This page has only limited features, please log in for full access.

Unclaimed
Lahoucine Hanich
Centre for Remote Sensing and Application, Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P), Ben Guerir 43150, Morocco

Honors and Awards

The user has no records in this section


Career Timeline

The user has no records in this section.


Short Biography

The user biography is not available.
Following
Followers
Co Authors
The list of users this user is following is empty.
Following: 0 users

Feed

Journal article
Published: 11 March 2021 in Atmosphere
Reads 0
Downloads 0

In semiarid areas, the climate is characterized by strong spatiotemporal variability while the meteorological ground network is often very sparse. In this context, the spatial distribution of meteorological variables is thus a real issue for watershed hydrology, agronomy and the study of surface–atmosphere retroaction in these regions. The aim of this study is twofold: (1) to evaluate and to adapt a reanalysis system “Système d’Analyse Fournissant des Renseignements Adaptés à la Nivologie” (SAFRAN) to map the meteorological variables on the Tensift catchment (Morocco) between 2004 and 2014; (2) to project temperature and precipitation for the 2041–2060 horizon at high-resolution based on the Euro-CORDEX database at 12 km resolution (using two Representative Concentration Pathway -RCPs- scenarios and four Regional Climate Models), on the SAFRAN reanalysis and on a network of meteorological stations. SAFRAN was assessed: (1) based on leave-one-out for a station located in the plain and another in the mountains; (2) by comparison to another re-analysis system named the Meteorological Distribution System for High-Resolution Terrestrial Modeling (MicroMet); (3) by comparison to in situ measurements of snowfall at one station and to the daily Snow Cover Area derived from the Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) product at the catchment scale. The evaluation of the SAFRAN reanalysis showed that an irregular grid up to 1 km resolution is better for reproducing meteorological variables than the regular version of SAFRAN at 8 km, especially in mountains. The projection of the SAFRAN forcing is conducted in three steps corresponding to the three subsections below: (1) disaggregation of the Euro-CORDEX climate scenarios using the Q–Q approach based on stations data; (2) computation of the spatialized delta-change between historical and future Euro-CORDEX runs after Q–Q correction; (3) futurization of SAFRAN using the spatialized delta change values. The mountainous area is expected to face a higher increase in air temperature than the plains, reaching +2.5 °C for RCP8.5 and +1.71 °C for RCP4.5 over 2041–2060. This warming will be accompanied by a marked decrease in precipitation (−16% for RCP8.5). These present and future spatialized data sets should be useful for impact studies, in particular those focusing on water resources.

ACS Style

Ahmed Moucha; Lahoucine Hanich; Yves Tramblay; Amina Saaidi; Simon Gascoin; Eric Martin; Michel Le Page; Elhoussaine Bouras; Camille Szczypta; Lionel Jarlan. Present and Future High-Resolution Climate Forcings over Semiarid Catchments: Case of the Tensift (Morocco). Atmosphere 2021, 12, 370 .

AMA Style

Ahmed Moucha, Lahoucine Hanich, Yves Tramblay, Amina Saaidi, Simon Gascoin, Eric Martin, Michel Le Page, Elhoussaine Bouras, Camille Szczypta, Lionel Jarlan. Present and Future High-Resolution Climate Forcings over Semiarid Catchments: Case of the Tensift (Morocco). Atmosphere. 2021; 12 (3):370.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Ahmed Moucha; Lahoucine Hanich; Yves Tramblay; Amina Saaidi; Simon Gascoin; Eric Martin; Michel Le Page; Elhoussaine Bouras; Camille Szczypta; Lionel Jarlan. 2021. "Present and Future High-Resolution Climate Forcings over Semiarid Catchments: Case of the Tensift (Morocco)." Atmosphere 12, no. 3: 370.

Preprint content
Published: 04 March 2021
Reads 0
Downloads 0

In the south Mediterranean catchments, most of the available water resources are used to produce hydro-electric energy, for drinking water as well as for irrigated agriculture located downstream in the surrounding plains. This water Tower role is today threatened by the increase in water needs relative to the growth of the population and its standard of living, by the intensification of irrigated agriculture and by climate change. The south Mediterranean region is now well known as a “hot-spot” for the latter and there is reasonable evidence showing that mountainous region should face enhanced warming compared to the surrounding plains in the future. In this context, the development of a high-resolution futuristic climate forcing on the Tensift catchments. Based on the high-resolution SAFRAN reanalysis developed in the study presented above. is very important for the study of the climate, with a trend for the 2041-2060 horizon. For this purpose, we used future climate scenarios provided by the Euro-CORDEX program evaluated over the region. To achieve this objective, two RCP runs at 12 km resolution are downscaled using the quantile-quantile approach based on temperature and precipitation acquired at the Marrakech station in the plain and at the Oukaimeden station located at an altitude of 2687m in the High Atlas. It is shown that higher warming is expected on the mountainous region than in the plain station (2.8°C versus 2.3°C for the maximum temperature and 2.8° versus 2° for the minimum temperature; scenario RCP8.5 for 2041-2060). The higher warming on the minimum temperature may drastically impact the snow/rain partition in the high Atlas. Based on these disaggregated climate scenarios, future spatialized forcing are built from the correction functions obtained at the two above-mentioned plain and mountain stations and the SAFRAN re-analysis. The mountainous area is expected to face a higher increase of air temperature than in the plain, reaching +2.5°C for RCP8.5 and +1.71°C for RCP4.5 over 2041-2060. This warming will be accompanied by a marked decrease in precipitation (-16% for RCP8.5). this future spatialized data set is to be used within impact studies, in particular concerning water resources.

