Integrated assessment of ecosystem services in response to land use change and management activities in Morocco

Abstract

The rapid development in Morocco with an urban and agricultural expansion is putting pressure on ecosystem services. An integrated assessment of these services at different spatial and temporal scales will ensure their sustainability. This paper used Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) to quantify and map multiple ecosystem services in Morocco from 1992 to 2015. The results show that urban areas, agriculture, sparse vegetation, and forests increased by 93%, 2%, 8%, and 9% whereas grassland and bare areas decreased by 80% and 2% respectively. This caused an increase in carbon storage by 1.7% and decreases in water yield, sediment export, and nitrogen and phosphorus exports by 15.5%, 7.4%, and 0.4% respectively. The overall ecosystem services of Morocco showed high values in the north but lower values in the east and south. Land management activities which were implemented in a selected watershed in the east using the Resource Investment Optimization System (RIOS) caused carbon storage to further increase by 0.2% whereas water yield, sediment export, nitrogen export, and phosphorus export declined by 0.07%, 0.09%, 0.17%, and 0.09%. Ecosystem services could be improved at both national and watershed scales when management activities such as reforestation and pasture management are implemented at specific watersheds.