Abstract
Recent climate change effects worsened water scarcity in Morocco and forced the country to seek alternative water resources such as domestic and industrial wastewater. In this context, we assessed the treatment efficiency of wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) of the BeniMellal-Khenifra region based on physicochemical and biological parameters. Vegetation cover evolution near WWTPs was also analysed using satellite images (Landsat TM and OLI). Six WWTP were evaluated based on treated water quality and a survey of nearby farmers and residents. Results showed treated wastewater is in line with Moroccan standards, and can be reused for irrigation and aquaculture without harmful effects. The survey pointed to the Boujaad WWTP as a model in the region. The vegetation cover evolution before and after WWTP existence showed an important improvement of cultivated lands. As a conclusion, wastewater reuse will allow the BeniMellal-Khenifra region to secure agricultural irrigation to safeguard freshwater quantities and quality despite climate change.
Highlights
Rapid urbanization and climate change increase pressure on the availability of freshwater resources in Morocco [1]
A selected time-series of twelve satellite images over the period from 2008 to 2018 were used to map the vegetation cover in the study area.Those images were obtained under clear sky conditions to reduce induced effect by atmospheric disturbances
Support vector machine (SVM) classification was used to estimate the vegetation cover evolution in areas close to wastewater treatment plants (WWTP).This result will present the importance of wastewater reuse in the agriculture sector, and to highlight the contribution of remote sensing applications in evaluating vegetation cover
Summary
Rapid urbanization and climate change increase pressure on the availability of freshwater resources in Morocco [1]. Limits to water resources availability is caused by limited quantities, and degraded quality resulting from contaminants generated by domestic, industrial and agriculture activities [3]. Sensed data has been applied worldwide in land cover classification and monitoring on a regional or global scale [6]. It is important when field data is unavailable, or hard to retrieve [7]. Support vector machine (SVM) classification was used to estimate the vegetation cover evolution in areas close to WWTPs.This result will present the importance of wastewater reuse in the agriculture sector, and to highlight the contribution of remote sensing applications in evaluating vegetation cover
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