Exploring the land use and land cover change in the period 2005–2020 in the province of Errachidia, the pre-sahara of Morocco

Abstract

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.

Thirty Years of Change in the Land Use and Land Cover of the Ziz Oases (Pre-Sahara of Morocco) Combining Remote Sensing, GIS, and Field Observations

“…This declining trend of water was also reflected in the decrease in waterbodies in the entire studied area using MLC between 1991 and 2022. This negative trend was found also in a recent study on a provincial scale [61]. In contrast, this last method has demonstrated an increase in the urban area (built-up class), very remarkable in Errachidia city near the HED.…”

Vulnerability of Water Resources to Drought Risk in Southeastern Morocco: Case Study of Ziz Basin

“…As for the urban area, the results of this study revealed an increase of 0.22 in this class of land, and a study by [102] showed an increasing trend in urban areas in the Errachidia province during the period of 2005-2020. This increase in urban land reflects the population growth and development of infrastructure in the region.…”

“…The stability of the open water category in the Ziz basin over time can be attributed to the natural characteristics of the water bodies, which are relatively resistant to changes in land use and climate. The water bodies in the study area are rare and the estimated change is slight since the area is arid, as mentioned by [102]. However, open water bodies in the region are also vulnerable to pollution, over-extraction, and other human activities that can lead to water quality degradation and the loss of biodiversity [110].…”

Assessing the Impact of Climate Change on Seasonal Variation in Agricultural Land Use Using Sentinel-2 and Machine Learning

“…To extract relevant information on surface features such as vegetation, urban areas, soil or water, spectral indices (SI) are utilized, significantly enhancing the accuracy of LULC classification. [9]. The findings suggest that urban development has had an adverse impact on groundwater, soil quality and natural ecosystems.…”