Integrated Evaluation of Soil Erosion Hazard and Risk Management in the Oued Beht Watershed Using Remote Sensing and GIS Techniques: Impacts on El Kansra Dam Siltation (Morocco)

Abstract

The initial state of the Oued Beht watershed (430,728 ha) is characterized by a socio-ecological vulnerability associated to the water erosion risk. Especially, the consequences are chained and the soil loss alters its hydrological behavior and its ability to protect functional and structural challenges (good land, El Kansra dam, agricultural activities). In this perspective, this study sug-gests a methodology, reproducible and generalizable, to assess the natural water erosion risk (R). The approach used is based on spatial processing technology of information to develop a spatial database and geographic information system (GIS) concerning biophysical and topoclimatic pa-rameters in the Oued Beht watershed. Thus, the risk analysis is obtained by combining thematic maps of Susceptibility (S) and potential Consequences (C). Although, the spatial analysis of maps obtained reveals the extent of susceptibility involving land degradation, with the potential risks, which generated a decrease in the storage capacity of El Kansra dam (−3.03 Mm 3 /year). The re-sults show that erosion is active on more than three quarters (3/4) of the watershed, and a con-siderable loss of land with 8.36 Million tonnes per year. In this way, flood analysis and study of hydrometeorological events identified the vulnerability of flood sites (hot-spot) contributing at 77% of El Kansra siltation dam. Therefore, the consequence assessment is obtained by identifying risk elements and estimating potential damage coefficient, which represents the financial gap flow af-fecting the socio-economic context due to the erosion impacts.