The assessment of groundwater vulnerability against pollution is a crucial procedure for land settlement. The topography enables decision makers to better manage and analyze information necessary for the delineation and / or identification of areas where groundwater is vulnerable to pollution. Within this context, and considering the strategic role of the Rish groundwater in the socio-economic development of the South East region of Morocco, a map of the aquifer vulnerability with multi-criteria acronym approach PRK has been developed. This approach, based on the parametric methods of class system, aims primarily at designing an index map of the intrinsic vulnerability of the hydrogeological system through gathering the overall indices by classes. It is grounded on the multiplying combination of the information layers relating to three parameters: 1. (P) - topographic slope, 2. the ratio (R) - combining variation of the amplitude of the fluctuations of the piezometric level compared to the thickness of the unsaturated zone and 3. (K) - permeability of the aquifer, whence the generic term P.R.K, taking the initials of these parameters. The overall indexes acquired by this combination vary within a range of values from 2 to more than 91. They are distributed into six classes corresponding to degrees of vulnerability fluctuating from "very less" to "extreme". However, the dominant class is "very less vulnerable". It covers up to 89% of the total area of the studied zone.
The Rich aquifer is considered as the biggest alluvial aquifer of the high Ziz basin. However, it faces major natural and anthropogenic pressures include the aridity of the region and development of irrigated areas resulting in the rupture of the hydrodynamic balance sheet and accusing the sustainability of socio-economic fabric by the destocking groundwater reserves. The piezometry of this aquifer shows that the water flow is converging towards the center at the confluence of the Ziz and Sidi Hamza rivers and in the southern part with some local changing of the flow direction between the observed piezometric states 1980 and 2012. The development of a 3D finite difference mathematical model, in steady state for 1980, lets us to understand the spatial distribution of permeability, recharge and the hydrodynamic behavior of the aquifer. This model that confirms the hydrogeological functioning of Rich aquifer system was used to calculate the terms of the water balance which is very balanced.
In Morocco, the plio-quaternary aquifers of the Rharb basin are recognized by their high hydro geological potential and by the heterogeneity of their formations. The geological, lithostratigraphical and hydro geological studies allow the optimization of the exploitation of these aquifers. The present work, consist of utilizing a multi-sources data: geological, geoelectrical and hydro geological. The results obtained from the use of this data, concern the tridimensional geoelectrical modeling which helped to highlight the subdivision of South Sebou basin to at least two sub basins: coastal sub basin Ouled-salma-Morgane and sub basin of Rmila center, as well as the visualization of the lithostratigraphical limits in 3D for the first time. Comparative analysis of geoelectric cuts (WE, SW-NE and SSW-NNE) at the level of these two sub basins allows to highlight four big geoelectrical units distinct and more or less continuous.
The abandoned mine area of the High Moulouya District still represents an important resource. Main activities closely related to the abandoned mine are artisanal extraction, fossil and mineral trade, tourism, agriculture, and scientific research. The aim of this work is to investigate the geochemistry of open pits and waters flowing out of abandoned mine galleries. These waters are used by the inhabitants for agricultural purposes. The quality of those waters is moderately bad, the waters show contamination by trace and heavy metal.
Over the last few decades, Casablanca city became the biggest industrial, commercial center in Morocco with rapid urbanization and explosive population growth, more than 4 million people. Urban expansion has reached to suburban areas due to population growth and socio economic development, not to mention the rapid increase of transportation. Result of these changes causes a change of microclimate in urban areas. The most evident phenomenon is the increase of urban surface temperature as compared with suburban areas, "heat island" is formed in the atmospheric boundary above urban area. It could make serious environmental problems for its inhabitants (e.g., urban waterlogged and thermal pollution). Thermal infrared remote sensing bands, proved its capability in monitoring temperature field. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the use of Landsat TM, ETM+, OLI and TIRS data for indicating temperature differences in urban areas, in order to achieve a spatiotemporal study, using data between 1984 and 2014, and showing the relationship between urban expansion and the heat island effect during time, producing maps that shows the distribution of urban temperature. Results can be combined with land use/ land cover maps or thermal-land cover and operated as reference for urban planning and future solutions to reduce heat island effect.
In this work, we present a hybrid classification technique combining an expert system and an object-oriented approach. The expert system allows the integration of a knowledge base built through a series of deductive rules, that will guide the classification whose primitives requires informations on the highest level and will be represented by semantic objects, not pixels. Instead of the original bands only, other derived data combining textural, spectral information and shapes, are included in the classification process. The result is then combined with an expert system whose rules use variables such as vegetation index (NDVI), shading of building objects and other indicators. In conclusion, this approach has allowed us to improve the accuracy of the feature extraction method by extracting objects like, roads, trees, grass, bare soil and shadow on a very high-resolution image of the city of Rabat.