ACS Style

Ahmed Moucha; Lahoucine Hanich; Yves Tramblay; Amina Saadi; Simon Gascoin; Eric Martin; Michel Lepage; Camille Szczypta; Lionel Jarlan. High-resolution futuristic climate forcing over semi-arid catchments. Case of the Tensift (Morocco). 2021, 1 .

AMA Style

Ahmed Moucha, Lahoucine Hanich, Yves Tramblay, Amina Saadi, Simon Gascoin, Eric Martin, Michel Lepage, Camille Szczypta, Lionel Jarlan. High-resolution futuristic climate forcing over semi-arid catchments. Case of the Tensift (Morocco). . 2021; ():1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Ahmed Moucha; Lahoucine Hanich; Yves Tramblay; Amina Saadi; Simon Gascoin; Eric Martin; Michel Lepage; Camille Szczypta; Lionel Jarlan. 2021. "High-resolution futuristic climate forcing over semi-arid catchments. Case of the Tensift (Morocco)." , no. : 1.

Journal article
Published: 19 August 2020 in Water
Reads 0
Downloads 0

Understanding the spatiotemporal distribution of future droughts is essential for effective water resource management, especially in the Mediterranean region where water resources are expected to be scarcer in the future. In this study, we combined meteorological and hydrological drought indices with the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model to predict future dry years during two periods (2035–2050and 2085–2100) in a typical Mediterranean watershed in Northern Morocco, namely, Bouregreg watershed. The developed methodology was then used to evaluate drought impact on annual water yields and to identify the most vulnerable sub-basins within the study watershed. Two emission scenarios (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5) of a downscaled global circulation model were used to force the calibrated SWAT model. Results indicated that Bouregreg watershed will experience several dry years with higher frequency especially at the end of current century. Significant decreases of annual water yields were simulated during dry years, ranging from −45.6% to −76.7% under RCP4.5, and from −66.7% to −95.6% under RCP8.5, compared to baseline. Overall, hydrologic systems in sub-basins under the ocean or high-altitude influence appear to be more resilient to drought. The combination of drought indices and the semi-distributed model offer a comprehensive tool to understand potential future droughts in Bouregreg watershed.

ACS Style

Youssef Brouziyne; Aziz Abouabdillah; Abdelghani Chehbouni; Lahoucine Hanich; Karim Bergaoui; Rachael McDonnell; Lahcen Benaabidate. Assessing Hydrological Vulnerability to Future Droughts in a Mediterranean Watershed: Combined Indices-Based and Distributed Modeling Approaches. Water 2020, 12, 2333 .

AMA Style

Youssef Brouziyne, Aziz Abouabdillah, Abdelghani Chehbouni, Lahoucine Hanich, Karim Bergaoui, Rachael McDonnell, Lahcen Benaabidate. Assessing Hydrological Vulnerability to Future Droughts in a Mediterranean Watershed: Combined Indices-Based and Distributed Modeling Approaches. Water. 2020; 12 (9):2333.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Youssef Brouziyne; Aziz Abouabdillah; Abdelghani Chehbouni; Lahoucine Hanich; Karim Bergaoui; Rachael McDonnell; Lahcen Benaabidate. 2020. "Assessing Hydrological Vulnerability to Future Droughts in a Mediterranean Watershed: Combined Indices-Based and Distributed Modeling Approaches." Water 12, no. 9: 2333.

Preprint content
Published: 13 July 2020
Reads 0
Downloads 0

Estimating snow water equivalent (SWE) and snowmelt in semi-arid mountain ranges is an important but challenging task, due to the large spatial variability of the seasonal snow cover and scarcity of field observations. Adding solar radiation as snowmelt predictor within empirical snow models is often done to account for topographically induced variations in melt rates, at the cost of increasing model complexity. This study examines the added value of including different treatments of solar radiation within empirical snowmelt equations. Three spatially-distributed, enhanced temperature index models that respectively include the potential clear-sky direct radiation (HTI), the incoming solar radiation (ETIA) and net solar radiation (ETIB) were compared with a classical temperature-index model (TI) to simulate SWE within the Rheraya basin in the Moroccan High Atlas Range. Extensive model validation of simulated snow cover area (SCA) was carried out using blended MODIS snow cover products over the 2003-2016 period. We found that models enhanced with a radiation term, particularly ETIB which includes net solar radiation, better explain the observed SCA variability compared to the TI model. However, differences in model performance were overall small, as were the differences in basin averaged simulated SWE and melt rates. SCA variability was found to be dominated by elevation, which is well captured by the TI model, while the ETIB model was found to best explain additional SCA variability. The small differences in model performance for predicting spatiotemporal SCA variations is interpreted to results from the averaging out of topographically-induced variations in melt rates simulated by the enhanced models, a situation favored by the rather uniform distribution of slope aspects in the basin. Moreover, the aggregation of simulated SCA from the 100 m model resolution towards the MODIS resolution (500 m) suppresses key spatial variability related to solar radiation, which attenuates the differences between the TI and the radiative models.

ACS Style

Hafsa Bouamri; Christophe Kinnard; Abdelghani Boudhar; Simon Gascoin; Lahoucine Hanich; Abdelghani Chehbouni. Added value of solar radiation in snowmelt models: benchmarking empirical models in the High Atlas Range, Morocco. 2020, 1 .

