Modelling and Mapping of Soil Organic Matter in Doukkala Plain, Moroccan Semi-Arid Region

Abstract

The Doukkala plains one of the largest irrigated areas in Morocco with a very important agricultural potential. With the integration of new technologies in agriculture, the plain has been subjected to intensive agriculture which has negative impacts on soil quality especially the soil organic matter loss. Therefore, the objective of this study is to combine remote sensing and modelling for monitoring of organic matter content. The obtained results showed that all the examined models showed satisfactory results in the prediction of organic matter with a coefficient of determination R2 ranging from 0.58 to 0.71 and the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) varied 0.25 and 0.26%. Based on the findings, we can infer that this approach is both efficient and valid for modelling and mapping soil organic matter and may moreover be applied for other areas with same characteristics.