Abhatoo - Centre Nationale de Documentation

Soil erosion by water is one of the major threats to soils in the north of Morocco; soil erosion not only decreases agricultural productivity, but also reduces the water availability. In the current study, Oued El Makhazine watershed is selected to estimate annual soil loss using the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE), remote sensing (RS) and geographic information system (GIS). GIS data layers including, rainfall erosivity (R), soil erodibility (K), slope length and steepness (LS), cover management (C) and conservation practice (P) factors are computed to determine their effects on average annual soil loss in the area. The resultant map of annual soil erosion shows a maximum soil loss of 735 t∙h-¹∙y^-1, about 65.25% (1575 km²), of the watershed ranges between 0 and 95 t∙h^-1∙y^-1. Higher soil losses are observed at higher LS factor area. The spatial erosion maps generate with USLE method, remote sensing and GIS can serve as effective inputs in deriving strategies for land planning and management in the environmentally sensitive mountainous areas.