AMA Style

Hafsa Bouamri, Christophe Kinnard, Abdelghani Boudhar, Simon Gascoin, Lahoucine Hanich, Abdelghani Chehbouni. Added value of solar radiation in snowmelt models: benchmarking empirical models in the High Atlas Range, Morocco. . 2020; ():1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Hafsa Bouamri; Christophe Kinnard; Abdelghani Boudhar; Simon Gascoin; Lahoucine Hanich; Abdelghani Chehbouni. 2020. "Added value of solar radiation in snowmelt models: benchmarking empirical models in the High Atlas Range, Morocco." , no. : 1.

Preprint content
Published: 23 March 2020
Reads 0
Downloads 0

Countries in North Africa are facing water scarcity and a high inter-annual variability of precipitation. In this context, many dams have been built to collect surface water and improve the management of existing water resources. We present the main results of a recent MISTRALS-ENVIMED research project about the potential climate change impacts on water resources at the regional and basin scales. The project notably focuses on the uncertainties linked to the different components of the modelling chain required to produce hydrological scenarios. Climate change impacts on surface water resources are investigated using an ensemble of regional climate model simulations from the CORDEX experiment under different emission scenarios and different hydrological models, adapted to the context of data scarcity. Climate scenarios under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 over North Africa indicate a future decrease in precipitation together with an increase in temperature that could have significant impacts on water resources. Indeed, a future decrease of surface water availability is expected in all major dam catchments, with a stronger decline over Morocco.

ACS Style

Yves Tramblay; Denis Ruelland; Lahoucine Hanich; Zoubeida Bargaoui; Hammouda Dakhlaoui. Climate change impacts on water resources in North African basins. 2020, 1 .

AMA Style

Yves Tramblay, Denis Ruelland, Lahoucine Hanich, Zoubeida Bargaoui, Hammouda Dakhlaoui. Climate change impacts on water resources in North African basins. . 2020; ():1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Yves Tramblay; Denis Ruelland; Lahoucine Hanich; Zoubeida Bargaoui; Hammouda Dakhlaoui. 2020. "Climate change impacts on water resources in North African basins." , no. : 1.

Preprint content
Published: 23 March 2020
Reads 0
Downloads 0

The spatialization of meteorological variables when the ground network is scattered and the relief is disturbed is a major issue for watershed hydrology or for the characterization of agricultural water consumption. The aim of this study is to set up the SAFRAN re-analysis system on the Tensift catchment area in Morocco. To this end, all the meteorological measurements acquired on the site between 2004 and 2014 by several organisations were gathered in a single database and quality control was carried out.  SAFRAN was then assessed according to a leave-one-out approach, which consists of removing a station from the database and comparing the re-analysis with the data from this station. It was also compared to another technic for meteorological variables spatialization named MICROMET (Liston et al., 2006). Particular attention was paid on the mountainous areas. In order to reproduce the high climate variability in this area, SAFRAN is also set up with an irregular grid up to 1 km resolution and compared to the regular version (8 km grid point). The results show that the re-analysis on the irregular grid is much better than on the regular grid, especially in the mountains. For example, the validation at the Aremd mountain station (2058 m) shows that the bias and RMSE on the surface temperature decreased from -4.8°C and 6.2°C for the regular grid to 0.6°C and 3.6°C for the irregular grid. Likewise, for precipitation, the correlation coefficient is improved by more than 23% for the regular grid. Concerning the visible radiation, MICROMET is strongly biased compared to the measurements carried out at the Aremd station (86 W/m²) whereas for SAFRAN, the bias is only 48W/m². Our current work concerns the mapping of vertical soil-vegetation-atmosphere exchanges over the catchment area using SAFRAN forcing on the irregular grid. The challenge is notably to represent irrigation, which strongly modifies the surface water states.

ACS Style

Ahmed Moucha; Lahoucine Hanich; Simon Gascoin; Lionel Jarlan. Spatialization of meteorological variables over south mediterranean catchments. Case of the Tensift (Morocco). 2020, 1 .

AMA Style

Ahmed Moucha, Lahoucine Hanich, Simon Gascoin, Lionel Jarlan. Spatialization of meteorological variables over south mediterranean catchments. Case of the Tensift (Morocco). . 2020; ():1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Ahmed Moucha; Lahoucine Hanich; Simon Gascoin; Lionel Jarlan. 2020. "Spatialization of meteorological variables over south mediterranean catchments. Case of the Tensift (Morocco)." , no. : 1.

Journal article
Published: 15 July 2019 in Irrigation and Drainage
Reads 0
Downloads 0
ACS Style

S. Sefiani; A. El Mandour; N. Laftouhi; N. Khalil; A. Chehbouni; Lionel Jarlan; Lahoucine Hanich; S. Khabba; S. Kamal; A. Markhi; H. Nassah. Evaluation of Groundwater Quality and Agricultural use Under a Semi‐arid Environment: Case of Agafay, Western Haouz, Morocco. Irrigation and Drainage 2019, 68, 778 -796.

AMA Style

S. Sefiani, A. El Mandour, N. Laftouhi, N. Khalil, A. Chehbouni, Lionel Jarlan, Lahoucine Hanich, S. Khabba, S. Kamal, A. Markhi, H. Nassah. Evaluation of Groundwater Quality and Agricultural use Under a Semi‐arid Environment: Case of Agafay, Western Haouz, Morocco. Irrigation and Drainage. 2019; 68 (4):778-796.

