Potential impact of drought on Mikkes River flow (Morocco)

Subject Areas : Environmental Geology

Kaltoum Belhassan ¹ , Ashok Vaseashta ² , Mohammed Abdelbaset Hessane ³ , Hafizullah Rasouli ⁴ , Mohammed KA Kaabar ⁵ , Emad Kamil Hussein ⁶ , Muhammad Adnan ⁷

1 - Independent researcher in Water Environment, Dewsbury WF13 4QP, West Yorkshire, UK
2 - International Clean Water Institute, Manassas, VA USA |Riga Technical University, Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Nanotechnologies, Riga, Latvia
3 - Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Immouzer Road, BP: 2626, Fez 30000, Morocco
4 - Department of Geology, Geoscience Faculty, Kabul University, Jamal Mina 1006, Kabul, Afghanistan
5 - Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Washington State University, Pullman 99163, WA, USA
6 - Mussaib Technical College, Al Furat Al Awsat Technical University, Mussaib P.O. Box 51006, Mussaib, Babil, Iraq
7 - Department of Agronomy, College of Agriculture, University of Sargodha, Pakistan

Received: 2021-11-04 Accepted : 2022-06-24 Published : 2023-01-01

Keywords: Morocco, drought, temperature, piezometric level, rainfall, Flow, Mikkes River,

Abstract :

Mikkes River Basin is located in the north-center of the Kingdom of Morocco (North-West of Africa). It comprises of three different zones which represent diversified geologies and which shelter a phreatic and confined aquifer in Saïs plain and a shallow aquifer in El Hajeb Ifrane Tabular. This research aims to highlight the potential impact of drought on Mikkes River flow through climate indexes including rainfall, temperature and evapotranspiration during the period 1968-2009. Monitoring the evolution of rainfall, temperatures and evapotranspiration in the Mikkes basin during the period 1968-2009 shows that rainfall decreases, temperature and evapotranspiration increase from South to North of the basin (spatial drought). Also, these climatic indicators highlight a decrease in rainfall, increase in temperatures and evapotranspiration after 1980 (temporal drought). Flow deficit of Mikkes River between the period 1968-1979 and 1980-2009 is around 76%. This high River flow may due to the drought which the region has experienced since 1980 and also to the overexploitation of groundwater resources to satisfy water demands. The Mikkes basin is suffering severe depletion of groundwater piezometric levels, especially in the confined aquifer.

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