The effect of landuse dynamics on water balance components in the Upper Oum Er Rabia Basin, Morocco

Abstract

The Upper Oum Er-Rbia Basin (UOERB) has been facing significant land use/land cover change and urban sprawl dynamics in recent years, in addition to significant climatic variability leading to disruption of precipitation intensity and quantity. Our approach is to identify the morphometric characteristics of the study region and monitor changes in land use and land cover by analyzing Landsat images. These factors form the input parameters for the HEC-HMS (Hydrologic Engineering Center - Hydrologic Modeling System) hydrological model for simulating daily historical hydro-climatic events. The classification of Landsat images shows that the Upper Oum Er-Rbia Basin has experienced significant landuse dynamics over the past 30 years, resulting in disrupted rainfall and recurrent flooding events. Overall, the hydrological simulation shows good agreement between observed and simulated flow hydrographs, with Nash criteria between 0.6 and 0.8. This knowledge enables us to better estimate the return flows in the catchment area, and to take appropriate action in terms of hydraulic management and development in the Upper Oum Er-Rbia Basin.