Volume 8, Issue 4, October 2014, Pages 1735–1751
Noaman Akalai1, Rachid Hlila2, Mohamed El Imran3, and Chakib Darraz4
1 Mapping and Numeric Technology Laboratory, Faculty of Sciences, Abdelmalek Essaâdi University, Tetuan, Morocco
2 Département de Géologie, Faculté des Sciences de Tétouan, B.P 2121, Université Abdel Malek Essaâdi, Tétouan, Morocco
3 Mapping and Numeric Technology Laboratory, Faculty of Sciences, Abdelmalek Essaâdi University, Tetuan, Morocco
4 Mapping and Numeric Technology Laboratory, Faculty of Sciences, Abdelmalek Essaâdi University, Tetuan, Morocco
Original language: English
Copyright © 2014 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
In this study we estimate the risk of water erosion in coastal watersheds between M'diq and Fnideq located in northern Morocco, through using a new approach based on spatial cartography. Precisely, the methodology adopted here integrates a Geographic Information System (GIS) with the universal soil loss equation (USLE). The field data includes three major components namely, lithology, degree of slope and vegetation density. Each of these components is represented by a separate layer, in which 1 to 5 value expresses its lateral variability degree. The final map of water-erosion risk is obtained by the sum of superposed indices, separately assigned to three thematic layers (facies, slope and vegetation cover), and multiplied by the percentages of the contribution of each factor to determine the percentage of weighting. . Secondarily, a complementary table translates the cartographic values of each layer as percentage values expressing the impact exerted by the corresponding risk factor throughout the studied area. The risk map is deducted after validation of these weightings on the field by choosing checkpoints distributed throughout the watersheds of the site. This method would allow for the tracking and of course monitoring of water erosion on a larger scale and to better direct the administrations concerned to the priority of installations.
Author Keywords: Water Erosion, Spatial GIS Approach, Watershed, M'diq and Fnideq, (Rif Region), Morocco.
Noaman Akalai1, Rachid Hlila2, Mohamed El Imran3, and Chakib Darraz4
1 Mapping and Numeric Technology Laboratory, Faculty of Sciences, Abdelmalek Essaâdi University, Tetuan, Morocco
2 Département de Géologie, Faculté des Sciences de Tétouan, B.P 2121, Université Abdel Malek Essaâdi, Tétouan, Morocco
3 Mapping and Numeric Technology Laboratory, Faculty of Sciences, Abdelmalek Essaâdi University, Tetuan, Morocco
4 Mapping and Numeric Technology Laboratory, Faculty of Sciences, Abdelmalek Essaâdi University, Tetuan, Morocco
Original language: English
Copyright © 2014 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
In this study we estimate the risk of water erosion in coastal watersheds between M'diq and Fnideq located in northern Morocco, through using a new approach based on spatial cartography. Precisely, the methodology adopted here integrates a Geographic Information System (GIS) with the universal soil loss equation (USLE). The field data includes three major components namely, lithology, degree of slope and vegetation density. Each of these components is represented by a separate layer, in which 1 to 5 value expresses its lateral variability degree. The final map of water-erosion risk is obtained by the sum of superposed indices, separately assigned to three thematic layers (facies, slope and vegetation cover), and multiplied by the percentages of the contribution of each factor to determine the percentage of weighting. . Secondarily, a complementary table translates the cartographic values of each layer as percentage values expressing the impact exerted by the corresponding risk factor throughout the studied area. The risk map is deducted after validation of these weightings on the field by choosing checkpoints distributed throughout the watersheds of the site. This method would allow for the tracking and of course monitoring of water erosion on a larger scale and to better direct the administrations concerned to the priority of installations.
Author Keywords: Water Erosion, Spatial GIS Approach, Watershed, M'diq and Fnideq, (Rif Region), Morocco.
How to Cite this Article
Noaman Akalai, Rachid Hlila, Mohamed El Imran, and Chakib Darraz, “Risk of water erosion in coastal watersheds north of Tetuan (Internel Rif, northern Morocco): Evidences from GIS-based spatial approach,” International Journal of Innovation and Applied Studies, vol. 8, no. 4, pp. 1735–1751, October 2014.
