A. Chehbouni

Mohamed 6 Polytechnic University · international Water Resources Institute

Background Climate change has devastating impacts on agriculture, increasing the yield gap for most crops, especially in developing nations. This is likely to worsen food insecurity in some countries, calling for efforts to close the yield gap as much as possible. Estimating the yield gap and its drivers is essential for devising strategies to incr...

Understanding groundwater contamination processes in depleted aquifers is needed to improve their integrated management. The present study aims to understand how prevailing conditions in a depleting dendrit unconfined aquifer could affect the salinity and nitrate contamination. The depletion has caused a shift in our alluvial aquifer from dominant...

Managing water resources in Morocco has always been a difficult task due to the scarcity of ground measurements and the diverse climatic and physical conditions. Over the past decade deep learning have proven to be valuable tools for watershed planning, offering high performance, accuracy, and predictive capabilities. In many Moroccan basins, snowm...

Study regions : The study area encompasses two distinct sub-basins within the High Atlas Mountains: Oukaimeden in the Rheraya and Tichki in the Mgoun Valley. Study focus : The research integrates remote sensing data, particularly the Normalized-Difference Snow Index (NDSI) from the MODIS Sensor, with machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) mod...

Water management issues have significant short-and long-term repercussions. They are under constant pressure from factors such as population growth, socioeconomic policies, intensive irrigation and the impact of climate change. Systems thinking aims to understand how the interactions between subsystems impact the overall behavior of a system in ord...

Soil organic matter (SOM), available phosphorus (P2O5), and exchangeable potassium (K2O) are vital indicators of soil fertility. Standard approaches for determining SOM, P2O5, and K2O in soil levels are usually through solution extraction of the nutrient followed by chemical analysis, which are costly and time consuming, particularly at large scale...

Snow is one of the important sources of water in most parts of the world, especially in regions with scarce precipitation, supplying approximately a third of the water needed for agricultural activities, drinking, and underground water sources. Accurate snow-cover information is important for scientific studies, water supply management and various...

In semi-arid and arid regions, crops face elevated atmospheric demands and endure prolonged periods of moderate to severe water scarcity. In this context, this study investigated the effectiveness of the photochemical reflectance index (PRI) and a normalized surface temperature index (Tnorm) for proxy detection of the water stress of winter wheat c...

Morocco, a North African nation known for its rich cultural heritage and diverse landscapes, has been actively pursuing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a framework to guide its development efforts1. The country has made significant progress in aligning its national development strategies with the SDGs, particularly prioritizing goals su...

Machine learning (ML) models trained with remote sensing data have the potential to improve cereal yield estimation across various geographic scales. However, the complexity and heterogeneity of agricultural landscapes present significant challenges to the robustness of ML-based field-level yield estimation over large areas. In our study, we propos...

Hydrological modeling is a crucial tool for water resources management. It becomes more important in data-scarce regions like Morocco. Therefore, accurate parameter tuning of models used in this region is vital for reliable predictions. Traditionally, the Nelder-Mead Simplex Algorithm has been used to calibrate the GR4J and MISDc models. However, t...

Accurate and efficient streamflow simulations are necessary for sustainable water management and conservation in arid and semi-arid contexts. Conceptual hydrological models often underperform in these catchments due to the high climatic variability and data scarcity, leading to unstable parameters and biased results. This study evaluates the stabil...

This study evaluates the use of remote sensing data to improve the understanding of groundwater resources in climate-sensitive regions with limited data availability and increasing agricultural water demands. The research focuses on estimating groundwater reserve dynamics in two major river basins in Morocco, characterized by significant local vari...

In this study, prominent dust source areas are identified along with their plume extent using high temporal frequency satellite observations. Hourly dust plume observations of the Dust Belt from geostationary‐orbit satellites are analyzed for the 2017‐12–2022‐11 period. To identify dust source areas and their extents, we back‐track plumes to their...

As precision agriculture (PA) advances, the demand for accurate and high-resolution weather forecasts becomes critical for optimizing agricultural management practices. Despite improvements in Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) models, they lack the granularity and efficiency needed for PA. Data-driven models offer a promising alternative by integr...

Study region: 30 catchments in Morocco. Study focus: We assessed the KGE performance of eight monthly lumped hydrological models forced by ground-based rainfall observations. We then examined how the performance relates to model complexity and structure, applied exploratory correlation analysis to identify the catchment features (over 200 features...

