Urbanism, climate change and floods: Case of Tlemcen city

Abstract

After a drought during the 1990s, Tlemcen has experienced heavy rainfall in recent years which caused several floods. They have become frequent and usually cause large damage. We then asked ourselves questions about the reasons for this deregulation of rainfall and floods. We have assumed that climate change has led to deregulation of precipitation and that the urbanization and morphology of the site are the causes of the floods. For this, we analyzed the rainfall data and study the configuration of the town of Tlemcen. We noticed then that Tlemcen town undergoes the climate changes effects per a diminution of the multi-annual mean of rainfall between 1974 and 2008, and a slight displacement of the rainfall from April to November after 2008. Finally, the principal reason of floods is the thoughtless urban sprawl on the water courses also favored by an unfavourable topography.

Keywords

• Tlemcen
• urbanization
• climate change
• rains
• floods