STUDY OF THE IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON WATER RESOURCES IN THE CENTRAL MIDDLE ATLAS (MOROCCO)

Hind Fattah, Mohamed-Saïd Karrouk, University Hassan II, Laboratory of Climatology and remote sensing, Morocco

Abstract

Since the last century, particularly the last three decades, climate change occurred more prominent and more aggressive in places on the planet earth, in fact, the phenomenon of prolonged drought, El Nino, tornadoes at high speed, the blows of rain showers caused by overflow of rivers the deadly and catastrophic floods ... have become more intense and more devastating.
The Moroccan climate either has not escaped from these changes recorded globally; on the contrary, they were very striking and consistent: the very acute and repeated droughts in recent decades, devastating floods ... what has induced therefore very intense impacts on water resources, natural ecosystems, food security and many others.
A climatic approach based on the study and analysis of the evolutionary tendency of climatic variables might show that the quantitative changes and spatiotemporal observed in precipitation and surface temperatures, are the origin of the acute drought and deficit water frequently observed since the 80's in all of Morocco, particularly in the central Middle Atlas, who suffer lately of the decline of these water resources.
Based also on GIS and remote sensing, it would be possible to follow closely the spatiotemporal evolution of surface water resources in the Central Atlas chain.

Keywords: Climate Change, Climate Variables, Water Resources, Central Middle Atlas, GIS, Remote sensing.