problem due to its scarcity on the one hand, the multiplication and interdependence of uses, the overlap of responsibilities between public and private actors, and the superposition of regulatory texts on the other hand. It is in this sense that a retrospective analysis of water management in Morocco has been made to highlight the reconfigurations and successive legislative and institutional reforms that the water sector has undergone, the constraints and shortcomings that this sector has experienced and the solutions undertaken to remedy them. Its developmental orientation, managed since independence by the Ministry of Public Works, was strongly correlated with water even after the reforms of 2002 and 2007. The institutional reform led to the creation of the Hydraulic Basin Agencies (HBAs) as a response to the severe drought problems that characterized the early 1980s. The modern twist could respond to the operational difficulties of Integrated Water Resources Management IWRM by focusing the missions of these agencies as regality of the State, while the political orientation towards large-scale irrigated agriculture also led to their focus on meeting the supply side. This generally explains the creation of institutions that are weak enough, in terms of bureaucratic power, not to interfere with the general direction of the country and not to threaten the prerogatives of other powerful administrations such as agriculture and the interior. For this reason, efforts could also have been made to institute coordination mechanisms between the different sectors to put the sectoral plans and master plans in order to strengthen the coordination and regulation role of the Hydraulic Basin Agencies (HBAs). The country is also subject to exogenous harmonization of water policies because of donors who make their loans and project financing conditional on the establishment of a water resources management organization.

A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Water Quality Indices

Water quality indices (WQI) are useful tools for indicating the suitability of water for an expected use. However, they can suffer from some problems. The objective of this paper was to analyze the development of WQI to determine which parameters are used in water quality assessment and to discuss the characteristics of WQI. To screen articles on WQI, the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) method is applied to include or exclude articles. Four necessary steps are needed to design WQI: parameter selection, standardization, weighting and aggregation. A set of six methods of aggregations of sub-indices are identified: the arithmetic mean, the geometric mean, the root square, the logarithmic function, the fuzzy inference and the minimum operator. The problems encountered for the overall index are different according to the form of aggregation. They are eclipsing, ambiguity, rigidity or flexibility, adaptability and compensation. The chemical parameters (70%) are the most used in the development of WQI with the physical parameters used at 24% and the biological parameters at 6%. Dissolved oxygen (DO, 87%), total coliforms (87%), biological oxygen demand (BOD, 73%), pH (73%), temperature (67%), turbidity (60%), ammonia (53%), ammonium (47%) and total dissolved solids (47%) are the most commonly used parameters for water quality assessment.

Analysis of Water Resources Vulnerability Assessment Tools

Water resources face many pressures and stresses around the world.Assessing the vulnerability of water resources is,therefore,increasingly an essential practice in water resources management.Several studies of water resources vulnerability have been carried out around the world during the last three decades.Thus,the main objective of this study was to analyze water resources vulnerability assessment tools and identify the methodological trend of water resources vulnerability assessment at the local level in existing literature.To achieve this objective,the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses(PRISMA)method has been applied to include or exclude articles.Articles on water vulnerability numbering 374 were preselected in the ScienceDirect and the Google Scholar databases.Only 32 out of the 374 articles met the inclusion criteria defined for the analysis.The results show that China(21.9%),U.S.A.(9.4%)and Canada(6.3%)are the most active countries publishing water resources vulnerability assessments.Some 191 vulnerability indicators from the 32 articles were classified into five categories of factors:physical factors(33.5%),socio-economic factors(28.3%),environmental or eco-environmental factors(25.1%),institutions and governance factors(7.3%)and infrastructure factors(5.8%).This study shows that almost half of the studies(47%)considered all five categories of factors,9.4%considered four categories of factors,6.3%considered three categories of factors,28%used two types of factors and 9.4%considered only one category.Researchers have used several methods to assess water resources vulnerability:overlay and index methods(59.4%),process-based models(12.5%),statistical methods(9.4%),overlay and index methods plus process-based model(9.4%),overlay and index methods plus statistical methods(6.3%)and statistical methods plus process-based models(3.1%).Geographic information system(GIS)is an important tool in assessing the vulnerability of water resources with almost 60%of the studies using it at some stage of the assessment.In recent years,there is an increasing trend toward conceptualizing the vulnerability of water resources in a holistic way.

