Abstract
Abstract. The Bouregreg watershed is located to the north-western center of Morocco, characterized by a semi-arid climate. It covers a total area of approximately 10 000 km2. This basin is a very sensitive area to water erosion. This causes the degradation of its vegetation cover and its land. The most sensitive and poorly protected soils erode much more easily and lose their fertility.The objective of this work is to quantify soil losses by water erosion in the Bouregreg watershed using the Revised Universal Loss Equation (RUSLE) and Geographic Information Systems. The average annual rate of soil erosion in the Bouregreg watrershed are estimated at 20 t ha−1 yr−1. The spatial distribution map of soil erosion show that 71 % of the total area has low risk of soil erosion (<3 t ha−1 yr−1), while 28 % of the study area shows moderate to high risk of erosion (20–60 t ha−1 yr−1). Areas of very high risk of erosion are also present in some sectors of the watershed covering 1 % of the total surface.
Highlights
Soil erosion has been recognized as the major cause of land degradation worldwide and becomes a serious environmental and economic problem when accentuated by human activities (Del Mar López et al, 1998)
Water erosion risk assessment involves mapping and analyzing many factors involved in the erosive process: rainfall erosivity, soil erodibility, slope length and vegetal cover factors (Wischmeier and Smith, 1978)
The Quantification of soil losses rate in the Bouregreg watershed was performed by the application of the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (Wischmeier and Smith, 1978)
Summary
Soil erosion has been recognized as the major cause of land degradation worldwide and becomes a serious environmental and economic problem when accentuated by human activities (Del Mar López et al, 1998). Water erosion is the main factor of the deterioration of the soil resource (Wachal, 2007). Water erosion risk assessment involves mapping and analyzing many factors involved in the erosive process: rainfall erosivity, soil erodibility, slope length and vegetal cover factors (Wischmeier and Smith, 1978). Soil erosion characterizes the majority of Morocco’s reliefs. FAO study (1990) revealed that the situation continues to deteriorate and becomes more and more critical, and evaluate that almost 40 % of land in Morocco are affected by erosion
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