Drought and desertification have a significant impact on socio-ecological systems throughout the world, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions. In this context, the impact of desertification and drought was analyzed in the pre-Sahara of Morocco. Additionally, a new conceptual framework combining various variables under the context of drought and desertification impacts was developed. The study area has an arid climate and socio-ecological system-based oases. To
The study investigates the land use and land cover (LULC) in Errachidia province (Pre-Saharan of Morocco) in the period 2005–2020. To this end, remote sensing (RS) tools such as LULC, the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), the normalized difference water index (NDWI), the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite data, and precipitations were processed and combined. The monitoring of LULC over this period reveals different changes in this area. Generally, for water bodies, two trends can be observed, an increasing trend since 2006 and a decreasing trend from 2011 to the present. However, an increasing trend was recorded for the urban-and-built-up-lands and the grasslands categories. NDVI, NDWI, and EVI showed three major peaks recorded in the same periods (in 2007, 2009, and 2015). In terms of water storage, three phases were found. The first depicted the lowest groundwater quantities with a decreasing trend, which corresponds to a period of drought and/or human pressure. The second phase, the most important that recorded the greatest storage of water while the third phase corresponds to low storage with a decreasing trend. LULC of croplands reveals a slightly increasing trend from 2012 to 2020, which shows an orientation to an extension of crops mainly of date palm encouraged by government programs. A strong correlation between the seasonal NDVI and water storage using GRACE-Data for the period was found. In the end, recommendations on the adaptation to CC were proposed. The findings demonstrate that RS techniques are useful tools to detect hydrological droughts, observe, and conserve land resources. In arid areas such as Errachidia, the solution lies in rationalizing the use of water resources protecting them from uncontrolled anthropogenic events, which may alleviate the pressure. To support local sustainable development, environmental scientists and decision-makers may use the outputs of this study.
Worldwide, the arid lands occupy one of the largest areas on Earth, covering more than 30% of the total area. In these lands, scarcity of resources has emerged as a consequence of climate change (CC) and anthropogenic pressure. The reduced resources require sustainable management, including the use of efficient methods and techniques to adapt to CC. The purpose of this chapter is to present a collection of affordable techniques and practices to optimize farming productivity in the context of CC. This chapter also presents the strengths and weaknesses and highlights the replication of these methods where water supply and food security are far from being achieved. Each technic must be studied and adapted with caution in context of the defined arid area, taking into account the local socio-economic and ecological characteristics. The proposed techniques may be used in governmental planning to support the adaptation and mitigation strategies.
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