Application of GIS for assessing the vulnerability of aquifers to pollution in the coastal zone of Essaouira, Morocco.

Groundwater remains the main water resource for consumption of potable water, irrigation in the agricultural field, and for the use in industrial and touristic domains by inhabitants of cities and villages in the coastal areas with arid and semi-arid climate. In order to protect the groundwater table of the coastal zone of Essaouira, located in the west central part of Morocco, a study of the intrinsic vulnerability to pollution was tackled by the use of the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) from the DRASTIC method. This tool serve to highlight the overexploitation problems and water quality degradation and help decision makers to take good decisions to solve them.

Study of the salinity of groundwater in the HAHA syncline by the Kohonen self-organized classification (Essaouira, Morocco).

The coastal aquifer of the Essaouira syncline (Morocco) was studied to identify the main processes at the origin of the salinization of groundwater. In fact, a multicriteria analysis approach on hydrochemical data and physicochemical parameters of the Plio-Pleistocene aquifer was used to understand their spatio-temporal variation and their origins. Currently, integrated water resource management has become paramount to both local, regional, national, and international.

Population structure and body size of the Sahara blue-eyed pond turtle Mauremys leprosa saharica, from an isolated pond in the Lower Draa Basin, southern Morocco.

The marginal populations of the Sahara blue-eyed pond turtle, Mauremys leprosa saharica (Testudines: Geoemydidae) in the pre-Saharan area in the Lower Draa Valley, are faced to extreme environmental conditions of arid climate and anthropogenic activities including overuse of water and land salinization. In this study, we investigated a small isolated population of the blue-eyed pond turtle at Sidi El Mehdaoui Oasis, Lower Draa Valley, to determine its population structure and morphometric characteristics. Water salinity was about 24% of seawater and dissolved oxygen concentration was less than 3 mg l (sub-hypoxia).