Chicago/Turabian Style

S. Sefiani; A. El Mandour; N. Laftouhi; N. Khalil; A. Chehbouni; Lionel Jarlan; Lahoucine Hanich; S. Khabba; S. Kamal; A. Markhi; H. Nassah. 2019. "Evaluation of Groundwater Quality and Agricultural use Under a Semi‐arid Environment: Case of Agafay, Western Haouz, Morocco." Irrigation and Drainage 68, no. 4: 778-796.

Journal article
Published: 03 July 2019 in Water Resources Research
Reads 0
Downloads 0

The snow melt from the High Atlas represents a crucial water resource for crop irrigation in the semi‐arid regions of Morocco. Recent studies have used assimilation of snow cover area (SCA) data from high resolution optical sensors to compute the snow water equivalent (SWE) and snow melt in other mountain regions. These techniques however require large model ensembles and therefore a challenge is to determine the adequate model resolution, which yields accurate results with reasonable computation time. Here we study the sensitivity of an energy‐balance model to the resolution of the model grid for a pilot catchment in the High Atlas. We used a time series of 8 m resolution SCA maps with an average revisit time of 7.5 days to evaluate the model results. The DEM was generated from Pléiades stereo‐images and resampled from 8 m to 30 m, 90 m, 250 m, 500 m and 1000 m. The results indicate that the model performs well from 8 m to 250 m but the agreement with observations drops at 500 m. This is because significant features of the topography were too smoothed out to properly characterize the spatial variability of meteorological forcing, including solar radiation. We conclude that a resolution of 250 m might be sufficient in this area. This result is consistent with the shape of the semivariogram of the topographic slope, suggesting that this semivariogram analysis could be used to transpose our conclusion to other study regions.

ACS Style

Mohamed Wassim Baba; Simon Gascoin; Christophe Kinnard; Ahmed Marchane; Lahoucine Hanich. Effect of Digital Elevation Model Resolution on the Simulation of the Snow Cover Evolution in the High Atlas. Water Resources Research 2019, 55, 5360 -5378.

AMA Style

Mohamed Wassim Baba, Simon Gascoin, Christophe Kinnard, Ahmed Marchane, Lahoucine Hanich. Effect of Digital Elevation Model Resolution on the Simulation of the Snow Cover Evolution in the High Atlas. Water Resources Research. 2019; 55 (7):5360-5378.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Mohamed Wassim Baba; Simon Gascoin; Christophe Kinnard; Ahmed Marchane; Lahoucine Hanich. 2019. "Effect of Digital Elevation Model Resolution on the Simulation of the Snow Cover Evolution in the High Atlas." Water Resources Research 55, no. 7: 5360-5378.

Journal article
Published: 07 December 2018 in Remote Sensing
Reads 0
Downloads 0

The snow melt from the High Atlas is a critical water resource in Morocco. In spite of its importance, monitoring the spatio-temporal evolution of key snow cover properties like the snow water equivalent remains challenging due to the lack of in situ measurements at high elevation. Since 2015, the Sentinel-2 mission provides high spatial resolution images with a 5 day revisit time, which offers new opportunities to characterize snow cover distribution in mountain regions. Here we present a new data assimilation scheme to estimate the state of the snowpack without in situ data. The model was forced using MERRA-2 data and a particle filter was developed to dynamically reduce the biases in temperature and precipitation using Sentinel-2 observations of the snow cover area. The assimilation scheme was implemented using SnowModel, a distributed energy-balance snowpack model and tested in a pilot catchment in the High Atlas. The study period covers 2015-2016 snow season which corresponds to the first operational year of Sentinel-2A, therefore the full revisit capacity was not yet achieved. Yet, we show that the data assimilation led to a better agreement with independent observations of the snow height at an automatic weather station and the snow cover extent from MODIS. The performance of the data assimilation scheme should benefit from the continuous improvements of MERRA-2 reanalysis and the full revisit capacity of Sentinel-2.

ACS Style

Mohamed Wassim Baba; Simon Gascoin; Lahoucine Hanich. Assimilation of Sentinel-2 Data into a Snowpack Model in the High Atlas of Morocco. Remote Sensing 2018, 10, 1982 .

AMA Style

Mohamed Wassim Baba, Simon Gascoin, Lahoucine Hanich. Assimilation of Sentinel-2 Data into a Snowpack Model in the High Atlas of Morocco. Remote Sensing. 2018; 10 (12):1982.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Mohamed Wassim Baba; Simon Gascoin; Lahoucine Hanich. 2018. "Assimilation of Sentinel-2 Data into a Snowpack Model in the High Atlas of Morocco." Remote Sensing 10, no. 12: 1982.

Preprint
Published: 12 October 2018
Reads 0
Downloads 0

The snow melt from the High Atlas is a critical water resource in Morocco. In spite of its importance, monitoring the spatio-temporal evolution of key snow cover properties like the snow water equivalent remains challenging due to the lack of in situ measurements at high elevation. Since 2015, the Sentinel-2 mission provides high spatial resolution images with a 5 day revisit time, which offers new opportunities to characterize snow cover distribution in mountain regions. Here we present a new data assimilation scheme to estimate the state of the snowpack without in situ data. The model was forced using MERRA-2 data and a particle filter was developed to dynamically reduce the biases in temperature and precipitation using Sentinel-2 observations of the snow cover area. The assimilation scheme was implemented using SnowModel, a distributed energy-balance snowpack model and tested in a pilot catchment in the High Atlas. The study period covers 2015-2016 snow season which corresponds to the first operational year of Sentinel-2A, therefore the full revisit capacity was not yet achieved. Yet, we show that the data assimilation led to a better agreement with independent observations of the snow height at an automatic weather station and the snow cover extent from MODIS. The performance of the data assimilation scheme should benefit from the continuous improvements in MERRA-2 reanalyses and the full revisit capacity of Sentinel-2.

