Contribution of Geomatics, Priority Activity Program Guidelines, and Remote Sensing to Environmental Study in the Cretaceous Basin of Errachidia-Boudenib, Morocco

Abstract

The present study aims at mapping areas vulnerable to water erosion based on the PAP/CAR (Priority Activity Program/Regional Activity Center) model guidelines, geomatics, remote sensing, and GIS in the Errachidia-Boudenib Cretaceous basin. This basin is located in south-eastern Morocco and covers an area of 13,000 km2, the basin is 320 km long and 75 km wide. The method of estimating water erosion is composed of three phases; a predictive phase consisting of a mapping of predisposing factors such as slope, substrate, and/or soils and vegetation cover, a descriptive phase based on the mapping of actual erosion, and an integration phase to arrive at the identification and evaluation of the erosion risk. The mapping of areas vulnerable to water erosion indicates that 70% of the studied basin has low erodibility and 22% is notable, while only 8% has high to very high erodibility. The areas most affected by degradation are located at the end of the basin and correspond to lands with steep slopes (>35%). Consequently, this study has allowed us to locate certain sectors and roads that may be affected by this type of erosion, namely the mountainous areas of the High Atlas and roads numbered R13, R601, R 703, and P7106.

Keywords

• gis
• cretaceous basin
• water erosion
• high atlas
• pap/car model