Search

Draa oases are declared as a part of the biosphere reserve of Moroccan oases. These oases are agro-ecosystem dominated by the palm and fed by Draa Wadi, the longest in Morocco. Outside the oasis, the acacia trees and many pre-Saharan herbaceous species expand along the flooded areas and at the edges of temporary waterways. This desert vegetation creates a microclimate that favors the proliferation of a vast invertebrate diversity including Coleopteran species (beetles) that support the soil and flora-fauna ecosystem services. These insects play a very important role in the health of this environment. Indeed, they can perform the functions of ecosystems such as pollination, purification, biological control, and soil fertilization. In this chapter, the authors provide new information and update the list of the Coleopteran species in the Draa Valley. Thirty-one species and 15 families were observed through several entomological trips.

A bibliometric analysis and a short discussion of some solutions to global warming. The current chapter attempts to reassess the origin of global warming and proposes an effective human-scale solution. The bibliometric review reveals an increasing trend of indexed publications from 1936 to 2020. The trend analysis shows research turning towards topics such as performance, life-cycle assessment, electric vehicles, construction, thermal comfort, mechanical properties, and quality. With regard to the origin of global warming, doubt is cast on the view that increased heat in the atmosphere is chiefly caused by increased carbon. From the point of view of chemistry and physics, CO2 is not a cause of heat, but a result of what creates heat (combustion). Moreover, the low-carbon strategies suggested to control the increase of heat seem slow, difficult to measure and control, and so far, ineffective. In industry, it is axiomatic that good technologies have measurable results, and always work in the same way if conditions are as foreseen.

Worldwide, the arid lands occupy one of the largest areas on Earth, covering more than 30% of the total area. In these lands, scarcity of resources has emerged as a consequence of climate change (CC) and anthropogenic pressure. The reduced resources require sustainable management, including the use of efficient methods and techniques to adapt to CC. The purpose of this chapter is to present a collection of affordable techniques and practices to optimize farming productivity in the context of CC. This chapter also presents the strengths and weaknesses and highlights the replication of these methods where water supply and food security are far from being achieved. Each technic must be studied and adapted with caution in context of the defined arid area, taking into account the local socio-economic and ecological characteristics. The proposed techniques may be used in governmental planning to support the adaptation and mitigation strategies.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is well known for diverse applications in many fields including agriculture. The use of AI in the agricultural field has allowed for optimization in real-time and with less cost and effort. This chapter presents a bibliometric analysis of the future of AI in agriculture. This analysis was carried out using the online Scopus tool and VOSviewer software. The outputs show an increasing trend of documents from 1979 to 2021 and 2020 is the most productive year in terms of quantity. Computer science, engineering, Agricultural and Biological sciences, and environmental science are the main subjects while the United States, China, and India are the most influential in the field. United States, China, and India are the most influential in the field, while article and conference papers are the top two doctypes. For the trend, research in this field is turning toward machine learning, the Internet of things, deep learning, agricultural robots, learning algorithms, big data, data analysis, image processing, support vector machines, and automation.

Water is the main ecosystem service that supports the oasis system. Middle Draa Valley is an oasis zone located in the south of Morocco. The water availability in this area is the key element of vegetation cover change. This change added to other factors can cause some parasitic diseases. The zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis is one of these diseases. In this chapter, an analysis of the interaction between some key risk factors and the disease transmission was carried out. The outputs of this work rivaled that there is a very strong correlation between this disease and ecosystem services such as water stored and the dam outflow (directed to the oasis for the irrigation), and the groundwater availability. Regarding the correlation between this vector-borne disease and the cropping area, a strong correlation was recorded. However, for the relationship between leishmaniasis and the precipitation and the dam inflow, average correlations were found. Basically, in MDV, the water availability is the first element that affects an ensemble of processes that cause the disease infection.

The argan tree is exclusively endemic in the drylands of Southwest Morocco, an agroecosystem of great ecological, cultural, and economic importance. The argan agroecosystem is already damaged. It is particularly vulnerable to climate change as well as the harsh natural conditions aggravated by the current population growth and the exploitation in excess of the production capacities. Unfortunately, during the 20th century, its area has been reduced by half. Current projections indicate an increase in temperature under climate scenarios. Anticipated climate change could accelerate this trend resulting in the argan tree degradation. To assess the climate change impact, the authors used the SDSM model at the argan agroecosystem scale and the thermal stress model to assess its vulnerability and estimate its tolerance response in relation to temperature stress for a projected climate in the near term (2010-2025 years). In this chapter, the authors explored the impact of climate change on the argan tree regeneration.