ACS Style

Mohamed Wassim Baba; Simon Gascoin; Lahoucine Hanich. Assimilation of Sentinel-2 Data into a Snowpack Model in the High Atlas of Morocco. 2018, 1 .

AMA Style

Mohamed Wassim Baba, Simon Gascoin, Lahoucine Hanich. Assimilation of Sentinel-2 Data into a Snowpack Model in the High Atlas of Morocco. . 2018; ():1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Mohamed Wassim Baba; Simon Gascoin; Lahoucine Hanich. 2018. "Assimilation of Sentinel-2 Data into a Snowpack Model in the High Atlas of Morocco." , no. : 1.

Preprint
Published: 01 October 2018
Reads 0
Downloads 0

The snow melt from the High Atlas represents a crucial water resource for crop irrigation in the semi-arid regions of Morocco. Recent studies have used assimilation of snow cover area (SCA) data from high resolution optical sensors to compute the snow water equivalent (SWE) and snow melt in other mountain regions. These techniques require large model ensembles and therefore a challenge is to determine the adequate model resolution, which yields accurate results with reasonable computation time. Here we study the sensitivity of an energy-balance model to the resolution of the model grid for a pilot catchment in the High Atlas. We used a time series of 8 m resolution SCA maps with an average revisit time of 7.5 days to evaluate the model results. The DEM was generated from Pléiades stereo-images and resampled from 8 m to 30 m, 90 m, 250 m, 500 m and 1000 m. The results indicate that the model performs well from 8 m to 250 m but the agreement with observations drops at 500 m. This is because significant features of the topography were too smoothed out to properly characterize the spatial variability of meteorological forcing, including solar radiation. We conclude that a resolution of 250 m might be sufficient in this area. This result is consistent with the shape of the semivariogram of the topographic slope, suggesting that this semivariogram analysis could be used to transpose our conclusion to other study regions.

ACS Style

Mohamed Wassim Baba; Simon Gascoin; Christophe Kinnard; Ahmed Marchane; Lahoucine Hanich. Effect of digital elevation model resolution on the simulation of the snow cover evolution in the High Atlas. 2018, 1 .

AMA Style

Mohamed Wassim Baba, Simon Gascoin, Christophe Kinnard, Ahmed Marchane, Lahoucine Hanich. Effect of digital elevation model resolution on the simulation of the snow cover evolution in the High Atlas. . 2018; ():1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Mohamed Wassim Baba; Simon Gascoin; Christophe Kinnard; Ahmed Marchane; Lahoucine Hanich. 2018. "Effect of digital elevation model resolution on the simulation of the snow cover evolution in the High Atlas." , no. : 1.

Journal article
Published: 23 August 2018 in Water
Reads 0
Downloads 0

The Ourika River is an important tributary of the Tensift River in the water-stressed region of Marrakesh (Morocco). The Ourika river flow is dominated by the snow melt contribution from the High Atlas mountains. Despite its importance in terms of water resources, the snow water equivalent (SWE) is poorly monitored in the Ourika catchment. Here, we used MERRA-2 data to run a distributed energy-balance snowpack model (SnowModel) over 2000–2018. MERRA-2 data were downscaled to 250-m spatial resolution using a digital elevation model. The model outputs were compared to in situ measurements of snow depth, precipitation, river flow and remote sensing observations of the snow cover area from MODIS. The results indicate that the model provides an overall acceptable representation of the snow cover dynamics given the coarse resolution of the MERRA-2 forcing. Then, we used the model output to analyze the spatio-temporal variations of the SWE in the Ourika catchment for the first time. We suggest that MERRA-2 data, which are routinely available with a delay of a few weeks, can provide valuable information to monitor the snow resource in high mountain areas without in situ measurements.

ACS Style

Mohamed Wassim Baba; Simon Gascoin; Lionel Jarlan; Vincent Simonneaux; Lahoucine Hanich. Variations of the Snow Water Equivalent in the Ourika Catchment (Morocco) over 2000–2018 Using Downscaled MERRA-2 Data. Water 2018, 10, 1120 .

AMA Style

Mohamed Wassim Baba, Simon Gascoin, Lionel Jarlan, Vincent Simonneaux, Lahoucine Hanich. Variations of the Snow Water Equivalent in the Ourika Catchment (Morocco) over 2000–2018 Using Downscaled MERRA-2 Data. Water. 2018; 10 (9):1120.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Mohamed Wassim Baba; Simon Gascoin; Lionel Jarlan; Vincent Simonneaux; Lahoucine Hanich. 2018. "Variations of the Snow Water Equivalent in the Ourika Catchment (Morocco) over 2000–2018 Using Downscaled MERRA-2 Data." Water 10, no. 9: 1120.

