The assessment of erosion in Aoulai watershed (central Rif mountains, Morocco) based on the PAP-RAC guidelines application

Abstract

The land in the Aoulai watershed in the Rif mountain area of northern Morocco has been deteriorating continually due to several different forms of erosion. The Aoulai watershed is essentially characterized by the domination of weak resistance of the rocky formations and its sensitiveness to other major internal factors that result in a conspicuous impetus for both mass movements and water erosion.Water erosion is seen as the most damaging phenomenon for nature in northern Morocco because it acts as an obstacle to the natural balances and seems to have greater effect on the slopes, through the influence of both human and natural factors.
 To assess and examine the erosion phenomenon, we have chosen to conduct a qualitative assessment of water erosion in the Aoulai watershed using the PAP-RAC (Priority Actions Programme/Regional Activity Centre) Guidelines. This is the methodology that is most widely applied and implemented both for determining and identifying the areas at risk of erosion and for supporting projects to reduce the degradation that has become a major threat to hydraulic structures including dams, irrigation pipes and other infrastructure elements, which are damaged by the erosion phenomenon in the Central Rif mountains of northern Morocco.

Sixty years of the development projects and combating the environment and natural resources degradation in arid and semi-arid areas in Rif mountains in Morocco

“…To maintain their low standard of living, rural populations are falling back on the forest, harvesting fuelwood and grazing land that far exceeds the capacity of the forests (Gartet, 2001). The management of water for the benefit of the agricultural plains and urban populations is strongly modifying the natural balance upstream of the dams in the Ouerrha basin (Hmamouchi et al, 2020). These considerations make it necessary to intervene on these causes through projects based on a rural and mountain policy whose aim will be to improve the standard of living of the rural population, especially in the mountain areas most affected by poverty.…”