Morocco has recently witnessed a surge in drought occurrences, leading to considerable socioeconomic damages. The standardized precipitation index (SPI) at 3- and 12-month timescales was employed to assess spatiotemporal drought characteristics across the Marrakech-Safi arid region. Mann-Kendall and Sen's slope methods were adopted to assess SPI tr...

Understanding drought occurrence and evolution is important in minimizing the impacts associated with it. This work assesses the performance of 10 commonly used meteorological indices to measure drought in Morocco. The studied indices are Deciles Index (DI), Percent of Normal Index (PNI), Z‐Score Index (ZSI), China‐Z Index (CZI), Rainfall Anomaly I...

Total nitrogen (TN) is a critical nutrient for plant growth, and its monitoring in agricultural soil is vital for farm managers. Traditional methods of estimating soil TN levels involve laborious and costly chemical analyses, especially when applied to large areas with multiple sampling points. Remote sensing offers a promising alternative for iden...

In this study, prominent dust source areas are identified along with their plume extent using high temporal frequency satellite observations. Hourly dust plume observations of the Dust Belt from geostationary-orbit satellites are analyzed for the 2018-2022 period. To identify dust source areas and their extents, we back-track plumes to their source...

Streamflow prediction is a key variable for water resources management. It becomes more important in semi-arid regions such as the Tensift river basin in Morocco, where water resources are facing a severe drought and the demand is continuously increasing. The present analysis focuses on evaluating Machine Learning techniques, namely support vector...

Multi-source remote sensing-derived information on crops contributes significantly to agricultural monitoring, assessment, and management. In Africa, some challenges (i.e., small-scale farming practices associated with diverse crop types and agricultural system complexity, and cloud coverage during the growing season) can imped agricultural monitor...

Olives constitute a frequently grown crop in semi-arid areas. Therefore, accurate quantification of evapotrans-piration (ET) within olive groves is crucial to enhance agricultural water productivity and promote their resilience to water scarcity and future climate scenarios. In the present work, we assessed the accuracy of 3 versions of the Two-Sou...

Water resources management has always been a challenging task in the Moroccan context where ground measurements are scarce, climatic, and physical conditions are heterogeneous. In snow hydrology, snow depth is a crucial parameter used to estimate the amount of water stored in the snowpack, the timing of snowmelt, and the amount of water that will b...

In semi-arid Mediterranean areas, a significant proportion of the population living downstream depends on water resources from snowmelt and precipitation as their main source of water. Consequently, snow-covered mountain regions can be considered as a vital water tower, providing a steady supply of water, and contributing significantly to streamflo...

The achievement of sustainable development goals is currently hampered by ecological, social and economic constraints. This perspective recognizes the importance of green finance in achieving sustainability by directing investments towards projects with a positive environmental and social impact. The objective of this scientific article is to explo...

Porous-activated carbons (ACs) derived from Moroccan pine cones (PC) were synthesised by a two step-chemical activation/carbonisation method using phosphoric acid (PC-H) and zinc chloride (PC-Z) as activating agents and used for the adsorption of bisphenol A (BPA) from water. Several techniques (TGA/DTA, FT-IR, XRD, SEM and BET) were used to determ...

Remote sensing technologies provide continuous and detailed observations of various land surface parameters, including snow cover, vegetation, land surface temperature, soil moisture, and evapotranspiration, offering invaluable information at various scales and contexts. One of the major uses is the precise mapping and monitoring of seasonal snow c...

Data-driven methods, such as machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL), play a pivotal role in advancing the field of snow hydrology. These techniques harness the power of algorithms to analyze and interpret vast datasets, allowing researchers to uncover intricate patterns and relationships within the complex processes of snow dynamics. In snow...

Trees characterized by persistent foliage, like olive trees, serve as indispensable assets in arid and semi-arid regions, exemplified by the Haouz plain in central Morocco. The decline in water resources for irrigation, attributed to climate change and excessive underground water extraction, has led to significant degradation of tree orchards in re...

Groundwater resources in Morocco often face sustainability challenges due to increased exploitation and climate change. Specifically, the Al-Haouz-Mejjate groundwater in the Marrakesh region is faced with overexploitation and insufficient recharge. However, the complex subsurface geometries hamper hydrogeological modeling, characterization, and eff...