Original paper
Published: 30 July 2018 in Arabian Journal of Geosciences
Reads 0
Downloads 0

In the Mediterranean region, floods are causing extended damages to the population and infrastructures. In Morocco, only a few studies have been conducted to understand flood processes while the vulnerability to floods is high. The goals of this study are to compare two modeling approaches for floods using either lumped or spatial rainfall and also to evaluate hydrological forecast capabilities. The Rheraya research catchment is characterized with steep slopes, altitudes ranging from 1027 to 4167 m, and a strong variability of rainfall. The lumped and distributed models provided similar results and reproduced well a sample of six flood events recorded in 2014. However, the distributed model provided the best estimation of the initial conditions, estimated from the ESA-CCI satellite soil moisture product and the Antecedent Precipitation Index. The validation of the lumped and the distributed models, using ESA-CCI to initialize the models, provides a Nash coefficient of 0.61 and 0.63 respectively. Then, two meteorological forecasts provided by the AROME and ALADIN models were evaluated against observed precipitation to provide a hydrological forecast. The AROME forecast performed better but still with a strong bias compared to observed precipitation. Further research is needed to link quantitative precipitation forecasts with hydrological models in this type of catchment.

ACS Style

El Mahdi El Khalki; Yves Tramblay; Mohamed El Mehdi Saidi; Christophe Bouvier; Lahoucine Hanich; Mounia Benrhanem; Meriem Alaouri. Comparison of modeling approaches for flood forecasting in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco. Arabian Journal of Geosciences 2018, 11, 410 .

AMA Style

El Mahdi El Khalki, Yves Tramblay, Mohamed El Mehdi Saidi, Christophe Bouvier, Lahoucine Hanich, Mounia Benrhanem, Meriem Alaouri. Comparison of modeling approaches for flood forecasting in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco. Arabian Journal of Geosciences. 2018; 11 (15):410.

Chicago/Turabian Style

El Mahdi El Khalki; Yves Tramblay; Mohamed El Mehdi Saidi; Christophe Bouvier; Lahoucine Hanich; Mounia Benrhanem; Meriem Alaouri. 2018. "Comparison of modeling approaches for flood forecasting in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco." Arabian Journal of Geosciences 11, no. 15: 410.

Original paper
Published: 12 February 2018 in Theoretical and Applied Climatology
Reads 0
Downloads 0

Over the past decades, drought has become a major concern in Morocco due to the importance of agriculture in the economy of the country. In the present work, the standardized precipitation index (SPI) is used to monitor the evolution, frequency, and severity of droughts in the High Atlas basins (N’Fis, Ourika, Rhéraya, Zat, and R’dat), located south of Marrakech city. The spatiotemporal characterization of drought in these basins is performed by computing the SPI with precipitation spatially interpolated over the catchments. The Haouz plain, located downstream of these basins, is strongly dependent on water provided by the mountain ranges, as shown by the positive correlations between the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) in the plain and the 3, 6, and 12-month SPI in the High Atlas catchments. On the opposite, no significant correlations are found with piezometric levels of the Haouz groundwater due to intensified pumping for irrigation in the recent decades. A relative SPI index was computed to evaluate the climate change impacts on drought occurrence, based on the projected precipitation (2006–2100) from five high-resolution CORDEX regional climate simulations, under two emission scenarios (RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5). These models show a decrease in precipitation towards the future up to − 65% compared to the historical period. In terms of drought events, the future projections indicate a strong increase in the frequency of SPI events below − 2, considered as severe drought condition.

ACS Style

Wiam Zkhiri; Yves Tramblay; Lahoucine Hanich; Lionel Jarlan; Denis Ruelland. Spatiotemporal characterization of current and future droughts in the High Atlas basins (Morocco). Theoretical and Applied Climatology 2018, 135, 593 -605.

AMA Style

Wiam Zkhiri, Yves Tramblay, Lahoucine Hanich, Lionel Jarlan, Denis Ruelland. Spatiotemporal characterization of current and future droughts in the High Atlas basins (Morocco). Theoretical and Applied Climatology. 2018; 135 (1-2):593-605.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Wiam Zkhiri; Yves Tramblay; Lahoucine Hanich; Lionel Jarlan; Denis Ruelland. 2018. "Spatiotemporal characterization of current and future droughts in the High Atlas basins (Morocco)." Theoretical and Applied Climatology 135, no. 1-2: 593-605.

Article
Published: 17 December 2017 in Water Resources Management
Reads 0
Downloads 0

Climate change may have strong impacts on water resources in developing countries. In North Africa, many dams and reservoirs have been built to secure water availability in the context of a strong inter-annual variability of precipitation. The goal of this study is to evaluate climate change impacts on surface water resources for the largest dams in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia using high-resolution (12 km) regional climate models (RCM) simulations. To evaluate the atmospheric demand (evapotranspiration), two approaches are compared: The direct use of actual evaporation simulated by the RCMs, or estimation of reference evapotranspiration computed with the Hargreaves-Samani (HAR) equation, relying on air temperature only, and the FAO-Penman Monteith (PM) equation, computed with temperature, wind, radiation and relative humidity. Results showed a strong convergence of the RCM simulations towards increased temperature and a decrease in precipitation, in particular during spring and the western part of North Africa. A decrease in actual evapotranspiration, highly correlated to the decrease in precipitations, is observed throughout the study area. On the opposite, an increase in reference evapotranspiration is observed, with similar changes between HAR and PM equations, indicating that the main driver of change is the temperature increase. Since the catchments are rather water-limited than energy-limited, despite opposite projections for actual and reference evapotranspiration a decrease of water availability is projected for all basins under all scenarios, with a strong east-to-west gradient. The projected decrease is stronger when considering reference evapotranspiration rather than actual evaporation. These pessimistic future projections are an incentive to adapt the current management of surface water resources to future climatic conditions.

