The study of land use/land cover (LULC) has become an increasingly important stage in the development of forest ecosystems strategies. Hence, the main goal of this study was to describe the vegetation change of Azrou Forest in the Middle Atlas, Morocco, between 1987 and 2017. To achieve this, a set of Landsat images, including one Multispectral Scanner (MSS) scene from 1987; one Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) scene from 2000; two Thematic Mapper (TM) scenes from 1995 and 2011; and one Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) scene from 2017; were acquired and processed. Ground-based survey data and the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) were used to identify and to improve the discrimination between LULC categories. Then, the maximum likelihood (ML) classification method was applied was applied, in order to produce land cover maps for each year. Three classes were considered by the classification of NDVI value: low-density vegetation; moderate-density vegetation, and high-density vegetation. Our study achieved classification accuracies of 66.8% (1987), 99.9% (1995), 99.8% (2000), 99.9% (2011), and 99.9% (2017). The results from the Landsat-based image analysis show that the area of low-density vegetation was decreased from 27.4% to 2.1% over the past 30 years. While, in 2017, the class of high-density vegetation was increased to 64.6% of the total area of study area. The results of this study show that the total forest cover remained stable. The present study highlights the importance of the image classification algorithms combined with NDVI index for better understanding the changes that have occurred in this forest. Therefore, the findings of this study could assist planners and decision-makers to guide, in a good manner, the sustainable land development of areas with similar backgrounds.

This paper aims to develop a method to assess regional water balances using remote sensing techniques. The Boufakrane river watershed in Meknes Region (Morocco), which is characterized by both a strong urbanization and a rural land use change, is taken as a study case. Firstly, changes in land cover were mapped by classifying remote sensing images (Thematic Mapper, Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus and Operational Land Imager) at a medium scale resolution for the years 1990, 2003 and 2018. By means of supervised classification procedures the following land cover categories could be mapped: forests, bare soil, arboriculture, arable land and urban area. For each of these categories a water balance was developed for the different time periods, taking into account changing management and consumption patterns. Finally, the land cover maps were combined with the land cover specific water balances resulting in a total water balance for the selected catchment. The procedure was validated by comparing the assessments with data from water supply stations and the number of licensed ground water extraction pumps. In terms of land use/land cover changes (LULCC), the results showed that urban areas, natural vegetation, arboriculture and cereals increased by 183.74%, 12.55%, 34.99 and 48.77% respectively while forests and bare soils decreased by 78.65% and 16.78% respectively. On the other hand, water consumption has been increased significantly due to the Meknes city growth, the arboriculture expansion and the new crops’ introduction in the arable areas. The increased water consumption by human activities is largely due to reduced water losses through evapotranspiration because of deforestation. Since the major part of the forest in the catchment has disappeared, a further increase of the water consumption by human activities can no longer be offset by deforestation.

The objective of this research was to determine the recharge of the Cretaceous aquifers by the High Atlas, as well as the interaction and possible mixing phenomena between the waters of the different aquifers, by investigating the hydrochemical and isotopic evolution of groundwater flow paths from the limestone karst systems of the High Atlas to the Cretaceous basin of Errachidia. Geological techniques were used to investigate and confirm the chemical and isotopic characteristics of the waters. Although the Gibbs diagram shows that water–rock interaction is the dominant hydrochemical process, some water samples in the Cretaceous basin are influenced by both evaporation and water–rock interaction, indicating a mixture of rainfall and deep waters. A saturation index study indicated that limestone minerals were supersaturated in parts of the groundwater samples (calcite and dolomite). This result was confirmed by isotope data. Indeed, some Cretaceous basin samples show isotopic similarities to those from the Jurassic High Atlas. The geological cross-sections illustrate that the High Atlas Jurassic limestones are in direct contact with the Cretaceous basin’s permeable rocks, allowing groundwater to circulate from the High Atlas to Errachidia’s Cretaceous basin.

Flooding is one of the most damaging natural hazards worldwide, particularly in data-scarce watersheds where long-term hydrometeorological records are limited. This study focuses on the R’Dom watershed in the Meknes region, Morocco, and aims to improve flood susceptibility and relative flood risk assessment by integrating remote sensing, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approaches. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (Fuzzy AHP/FAHP) were applied to evaluate flood hazard, vulnerability, and overall risk using seventeen conditioning factors, including topographic, hydrological, geological, land-cover, socio-economic, and infrastructure-related variables. The Flood Hazard Index (FHI), Flood Vulnerability Index (FVI), and Flood Risk Index (FRI) were calculated to produce flood susceptibility, vulnerability, and relative flood risk maps. Model validation was performed using a point-based flood inventory dataset composed of 900 locations, including 450 flood and 450 non-flood points, compiled from historical flood information, field observations, local information, official reports, and satellite-based interpretation. The dataset was divided into 70% for training and 30% for testing, and model performance was assessed using receiver operating characteristic–area under the curve (ROC-AUC) analysis. The AHP and Fuzzy AHP models showed good to excellent predictive performance, with testing AUC values ranging from 0.767 to 0.935. The AHP-based models achieved the highest testing performance, while Fuzzy AHP remained useful for representing uncertainty in expert judgment and gradual spatial transitions. The final flood risk map indicates that approximately 18.78% of the study area, corresponding to 240.62 km², is classified as having a high to very high flood risk, mainly around the Meknes conurbation and locally near the El Hajeb region. These results provide a practical decision-support tool for identifying priority areas for flood mitigation, land-use planning, and watershed management. However, the proposed GIS–MCDA approach produces relative flood susceptibility and risk classes and does not replace hydrological or hydraulic modeling for estimating flood depth, discharge, inundation extent, or return-period-based flood hazard.

The karst of the Moroccan Atlas Mountains represents a strategic water resource and a paleo-environmental recorder of the first order for North Africa. However, despite its importance, it has not yet been the subject of a comparative synthesis positioning it within the global framework of karst systems worldwide. This study aims to fill this gap by providing (1) a critical synthesis of the state of the art on Atlas karst and (2) a rigorous comparative analysis with other reference mountain karsts (Jura, Dinarides) and a tropical analogue (Southern China) to identify specific features and universal principles. The methodology adopted consists of a systematic review (Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar) and analysis of karst systems according to a conceptual framework focused on the interaction between tectonic (orogenic style and history) and climatic (regime, gradients, Quaternary variations) controls. These comparison regions were chosen for their status as reference models: the Jura as a temperate folded model, the Dinarides as a Mediterranean holokarst model, and the karst of Southern China as a tropical model. The analysis is structured according to a ‘Tectonics-Climate’ conceptual framework, which systematically examines how the interaction of these two primary forces shapes the characteristics of each system. The analysis reveals that the Atlas karst is a unique ‘hybrid’ model, characterized by the combined influence of active and recent tectonic uplift and a very marked climatic gradient, ranging from sub-humid to semi-arid. This duality controls all of its characteristics, from the architecture of its aquifers to the precariousness of its water resources. It clearly distinguishes it from the temperate–humid karst of the Jura, the Mediterranean–humid karst of the Dinarides, and the tropical–humid karst of Southern China. By defining the place of the Atlas karst, we propose a priority research agenda for the coming decades, focused on process quantification, hydrosystem modeling, and high-resolution paleoclimate reconstruction.