Floods are natural disasters that often impact communities living in low-lying areas in the northern and central parts of Morocco. In this study, our aim was to create a flood susceptibility map using three methods; the hierarchy process (AHP) frequency ratio model (FR) and the weights of evidence (WoE) model. We extensively examined the area identified by these approaches using a hydraulic analysis software called HEC-RAS (version 6.3.1). Our analysis focused on the Essaouira watersheds in Morocco, where we identified around 197 flood locations. Out of these, we randomly selected 70% for modeling purposes while the remaining 30% were used for validation. Ten factors that influence floods were considered, such as slope, elevation, proximity to rivers, drainage density, stream order, land use patterns, rainfall data, lithology (permeability level) index (TWI), and curvature. We obtained these factors from data sources. Finally, we generated a flood susceptibility map and evaluated its accuracy by calculating the area under the curve (AUC). The validation results confirmed that all three models were robust and effective with an AUC of 90. Moreover, the research uncovered a trend of vulnerability with the most susceptible area being in close proximity to the city of Essaouira along the Oued Ksob. A detailed analysis using HEC-RAS was conducted at this identified location, pinpointing the village of Diabat as highly exposed. These findings hold significance for flood management, empowering decision makers, scholars, and urban planners to make informed choices and implement strategies that can minimize the impact of floods in susceptible regions while minimizing potential damages.

The Essaouira Basin, located in central western Morocco, faces a significant threat of water shortage due to both the substantially reduced rainfall caused by climate change and the continuously increasing demand for this essential resource. Groundwater resources are being increasingly exploited to meet the needs of the population, whether for agricultural or domestic purposes. Therefore, it has become necessary to intensify investigations across the entire basin, particularly through indirect methods such as geophysical techniques, to accurately delineate the productive zones. In this context, the present study was undertaken to investigate the deep structure of this basin with the aim of comprehending the functioning of its aquifer system. This study is based on the interpretation of gravity data covering the Essaouira Basin. In addition to their qualitative analysis, these data underwent a methodological approach involving transformations to extract meaningful insights. The observed anomalies were interpreted in terms of (i) thickness variations within the slightly folded sedimentary series of the basin; (ii) Paleozoic basement topography; and (iii) the presence of salt deposits. In fact, among the negative anomalies, some coincide with evaporitic deposits that are known either from the geological outcrops or the seismic surveys carried out in the Essaouira Basin within the framework of petroleum exploration programs, while others coincide with areas of increased thickness of sedimentary sequences. The latter include synclines and basement depressions, where the accumulation of groundwater tends to occur; as a result, they constitute suitable zones for the drilling of water extraction wells. Groundwater flows observed in some existing wells are consistent with this hypothesis. The results of the contact analysis approach implemented within the framework of the study reveals the Essaouira Basin is affected by a fault network whose main direction is parallel to the Atlantic margin (i.e., NNE–SSW). This implies that the extensional tectonic phase responsible for initiating the rifting of the Central Atlantic in the Triassic era has primarily impacted the structural configuration of this basin. This study demonstrates the strong potential of the gravity method as a tool to delineate the deep structure of sedimentary basins and to identify potentially productive groundwater zones. The final results will provide important support to decision makers in sustainable groundwater management, especially in vulnerable areas.

The coastal area of Safi between Cap Beddouza and Jorf Lihoudi is dominated by different forms of marine cliffs forming the coastline, with rock formations ranging from Jurassic to Quaternary. The main coastal geological risk is the instabilities of these cliffs due to the falls and collapses of the blocks, as well as landslides. The aim of this paper is to give detailed information on the rate of the cliff summit recession for the last 66 years, obtained by applying the DSAS model, in parallel with the identification of unstable elements, including their different parameters such as size, abundance, activity in time and their effect on the recession of the cliff top, which is fundamental information for the evolution the models of sea cliffs. These phenomena constitute a significant economical, social, and environmental risk.

This study analyzes the educational and scientific potential of paleogeographic reconstruction as a contextualized geoscience teaching tool within the UNESCO Global Geopark of M’Goun (Central High Atlas, Morocco). It addresses a major limitation of Moroccan geology curricula, which mainly rely on generalized paleogeographic models disconnected from local geological realities and field evidence. The Ouaouizaght sector, characterized by a continuous Jurassic–Cretaceous sedimentary succession and well-preserved Middle Liassic facies, was selected as a representative case study for developing an integrated field-based educational framework. The methodological approach combines cartographic analysis, geological field observations, structural interpretation, and GIS-based spatial synthesis. Field investigations conducted along a northwest–southeast transect enabled the characterization of carbonate platform, slope, and distal hemipelagic environments. Meanwhile, they identified tectonic controls influencing facies organization and basin geometry. The integration of lithostratigraphic, paleoenvironmental, and structural data led to the reconstruction of a coherent paleogeographic model for the western edge of the Central High Atlas during the Middle Liassic. The main target audience of this research is Life and Earth Sciences (LES) teachers, both in initial training and continuing professional development, and indirectly secondary school students. This study highlighted the pedagogical value of combining fieldwork, spatial reasoning, and geological interpretation to support inquiry-based and contextualized geoscience education.

Floods are common natural hazards causing deaths, economic losses, and destruction of property. In Morocco, floods have become a structural phenomenon. In recent years, exceptional rainfall events have occurred in several regions of the country.With the climate change and weather variability, it may not be possible to prevent flooding. However, flood prevention and mitigation can be enhanced by flood susceptibility mapping.The present study aimed to identify flood susceptible areas in M'goun geopark (central High Atlas, Morocco) using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method, which is an interactive decision-making approach under multi-criteria decision analysis.The historic flood data were collected from multi-source satellite images from 1995 to 2016. In this study, the flood inventory was prepared based on the floods that occurred in 1995, 2010, 2014, and 2015. The flood data were randomly classified as training data for mapping and testing data for model validation.The geomorphologic disposition to flooding is influenced by morphometric factors such as the lowest local height level, slope degrees below 10 °, no curvature of the terrain or high flow accumulation that can be derived from digital elevation models (Aster GDEM, SRTM-DEM, ALOS PALSAR-DEM) using GIS software. Further conditioning factor data were acquired from satellite images, topographic maps, geological maps and field work.The factors used to perform flood susceptibility mapping were elevation, slope, aspect, curvature, topographic wetness index, stream power index, rainfall, distance to rivers, stream density, lithology and land use. Digital image processing methods were used to derive the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) based on Landsat data, thus, gaining information of surface water bodies and soil moisture conditions.The relative importance of physical factors has been compared in a pairwise matrix to gain the weight values during the process of AHP model. The flood susceptibility zones have been mapped according to their weights.The validation of the model using the area under the curve revealed that the success rate is 85%, while the prediction rate is 88.5%, indicating this AHP method’s reliability.The results from this study can be useful for local authorities in the study area for flood mitigation. It will be also used for communicating flood risks to the communities around the floods prone areas of the central High Atlas with high touristic vocation.