ACS Style

Yves Tramblay; Lionel Jarlan; Lahoucine Hanich; Samuel Somot. Future Scenarios of Surface Water Resources Availability in North African Dams. Water Resources Management 2017, 32, 1291 -1306.

AMA Style

Yves Tramblay, Lionel Jarlan, Lahoucine Hanich, Samuel Somot. Future Scenarios of Surface Water Resources Availability in North African Dams. Water Resources Management. 2017; 32 (4):1291-1306.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Yves Tramblay; Lionel Jarlan; Lahoucine Hanich; Samuel Somot. 2017. "Future Scenarios of Surface Water Resources Availability in North African Dams." Water Resources Management 32, no. 4: 1291-1306.

Letter
Published: 30 June 2017 in Environmental Research Letters
Reads 0
Downloads 0

In this study we quantified the sensitivity of snow to climate warming in selected mountain sites having a Mediterranean climate, including the Pyrenees in Spain and Andorra, the Sierra Nevada in Spain and California (USA), the Atlas in Morocco, and the Andes in Chile. Meteorological observations from high elevations were used to simulate the snow energy and mass balance (SEMB) and calculate its sensitivity to climate. Very different climate sensitivities were evident amongst the various sites. For example, reductions of 9%–19% and 6–28 days in the mean snow water equivalent (SWE) and snow duration, respectively, were found per °C increase. Simulated changes in precipitation (±20%) did not affect the sensitivities. The Andes and Atlas Mountains have a shallow and cold snowpack, and net radiation dominates the SEMB; and explains their relatively low sensitivity to climate warming. The Pyrenees and USA Sierra Nevada have a deeper and warmer snowpack, and sensible heat flux is more important in the SEMB; this explains the much greater sensitivities of these regions. Differences in sensitivity help explain why, in regions where climate models project relatively greater temperature increases and drier conditions by 2050 (such as the Spanish Sierra Nevada and the Moroccan Atlas Mountains), the decline in snow accumulation and duration is similar to other sites (such as the Pyrenees and the USA Sierra Nevada), where models project stable precipitation and more attenuated warming. The snowpack in the Andes (Chile) exhibited the lowest sensitivity to warming, and is expected to undergo only moderate change (a decrease of <12% in mean SWE, and a reduction of < 7 days in snow duration under RCP 4.5). Snow accumulation and duration in the other regions are projected to decrease substantially (a minimum of 40% in mean SWE and 15 days in snow duration) by 2050.

ACS Style

J I López-Moreno; S Gascoin; J Herrero; Eric Sproles; M Pons; Esteban Alonso González; Lahoucine Hanich; Abdelghani Boudhar; K N Musselman; N P Molotch; J Sickman; J Pomeroy. Different sensitivities of snowpacks to warming in Mediterranean climate mountain areas. Environmental Research Letters 2017, 12, 074006 .

AMA Style

J I López-Moreno, S Gascoin, J Herrero, Eric Sproles, M Pons, Esteban Alonso González, Lahoucine Hanich, Abdelghani Boudhar, K N Musselman, N P Molotch, J Sickman, J Pomeroy. Different sensitivities of snowpacks to warming in Mediterranean climate mountain areas. Environmental Research Letters. 2017; 12 (7):074006.

Chicago/Turabian Style

J I López-Moreno; S Gascoin; J Herrero; Eric Sproles; M Pons; Esteban Alonso González; Lahoucine Hanich; Abdelghani Boudhar; K N Musselman; N P Molotch; J Sickman; J Pomeroy. 2017. "Different sensitivities of snowpacks to warming in Mediterranean climate mountain areas." Environmental Research Letters 12, no. 7: 074006.

Journal article
Published: 28 February 2017 in European Scientific Journal, ESJ
Reads 0
Downloads 0

The irrigated perimeter of the Haouz plain is one of the largest in Morocco with 310.000 Ha with intense agricultural practices based on irrigation. Besides, recent studies have shown that the aquifer is characterized by an overall average to low sensitivity and vulnerability. The objective of this study is to provide an in depth diagnosis of the current situation regarding soil quality for a drip irrigation area: a citrus orchard, in a farm named Agafay, is located in the western part of Haouz, at 35 km SW of Marrakesh. To this objective, an intensive in situ campaign has been carried out focused on the measurements of the physico-chemical parameters of soil, at nine plots. The variation of these parameters, their impact on the type of rootstock and the variation of pollutants through the five soil horizons are analyzed. The results revealed that the condition in the soil quality is not very alarming. As most of the soils are light-textured, with poor organic matter content and basic to very basic pH. The reduction of organic matter, salinity, orthophosphates and nitrates with depth is attributed to the localized mode of irrigation adopted at the site which minimizes the loss of nutrients and, in fine, pollution of the aquifer. Multivariate analysis shows that the total and lime correlate well with the pH, which in turn correlate negatively with nitrate content and soil electrical conductivity. This work has strong implications for the quality assessment of soil for all irrigated perimeters by the drip in semi-arid areas, order to ensure the conservation and sustainability of the production system.

ACS Style

Salma Sefiani; Abdennabi El Mandour; Nour-Eddine Laftouhi; Nourddine Khalil; Safia Kamal; Lionel Jarlan; Abdelghani Chehbouni; Lahoucine Hanich; Said Khabba; Addi Hamaoui. Assessment of Soil Quality for a Semi-Arid Irrigated Under Citrus Orchard : Case of the Haouz Plain, Morocco. European Scientific Journal, ESJ 2017, 13, 1 .

