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IN THE CURRENT STUDY, THE UNIVERSEL SOIL LOSS EQUATION (USLE) IS APPLIED TO MODELING THE SOIL WATER EROSION IN OUED CHERRAT WATERSHED LOCATED IN THE WEST OF MOROCCO. USLE MODEL TAKES IN CONSIDERATION THE MAIN FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE WATER EROSION : RAINFALL, TOPOGRAPHY, SOIL PROPERTIES, THE CONDITIONS OF CROP MANAGEMENT AND CONSERVATION PRACTICES. MANY DATA, FROM VARIOUS SOURCES WAS USED THROUGH THE SPATIAL TOOLS, GIS (GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS) AND REMOTE SENSING, TO ASSESS THE RISK OF WATER EROSION. THE RESULTS SHOW THAT 65.7% OF THE STUDY AREA HAS A VERY LOW RISK OF EROSION, 7.7% LOW RISK, 9.9% MEDIUM RISK, 5.4% HIGH RISK AND 11.3% A VERY HIGH RISK. THE SOIL LOSS VARY BETWEEN 0 AND 524.15 T/HA/YR. THE AVERAGE RATE OF EROSION FOR THE ENTIRE WATERSHED IS ESTIMATED TO 12.16 T/HA/YR. PRIORITY AREAS FOR EROSION MANAGEMENT REPRESENT 16.7%. GENERALLY CHARACTERIZED BY HIGH SLOPES, THEY ARE MAINLY LOCATED IN THE UPSTREAM OF THE WATERSHED AND ON THE BANKS OF OUED CHERRAT AND ITS STREAMS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to establish a map of the flood risk of the coastal plain of Saïdia located on the Mediterranean coast of north-eastern Morocco. This plain is enclosed between rivers : the Moulouya in the West and the Kiss in the East. It is bordered to the south by the Ouled Mansour Mountains. These are sheared by very steep ravines that empty directly into the plain. The groundwater is very shallow. This background coupled with geomorphic coastal development promotes the current flood risk. In this paper, the methodology is based on the structuring in a geographic information system (GIS), remote sensing data, products derived from a digital elevation model (DEM) and external data (lithology, the groundwater level, etc.). The analytical approach consists of a digital processing of a GeoEye-1 satellite image and aerial photographs to map the surface states, an extraction phase of topographic attributes and geomorphology of the land, represented by the digital elevation model (DEM) and a phase of structuring information for spatial analysis in a GIS. These investigations allowed the construction of two maps : the map of vulnerability to flood and the map of hazards. The vulnerability map shows that very high vulnerability areas represent 57% of the site and correspond to areas of inter-dunes flat formed by deposits of fine clay, and characterized by lowland sector (0-4 m). The hazard map refers to the land cover. The superposition of these two maps helped to establish the map flood risk. This thematic map shows that approximately 43% of the territory considered is located in high to very high flood risk areas, and correspond to the banks of the Moulouya and the kiss rivers and to the marshes of the Moulouya River, and to the sector on which the new Saidia resort is built. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Abstract: Nowadays, hyperspectral remote sensing is a powerful tool for discrimination and accurate and rapid identification of mineral surfaces, due to the new technique of ground spectrometry. The objective of this article is the spectral identification of carbonate facies that exist in the Moroccan Atlantic High Atlas mountains, to establish a regional spectral library in order to prepare the implementation of regional maps with high spatial resolution. The spectra acquired in the visible-infrared (0.4 to 2.5μm) were used for characterizing and monitoring the evolution of diagenetic dolomite from the Lower Lias of the Arigh Ouzla formation that exists in the anticline Jbel Amsitten. The separation of facies, and the taking into account of the diversity in alteration phenomena, have imposed the normalization of the withdrawal of surface effects of dissolution and the restriction of the spectral window to avoid overlap of information. The characteristic absorption bands vary between 2.319 and 2.323μm and do not change between patina surface and fresh fractures. These values reflect the character totally dolomitic of the facies and can be used to estimate the degree of diagenesis, which gives more details with respect to previous sedimentological and petrographic descriptions. Analysis of the spectra has shown a relationship between the degree of crystallinity and depth of the absorption band could be established. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]