The chapter highlights the importance of the concept of “ecological sanitation” (Ecosan) in environmental education. It also describes the implementation and management of the “Ecosan” project in several primary and middle schools and explores the lessons learned from reusing organic waste to promote sustainability in arid communities in the southeastern region of Morocco. The project planned and built Ecosan systems that recycle human wastes in five schools from five oasis villages of the Draa-Tafilalt region. The results suggest that the Ecosan system may be a sustainable option to support water, soil, and biodiversity in the vulnerable arid areas, but the scale-up of the project and adoption by the local communities will require more work and coordination with the government and local stakeholders.

The Ziz Watershed is located in the arid zones of South-Eastern Morocco and belongs to the large basin of Ziz-Rheris. In this basin, floods are related to natural factors and mainly to the occupation of the hydraulic public domain and the human intervention on the courses of the rivers. Increases in sediment yield are observed in many places in the Ziz, dramatically affecting water quality and reservoir management. In order to map overland sediment generation and delivery to the stream (studying the service of sediment retention), the InVEST sediment delivery ratio (SDR) model was applied. The sedimentation analysis in the Hassan Dakhil Dam, located in this watershed, shows that there is a very important erosion rate. The proof is the rapid filling of the dam. This is due to the transport of sediments in the rivers. If this situation continues at the current rate, the dam will no longer be fully operational for irrigation by 2050.

Ecosystem management requires biophysical and socio-economic measurement. The intervention of the government and the local community in order to combat the degradation of ecosystems must take into account the effects of the environmental hazards. This can reinforce the inhabitants' ability to adapt at local level. The impact on ecosystem and resources are numerous and complex. Consequently, a multidisciplinary evaluation is needed. In this context, a new approach was proposed, called environmental hazards assessment at local scale. It was used to evaluate the risk of several oasis resources to multiple hazards in the Middle Draa Valley. The findings show that for all resources, desertification is the biggest challenge affecting this area followed by drought, sandstorms, and then floods. This risk assessment approach can provide guidance for future assessments.

Floods are highly relevant extreme events with increasing frequency at a global scale. They remain among the most dangerous and complex natural disasters in middle and low-income countries. In this context, it is necessary to develop decision-support tools to reduce the flood risk and increase the resilience. The chapter reviews one of the most relevant tools, the flood vulnerability index (FVI) category at a global scale. These tools use hydrological, topographic, socio-economic parameters strongly associated with flood vulnerability. The findings indicate that FVI is a flexible tool for integrated assessment of vulnerability to floods for application in different regions. Social, environmental, and physical components are the main components used in the FVI. Household and neighborhood, basin, urban, sub-catchment, and coastal are the different levels of vulnerability analysis.

The current chapter deals with one of the most neglected tropical diseases in Morocco, the cutaneous leishmaniasis. It is based on 10-year research (2010-2017) on the evolution of leishmaniasis taking climate change into account. Epidemiological and climatological data were collected from different administrations. The Geographic Information System (GIS) is chosen for interpolation, space-time analysis of climate data and map creation. The SPSS software was used for statistical analysis and to establish the relationship between Leishmaniasis and climatic conditions. Results show that the maximum number of cases is recorded in 2010 with 4,407 people affected while the low number is recorded in 2014 with 18 cases. Results also show a clear link between climatic factors and the incidence of the disease. The distribution of the disease in the province is influenced by maximum temperature, aridity, and vegetation cover. Additionally, anthropogenic factors play a significant role in explaining the emergence or re-emergence of leishmaniasis in the region.

In 2009, the Moroccan Ministry of Health in collaboration with the World Health Organization confirmed that the transmission of schistosomiasis had ceased in all previously endemic provinces of Morocco. This achievement couldn't have been achieved without the effective participation and engagement of local communities. In this chapter, studies of community participation strategies for schistosomiasis control in Akka oasis were reviewed. Southern Morocco was known to be a foci site for urinary schistosomiasis since 1937. Combined efforts between health officials and local community participation have achieved the elimination of this neglected tropical disease, where the last cases in these foci were recorded in the early 2000s. The results of this chapter can be used to increase awareness of the need for community participation in controlling neglected tropical diseases such as schistosomiasis.

