Contributions of Chemical and Isotopic Tools for Understanding the Groundwater Modes Recharge and Flow in the Lower Cretaceous Aquifer in the Moroccan Sahara

The present work was conducted in the basin of Laayoun-Dakhla (South Morocco) to: 1) identify the recharge and flow characteristics of the Lower Cretaceous aquifer (LC);and 2) provide information about the mineralization of aquifer’s water. Isotopic and hydrochemical compositions combined with the geological and hydrogeological settings were used for this purpose. The principal changes in chemical composition of LC groundwater result from mixing with water of deeper circulation. Closer analysis of available chemical data reveals the importance of dissolution/precipitation processes in evolution of groundwater chemistry. Piezometric levels, as well as chemical and isotopic composition of groundwaters, confirm hydraulic connection between the LC and the others aquifers. Overlap of some major characteristics (δ18O, δ2H, Cl-) in this aquifer suggests that mixing processes considerably influence the hydrochemical evolution of water. The surface electrical resistivity does not indicate any freshwater-saltwater interface in the coastal aquifer and the relationship between 18O and Cl allows us to reject the hypothesis of a seawater intrusion.

A Sensor Web for Real-Time Groundwater Data Monitoring in Morocco

This article presents research and development of an interoperable platform to facilitate, monitor and coordinate groundwater data sharing. This system was orchestrated by a number of services described by Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) such as Sensor Observation Service (SOS) and other services for the use of mapping data, Web Feature Services (WFS), Web Map Service (WMS), and catalogue services (CSW). An important activity for our project was the establishment of a portal for geographic data and services. Geoportal developed for this project will promote and facilitate access to groundwater data and share theme more openly. Otherwise our system has been designed to provide a powerful tool that enhances the ability of regional staff to monitor near real-time groundwater data (i.e.?piezometric level) and as a result will help provide a more effective response to environmental upsets.

Assessing Flood Hazard at River Basin Scale: Comparison between HECRAS-WMS and Flood Hazard Index (FHI) Methods Applied to El Maleh Basin, Morocco

The cartography of floods by two different approaches enabled us to determine the limits and the advantages of each one of them. This cartography has been applied to the El Maleh basin situated in the South-East of Morocco. The HEC-RAS approach consists of a combination of the surface hydrologic model and the digital terrain model data. This combination allows thereafter the mapping of the flood zones by the use of the WMS software. Thus it can predict the probability occurrence of floods at various frequency times and determine the intensity of the flood (depth and velocity of flood water) inside the El Maleh river by using the existing hydrological data. Otherwise FHI method approach introduces a multi-criteria index to assess flood risk areas in a regional scale. Six parameters (flow accumulation, distance from drainage network, drainage network density, slope, land use, and geology) were used in this last method. The relative importance of each parameter for the occurrence and severity of flood has been connected to weight values. These values are calculated following an Analytical Hierarchy Process: AHP, a method originally developed for the solution of Operational Research problems. According to their weight values, information of the different parameters is superimposed, resulting to flood risk mapping. The use of the WMS model allowed us to accurately map the flood risk areas with precisely flood heights in different levels. However, this method is only applicable for a small portion of the basin located downstream of the hydrological station. Otherwise, the FHI method allows it to map the entire basin but without giving an indication of the water levels reached by floods. One method does not exclude the other since both approaches provide important information for flood risk assessment.

Practical Method Proposed to Estimate Silting’s Rate in Small and Hillside Dams

The construction of small dams and hillside reservoirs is a common practice for dealing with erratic and unevenly distributed rainfalls in arid and semi arid areas. Moreover, these small hydraulics structures are recommended as a solution to adapt to climate change in rural areas. They are fundamental for the sustainability of the water resources. However, these dams are potential sinks for upstream sediment. Therefore, it would be useful to monitor and measure the amount of sediments in small dams because it is necessary to understand siltation and better functioning of these vital structures. This control and these measurements require the application of the bathymetry or topography surveys which is too expensive for the responsible of these small dams. In this context, this paper proposes a simple and low cost method called: Triangulation of the estimated silted level. This method is based on direct measurement of the accessible silted level in dam. This new method is compared with another method based on the initial Elevation-Capacity curve of dam, usually used when the bathymetry is not attainable. The results of both of them have been verified with those of the bathymetry and electrical tomography methods and validated the proposal method as the most approximate. Therefore, this method is recommended as a new direct and simple technique to evaluate the amount of silting in small dams and hillside reservoirs.