Faced with growing food security challenges influenced by global factors such as population growth, climate change, and soil erosion, the need for sustainable agricultural practices is particularly relevant in Africa. In Morocco, wheat is the most dominant crop, but its production is highly dependent on rainfall. In this research, we evaluate sever...

Using optical remote sensing images, the classification of crops in agricultural areas with trees is crucial for optimal management of agricultural and forest lands. The classification performance depends on various factors, like the size and distribution of training and validation samples, the algorithms used, the features of agricultural cover, a...

In Morocco, the historical record depicts a situation characterized by increasing temperatures and diminishing precipitation, which often ends up in severe drought episodes. This research examines the vulnerability of wheat, barley, and maize to growing season temperature changes as well as socio-economic adaptive capacity proxies. This work uses a...

In the high Atlas Mountains of Morocco, forecasting discharge is of crucial importance for water resource management but it remains a difficult task due to the scarcity of observations. This study presents meteorological re-analysis data as a promising alternative for feeding hydrological model where observation data are absent. Re-analysis data ar...

The Souss basin in Morocco is distinguished by an uneven surface water supply and steady overexploitation of groundwater resources. In recent years, the basin experienced constant disrupted water balance, due mostly to year-to-year variable weather conditions and rising water demand. This situation is projected to affect the region’s economic devel...

Numerical methods represent a powerful tool for weather forecasting. However, they still face various limitations related to energy consumption and the time it takes to run simulations. To overcome these weaknesses, various statistical and deep learning models were developed to combine precision, time, and energy efficiency criteria. In this paper,...

Morocco is characterized by a semi-arid to arid climate, except for a humid zone in the North. This climatic restraint, accentuated by climate change and the high demand for water resources, requires the application of new approaches to complement conventional hydrological methods that will help to improve water assessment and management strategies...

Addressing the need for effective water resource management in Morocco's semi-arid and arid regions, this research enhances the accuracy of reference evapotranspiration (ET0) estimation. ET0 is crucial for understanding the hydrological cycle, assessing climate change impacts, and optimizing agricultural water use. Estimating ET0 is challenging due...

Morocco, as a Mediterranean and North African country, is acknowledged as a climate change hotspot, where increased drought and related water resource shortages present a real challenge for human and natural systems. However, its geographic position and regional characteristics make the simulation of the distribution and variability of precipitatio...

Seasonal snow cover provides the majority of freshwater supplies for human society and natural ecosystems especially in semi-arid regions. For water resource managers, precise data regarding the spatiotemporal variability of snow cover and snow phenology is of paramount importance. Owing to the great spatial and temporal heterogeneity of the snowpa...

Assessing the surface water balance of mountains is a real challenge given notably the extreme variability of meteorological conditions and the sparsity of in-situ monitoring. While mountains are recognized as water towers feeding the surrounding plains, there is only unconsolidated knowledge about the individual water balance components especially...

Africa is facing an urgent need to increase food production to meet increasing demands. Targeted investments in integrated agriculture and, water management systems are required to meet this challenge. However, there is a lack of comprehensive information on the potential applications of climate-smart agriculture (CSA). This paper reviews current c...

The concept of integrated water resource management requires an in-depth analysis of water inflows into a river basin. Population growth and the uncertainties associated with climate change are causing increased water stress and droughts, which are impacting agriculture. Hence the need for studies on the impact of climate change on demand-supply in...

The Plio-Quaternary aquifer in the EL-Haouz-Mejjate region of Morocco is critical for water supply, necessitating accurate characterization for sustainable management. This study pioneers machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) techniques to elucidate the aquifer’s properties. Supervised algorithms, including random forest, regression, support...

The aim of this work is to use the AquaCrop model for irrigation and water productivity assessment of Table grapes in arid region of Mexico during 2005 and 2006 cropping seasons. The irrigation efficiency was investigated by comparing the irrigation scheduling design used by the farmer to the AquaCrop model recommendations. Data analysis showed tha...

Accurately estimating latent heat flux (LE) is crucial for achieving efficiency in irrigation. It is a fundamental component in determining the actual evapotranspiration (ETa), which in turn, quantifies the amount of water lost that needs to be adequately compensated through irrigation. Empirical and physics-based models have extensive input data a...