This chapter presents an analysis of the seasonal activity of the Phlebotomus papatasi (leishmaniasis vector) through a correlation between its monthly activity and the monthly meteorological parameters. Three sites from three leishmaniasis endemic countries were used Morocco, Iran, and Greece. The high density of P. papatasi was observed in May in Greece, in July in Morocco and September in Iran. Before May and after September, an important decrease of P. papatasi activity was observed with a decline of maximum and minimum temperatures and an increase of precipitations. Secondly, strong associations between P. papatasi density and minimum and maximum temperatures were explored, third, no significant association have been detected between P. papatasi abundance and precipitations in the three sites. There is an average correlation between relative humidity and P. papatasi density for Isfahan and Creater Athens. Basically, P. papatasi is sensitive to low temperatures and high relative humidity, which makes these two variables better indicators for the possible emergence of cutaneous leishmaniasis.

The incidence of emergence diseases including vector borne diseases, water diseases, and some physiologic impairment is considered sensitive to climate. Malaria, leishmaniasis, dengue, and viral encephalitis are among those diseases most influenced by climate. Variation in the incidence of vector borne diseases is associated with extreme weather events and annual changes in weather conditions. Africa in general and Morocco in particular are designated as an area of significant impact by numerous the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports and notably susceptible to such drastic climate-related health consequences. Climatic parameter change would directly affect disease transmission by acting on the vector's geographic range, activity, or reproduction and by reduction the period of pathogen incubation. This chapter will discuss the increasing risk of some vector-borne diseases in hazard-prone localities. It further identifies the severe challenges both of health adaptation to climate change by highlighting Moroccan adaptive capacity to such crises.

As in most arid and pre-Saharan North Africa regions, the local population is especially rural, socioeconomically vulnerable, and exposed to vector-borne disease like cutaneous leishmaniasis. Information on geographical and seasonal distribution of this disease can be helpful in the control of this disease. In this context, four sites were used to identify the seasonality of zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis (ZCL) in Middle Draa Valley (MDV). The seasonal occurrence of this disease was correlated with some climatic and hydrologic variables. The findings show that the most part of patients (86%) were from rural areas with a bit high rate of affected people is female gender (54%) and children less than 9 years (51%). The distribution of cases shows a prevalence of affected in the upstream area than in downstream where the climate is more and more arid. The highest number of cases were detected in the winter season (from December to March).

Several countries are associated with the long-term ecological research (LTER) program, while others are in the process of joining the network. In Morocco, there is an urgent need to be a member of this network because the diversity of challenges associated with the various ecosystems requires multidisciplinary long-term studies. The chapter discusses this need by assessing the environmental vulnerability of Morocco basing on data from the environmental vulnerability index profile. Ecosystem change and vulnerability were investigated at the sites within the LTER program by exploring the criteria of the selected sites. The driving forces, pressures, states, impacts, responses framework would be a useful approach to study and explain the ecological changes of each selected site. The chapter highlights the purpose, significance, the mission, objectives, and the international cooperation of the proposed LTER network called Mo-LTER.

The Mediterranean basin (MB) connects the south with the north and the East (Europe, Africa & Asia).It is a highly heterogeneous region where natural and anthropogenic activities interact in complex ways with climate variability. Climate change (CC) impacts are already defined on the Mediterranean. That is why the time has come to formulate a long-term plan for adaptation to CC of the MB. In this chapter the author aims (i) the assessment of the environmental vulnerability under CC provided in the BM during the last 30 years, (ii) the determination of environmental vulnerability indicators that the author call Major Common Indicators (MCI), and (iii) identification of adaptation strategies based on these indicators. For this analysis the author used the results of the Environmental Vulnerability Index (EVI), developed by SOPAC. In this paper, the author extracted, compiled, compared and analyzed the data of the EVI of 8 selected Mediterranean countries; 4 countries in North Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt) and 4 Southern Europe (Spain, France, Italy and Greece).

The oasean rangelands surrounding and the scattered steppic area, is commonly viewed as degraded landscapes. The dynamics of oasean ecosystems is indeed affected by human and climatic disturbances and stresses which induce desertification processes. In this context, the objectives of this research are to identify and quantify ecosystem services as a tool for measuring changes in arid lands. Monetization has enabled a more complete diagnosis of ecosystems and their ecosystem services. In this paper, we examine the economic value of the regulating and cultural ecosystem services provided by the oases of Middle Draa Valley (MDV), which is part of Biosphere Reserve of southern Moroccan Oasis (UNESCO). The economic values are standardized to US$ per hectare per year (2008-2010 period prices). The total value of regulating services is found to be 2478,9 US$/ha/year for the arable area (26000ha) and 43,14 US$/ha/year for the whole Middle Draa Valley (1500 000ha). The economic value of the cultural services in the arable area is 1776,8 US$/ha/year and 30,83US$/ha/year for the total area.