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Precipitation is the main component of the hydrological cycle; it is a crucial source of data in hydroclimate applications for water resources management. However, several regions, especially mountainous and arid regions, suffer from limited data from a ground measurement network. Remotely sensed data may provide a viable alternative for these regions. This study aims to evaluate six high spatio-temporal resolution satellite products (GPM-F, GPM-L, GPM-E, CHIRPS, PERSIANN-CCS-CDR and PDIR-Now) in the sub-Saharan regions of Morocco during the period September 2000-August 2020. The record data from 33 rain-gauge stations was used to evaluate these products on two spatial scales (pixel and basin scales) and three temporal scales (daily, monthly and annually), adopting a quantitative and qualitative evaluation. For all examined timescales, the results showed that the GPM-F product performed the best quantitatively, while at the detection capability tested for different threshold and at daily time scale, the GPM near real-time products (GPM-E and GPM-L) were better at detecting more intense rainfall events higher than 40 mm/day. At the daily time scale, GPM-E and GPM-L and, on monthly and annual scales, CHIRPS and PERSIANN-CCS-CDR, provided satisfactory precipitation estimates. Moreover, the evaluation based on the altitudes of rain gauges revealed a bias increasing from low to high altitudes. The findings also highlight that the continental and mountainous basins showed the lowest performance compared to the other locations closer to the Atlantic Ocean. The latitude-based analysis showed a decrease of bias and increase of correlation towards the most arid zones. These results provide valuable information for a scarcely gauged and arid regions, showing that GPM-F could be a valuable alternative to rain gauges.

This article presents research and development of an interoperable platform to facilitate, monitor and coordinate groundwater data sharing. This system was orchestrated by a number of services described by Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) such as Sensor Observation Service (SOS) and other services for the use of mapping data, Web Feature Services (WFS), Web Map Service (WMS), and catalogue services (CSW). An important activity for our project was the establishment of a portal for geographic data and services. Geoportal developed for this project will promote and facilitate access to groundwater data and share theme more openly. Otherwise our system has been designed to provide a powerful tool that enhances the ability of regional staff to monitor near real-time groundwater data (i.e. piezometric level) and as a result will help provide a more effective response to environmental upsets.