Wheat is an essential crop for food security in North Africa. However, it’s productivity is limited by several factors, among them climate change effects. Predicting wheat yield on a large scale is thus important for ensuring food security, as it allows farmers and policymakers to make informed decisions regarding agricultural production and market...

There are calls for effective measures to address climate change challenges for socio-economic development. This is a critical review to take stock of the impacts of climate change, and some gains made by Morocco in adapting to and mitigating climate change. This also highlights the challenges and opportunities of addressing climate change. A revie...

Land surface-atmosphere interactions are a key component of climate modeling. They are particularly critical to understand and anticipate the climate and the water resources over the semi-arid and arid North-African regions. This study uses in situ observations to assess the ability of the IPSL-CM global climate model to simulate the land-atmospher...

North Africa is considered as the most vulnerable regions regarding climate change impacts. Providing data about the potential responses of hydrological processes to future extreme events (such as drought) will help in designing the fitting adaptation strategies. In this study, the Bouregreg watershed (BW) in Morocco was selected as a typical water...

Climate projections in sub-Saharan Africa predict increased frequency of droughts with parallel impacts on crop yield. The Horn of Africa is among the most vulnerable regions in Africa to these changes because agriculture in general and maize production in particularly is highly climate driven, and rain-fed. Current research approaches have mostly...

In data-sparse regions and in developing countries such as Morocco, where flooding has serious socio-economic impacts, satellite-based precipitation products open new possibilities for monitoring and modelling water resources and floods. The objective of the study is to explore the possibility of using satellite precipitation products (SPPs) with h...

Global warming has increased the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events worldwide. Arid and semi-arid regions, such as the Tensift basin in Morocco, have experienced severe water shortages as a result. The unavailability of quality data limits our understanding of the occurrence of extreme events and their associated impacts. This study...

Droughts in Africa have a disproportionate detrimental influence on food security, water supply, social equilibrium and the economy compared to other regions in the World. Crop growth is principally rainfed with highly seasonal rainfall regimes over most of the Continent. Hydraulic infrastructure and harvest storage are scarce. Drought is primarily...

Study region: The upstream part of the Essaouira basin, a data-scare region in Morocco, Northwestern Africa. Study focus: The scarcity of hydro-climate data is a significant challenge found in several regions worldwide, where qualitative and quantitative water resource information remains limited. Estimating and predicting groundwater levels (GWL)...

Clean weather time series is the primary ingredient for the successful modeling of any process in the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum. However, measured meteorological data are often associated with gaps due to various reasons, such as eventual sensor malfunctioning, power outages, and data transmission errors. Thus, meteorological data needs to be...

Morocco is experiencing rapid development driven by population growth, increasing food demand, water stress, urbanization, emerging market opportunities, and climate change. Due to climate variability, Morocco faces significant climate risks, including a reduction in the number of rainy days, shorter growing seasons, changes in soil moisture levels...

Under arid and semi-arid climatic conditions, groundwater is a basic resource to meet the requirements of socioeconomic development. Better conservation of this resource requires understanding the functioning of aquifer systems by informing about the degree of its vulnerability, the hydrochemical processes that control it, as well as the mode and o...

Reference Evapotranspiration (ET0) is a key parameter in hydrology. It has a variety of practical applications, ranging from understanding the hydrological cycle to estimating crop water needs for efficient irrigation in agriculture. The FAO PENMAN–MONTEITH (FAO-PM) method is largely adopted and is the recommended method by the FAO for ET0 estimati...

Study region: The downstream part of the Essaouira basin, Morocco, Northwestern Africa. Study focus: This study combines multivariate statistical analyses, stable isotopes, hydro-geochemical, hydrogeological, geological and remotely sensed data to gain a better understanding of the hydrological and groundwater salinization processes in a coastal aq...

Study region: The Atlas Mountains of Morocco, specifically the High Oum Er-rbiaa (HOER) and Ourika catchments. Study focus: to identify the recharge processes within the semi-arid watersheds, in the Atlas Mountains, through monthly monitoring of snow, rainfall, surface water, and groundwater isotope signal, but also the usage of remote sensing data...

In the context of water scarcity, the strong spatiotemporal fluctuation of rainfall combined with the sparsity of the rain gauge (RG) measurement networks, particularly over the mountainous regions