Towards a Decision-Making Approach of Sustainable Water Resources Management Based on Hydrological Modeling: A Case Study in Central Morocco

Abdennabi Alitane (), Ali Essahlaoui, Ann Van Griensven, Estifanos Addisu Yimer, Narjisse Essahlaoui, Meriame Mohajane, Celray James Chawanda and Anton Van Rompaey
Additional contact information
Abdennabi Alitane: Geoengineering and Environment Laboratory, Research Group “Water Sciences and Environment Engineering”, Geology Department, Faculty of Sciences, Moulay Ismail University, Presidency, Marjane 2, Meknes BP 298, Morocco
Ali Essahlaoui: Geoengineering and Environment Laboratory, Research Group “Water Sciences and Environment Engineering”, Geology Department, Faculty of Sciences, Moulay Ismail University, Presidency, Marjane 2, Meknes BP 298, Morocco
Ann Van Griensven: Hydrology and Hydraulic Engineering Department, Vrije Universiteit Brussels (VUB), 1050 Brussels, Belgium
Estifanos Addisu Yimer: Hydrology and Hydraulic Engineering Department, Vrije Universiteit Brussels (VUB), 1050 Brussels, Belgium
Narjisse Essahlaoui: Geoengineering and Environment Laboratory, Research Group “Water Sciences and Environment Engineering”, Geology Department, Faculty of Sciences, Moulay Ismail University, Presidency, Marjane 2, Meknes BP 298, Morocco
Meriame Mohajane: ITC-CNR, Construction Technologies Institute, National Research Council, 70124 Bari, Italy
Celray James Chawanda: Hydrology and Hydraulic Engineering Department, Vrije Universiteit Brussels (VUB), 1050 Brussels, Belgium
Anton Van Rompaey: Geography and Tourism Research Group, Earth and Environmental Science Department, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200E, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 17, 1-17

Abstract: Water is one of the fundamental resources of economic prosperity, food security, human habitats, and the driver of many global phenomena, such as droughts, floods, contaminated water, disease, poverty, and hunger. Therefore, its deterioration and its inadequate use lead to heavy impacts on environmental resources and humans. Thus, we argue that to address these challenges, one can rely on hydrological management strategies. The objective of this study is to simulate and quantify water balance components based on a hydrologic model with available data at the R’Dom watershed in Morocco. For this purpose, the hydrologic model used is the Soil and Water Assessment Tool + (SWAT+) model. The streamflow model simulations were run at the monthly time step (from 2002 to 2016), during the calibration period 2002–2009, the coefficient of determination (R 2 ) and Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE) values were 0.84 and 0.70, respectively, and 0.81 and 0.65, respectively, during the validation period 2010–2016. The results of the water balance modeling in the watershed during the validation period revealed that the average annual precipitation was about 484 mm, and out of this, 5.75 mm came from the development of irrigation in agricultural lands. The evapotranspiration accounted for about 72.28% of the input water of the watershed, while surface runoff (surq_gen) accounted for 12.04%, 11.90% was lost by lateral flow (latq), and 4.14% was lost by groundwater recharge (perco). Our approach is designed to capture a real image of a case study; zooming into other case studies with similar environments to uncover the situation of water resources is highly recommended. Moreover, the outcomes of this study will be helpful for policy and decision-makers, and it can be a good path for researchers for further directions based on the SWAT model to simulate water balance to achieve adequate management of water resources.

Keywords: SWAT+ model; R’Dom watershed; streamflow; calibration; validation; water balance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/17/10848/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/17/10848/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:17:p:10848-:d:902632

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().