Meryeme Khachchabi

Ms. Meryeme Khachchabi


Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

1Year (2026-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

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21 September 2026 in Hydrology
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
PDF file
MKMeryeme Khachchabi
Meryeme Khachchabi
TTTagma Tagma
Tagma Tagma
FKFatima EL KHALLOUFI
Fatima EL KHALLOUFI
JMJalal Moustadraf
Jalal Moustadraf
EHEL Hassania EL Hamzaoui
EL Hassania EL Hamzaoui
Groundwater is essential for drinking and irrigation to ensure a stable life and economic development, especially in semi-arid to arid rural areas such as the Lagnadiz district in central Morocco. However, its occurrence is highly variable in discontinuous media because of its uneven circulation along fractures, making it difficult to locate productive drilling sites. This study aimed to identify suitable locations for the establishment of productive wells by combining Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 imagery, a DEM, and geological data. Lineaments were automatically extracted and validated using Google Earth imagery, slope and hillshade maps, and field observations. Six thematic layers (lithology, drainage density, distance to faults, slope, lineament density, and lineament intersection density) were weighted using the Analytic Hierarchy Process and integrated through Weighted Linear Combination. The resulting groundwater potential map shows that high potential areas cover 38.53% of the study area, followed by moderate potential areas (34.84%) and low potential areas (26.63%). A ±10% weight sensitivity analysis showed strong map stability, with r values of 0.9949–0.9999 and class agreement rates of 93.31–99.61%. The map was independently validated using exploitation-yield data from 22 boreholes that were not involved in its construction. Using a productivity threshold of 5 m3/h, the ROC analysis produced an AUC of 0.795, with a 95% confidence interval ranging from 0.581 to 0.949, indicating an acceptable ability of the GWPI map to distinguish between the two productivity groups.