Analysis of the Silting Rate in the “Hachef” Dam Situated in Northern Morocco in the Context of Global Change

The Moroccan annual dam silting corresponds to a loss in storage capacity of the reservoirs of about 75 million m3 per year. Land use metamorphosis and the ongoing climate changes are likely to accelerate the process of soil degradation and erosion. In this delicate context, Morocco will have to provide appropriate responses in terms of adaptation and remediation strategies to the degradation of soil and water resources. The objectives of this paper are to characterize the Specific Degradation (SD) of the Tangier basin through the study of the silting of the watershed located upstream the Hachef dam and to analyze the silting rate of the Hachef dam according to the variability of precipitations and the dynamics of the vegetation convent. The adopted approach is based on the analysis of the bathymetric surveys of the Hachef Dam to characterize the SD and the analysis of the silting rate based on the characterization of the spatial and temporal variability of the two key factors of water erosion. The results of processing the bathymetric surveys over a 19-year analysis period (1995-2014) show an annual average total silting of about 11.46 Mm3 and a corresponding SD of about 36.7 t⋅ha−1⋅yr−1. This study shows the significant influence of the spatial and temporal variability of precipitation and vegetation cover on the silting dynamics of dams.

Distinct and combined impacts of climate and land use scenarios on water availability and sediment loads for a water supply reservoir in northern Morocco

The objective of this study was to examine the impacts of climate and land use changes on wateravailability and sediment loads for a water supply reservoir in northern Morocco using data-intensive simulation models in a data-scarce region. Impacts were assessed by comparing the simulated water and sediment entering the reservoir between the future period 2031-2050 and the 1983-2010 reference period. Three scenarios of land use change and two scenarios of climate change were developed in the Tleta watershed. Simulations under current and future conditions were performed using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model. The simulations showed that climate change will lead to a sig-nificant decrease in the annual water supply to the reservoir (-16.9% and -27.5%) and in the annual volume of sediment entering the reservoir (-7.4% and -12.6%), depending on the climate change sce-narios tested. The three scenarios of land use change will lead to a moderate change in annual water inflow into the reservoir (between-6.7% and +6.2%), while causing a significant decrease in sediment entering the reservoir (-37%to-24%). The combined impacts of climate and land use changes will cause a reduction in annual water availability (-9.9%to-33.3%) and sediment supplies (-28.7%to-45.8%). As a result, the lifetime of the reservoir will be extended, but at the same time, the risk of water shortages will increase, especially from July to March. Therefore, alternative water resources must be considered.

Corrigendum to “Distinct and combined impacts of climate and land use scenarios on water availability and sediment loads for a water supply reservoir in northern Morocco” [International Soil and Water Conservation Research 8 (2020) 141-153]

The authors have agreed to credit Fabrice Vinatier authorship for this paper.The list of authors and affiliations should appear as follows:Fatiha Choukri a,Damien Raclot a,b.Mustapha Naimi a,Mohamed Chikhaoui a,Joao Pedro Nunes c,Frederic Huard d,Cecile Herivaux e,Fabrice Vinatier b,Mohamed Sabir f,Yannick Pepin a,b a IAV Hassan II,Department of Natural Resources and Environment,Madinat Al Irfane,Rabat,Morocco b LISAH,Univ Montpellier,INRAE,IRD,Institut Agro,Montpellier,France c CE3C-Centre for Ecology,Evolution and Environmental Changes,Faculdade de Ciencias,Universidade de Lisboa,1749-016,Lisboa,Portugal d INRAE-AgroClim,228 Route de TAerodrome,CS 40509,84914,Avignon,Cedex 9,France e BRGM,Univ Montpellier,1039 Rue de Pinville,34000,Montpellier,France f ENFI,bd Moulay Youssef,Tabriquet,SALE,Morocco The authors would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused.