Hydrological response of the Assif Melloul basin in the Central High Atlas (Morocco): Monitoring and Creating a rating curve.

Abstract

Dynamic of landscapes related to climate change and modification of land uses are the crucial elements that controlling hydrological responses within basins. Besides, in the Mediterranean areas, most of the authors indicate the role played by dynamic and change of land cover, and climate characteristics for determining and generating the hydrological processes and the resulting alterations of the surface at spatial and temporal scales and subsurface flow patterns. The purpose of this article is to compare the dynamic of both rating curves in order to extract the discharge for understanding the response and hydrological behaviour of the two selected headwaters (i.e., area = Kousser 311.09 km2 and Annergui 69.81 km2), which are situated within middle part of high Atlas Mountains (Morocco) at central part of Assif Melloul River basin. The dynamic of rainfall, and land cover dynamics were been considered in order to extract their observed changes in discharge at the studied headwaters. Besides, the estimation of the discharge in the outlet of both catchments is based on monitoring of the water level by limnimeter. The value of the obtained discharge is extracted by the rating curve method. The obtained results show a clear seasonality of the Assif Melloul basin, which is characterized by variability of the hydrological regime with high inter-annual in space and time. The maximum water level-discharge value at the two catchments is recorded during wet periods (19 m3/s-1 at Annergui and 1m3/s-1 at Kousser catchments), while the minimum level is registered during dry seasons (0.46 m3/s1 and 0.21 m3/s-1). Consequently, this presented work will be a good investigation for managers to decrease the future impacts and risks related to flash flood events at catchment scale.