AMA Style

Salma Sefiani, Abdennabi El Mandour, Nour-Eddine Laftouhi, Nourddine Khalil, Safia Kamal, Lionel Jarlan, Abdelghani Chehbouni, Lahoucine Hanich, Said Khabba, Addi Hamaoui. Assessment of Soil Quality for a Semi-Arid Irrigated Under Citrus Orchard : Case of the Haouz Plain, Morocco. European Scientific Journal, ESJ. 2017; 13 (6):1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Salma Sefiani; Abdennabi El Mandour; Nour-Eddine Laftouhi; Nourddine Khalil; Safia Kamal; Lionel Jarlan; Abdelghani Chehbouni; Lahoucine Hanich; Said Khabba; Addi Hamaoui. 2017. "Assessment of Soil Quality for a Semi-Arid Irrigated Under Citrus Orchard : Case of the Haouz Plain, Morocco." European Scientific Journal, ESJ 13, no. 6: 1.

Journal article
Published: 18 January 2017 in Hydrological Sciences Journal
Reads 0
Downloads 0
ACS Style

Ahmed Marchane; Yves Tramblay; Lahoucine Hanich; Denis Ruelland; Lionel Jarlan. Climate change impacts on surface water resources in the Rheraya catchment (High Atlas, Morocco). Hydrological Sciences Journal 2017, 62, 979 -995.

AMA Style

Ahmed Marchane, Yves Tramblay, Lahoucine Hanich, Denis Ruelland, Lionel Jarlan. Climate change impacts on surface water resources in the Rheraya catchment (High Atlas, Morocco). Hydrological Sciences Journal. 2017; 62 (6):979-995.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Ahmed Marchane; Yves Tramblay; Lahoucine Hanich; Denis Ruelland; Lionel Jarlan. 2017. "Climate change impacts on surface water resources in the Rheraya catchment (High Atlas, Morocco)." Hydrological Sciences Journal 62, no. 6: 979-995.

Journal article
Published: 04 January 2017 in Climate
Reads 0
Downloads 0

In arid and semi-arid areas, rainfall is often characterized by a strong spatial and temporal variability. These environmental factors, combined with the sparsity of the measurement networks in developing countries, constitute real constraints for water resources management. In recent years, several spatial rainfall measurement sources have become available, such as TRMM data (Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission). In this study, the TRMM 3B42 Version 7 product was evaluated using rain gauges measurements from 19 stations in the Oum-Er-Bia (OER) basin located in the center of Morocco. The relevance of the TRMM product was tested by direct comparison with observations at different time scales (daily, monthly, and annual) between 1998 and 2010. Results show that the satellite product provides poor estimations of rainfall at the daily time scale giving an average Pearson correlation coefficient (r) of 0.2 and average Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) of 10 mm. However, the accuracy of TRMM rainfall is improved when temporally averaged to monthly time scale (r of 0.8 and RMSE of 28 mm) or annual time scale (r of 0.71 and RMSE of 157 mm). Moreover, improved correlation with observed data was obtained for data spatially averaged at the watershed scale. Therefore, at the monthly and annual time scales, TRMM data can be a useful source of rainfall data for water resources monitoring and management in ungauged basins in semi-arid regions.

ACS Style

Hamza Ouatiki; Abdelghani Boudhar; Yves Tramblay; Lionel Jarlan; Tarik Benabdelouhab; Lahoucine Hanich; M. Rachid El Meslouhi; Abdelghani Chehbouni. Evaluation of TRMM 3B42 V7 Rainfall Product over the Oum Er Rbia Watershed in Morocco. Climate 2017, 5, 1 .

AMA Style

Hamza Ouatiki, Abdelghani Boudhar, Yves Tramblay, Lionel Jarlan, Tarik Benabdelouhab, Lahoucine Hanich, M. Rachid El Meslouhi, Abdelghani Chehbouni. Evaluation of TRMM 3B42 V7 Rainfall Product over the Oum Er Rbia Watershed in Morocco. Climate. 2017; 5 (1):1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Hamza Ouatiki; Abdelghani Boudhar; Yves Tramblay; Lionel Jarlan; Tarik Benabdelouhab; Lahoucine Hanich; M. Rachid El Meslouhi; Abdelghani Chehbouni. 2017. "Evaluation of TRMM 3B42 V7 Rainfall Product over the Oum Er Rbia Watershed in Morocco." Climate 5, no. 1: 1.

Journal article
Published: 01 January 2017 in Acta Horticulturae
Reads 0
Downloads 0
ACS Style

H. Nassah; S. Er-Raki; S. Khabba; Y. Fakir; J. Ezzahar; L. Hanich; O. Merlin. Evaluation of deep percolation in irrigated citrus orchards in the semi-arid region of Tensift Al Haouz, Morocco. Acta Horticulturae 2017, 145 -152.

AMA Style

H. Nassah, S. Er-Raki, S. Khabba, Y. Fakir, J. Ezzahar, L. Hanich, O. Merlin. Evaluation of deep percolation in irrigated citrus orchards in the semi-arid region of Tensift Al Haouz, Morocco. Acta Horticulturae. 2017; (1150):145-152.

Chicago/Turabian Style

H. Nassah; S. Er-Raki; S. Khabba; Y. Fakir; J. Ezzahar; L. Hanich; O. Merlin. 2017. "Evaluation of deep percolation in irrigated citrus orchards in the semi-arid region of Tensift Al Haouz, Morocco." Acta Horticulturae , no. 1150: 145-152.