Social-environmental analysis for the management of coastal lagoons in North Africa

This study provides an overview of 11 lagoons in North Africa, from the Atlantic to the Eastern Mediterranean. Lagoons are complex, transitional, coastal zones providing valuable ecosystem services that contribute to the welfare of the human population. The main economic sectors in the lagoons included fishing, shellfish harvesting, and salt and sand extraction, as well as maritime transport. Economic sectors in the areas around the lagoons and in the watershed included agriculture, tourism, recreation, industrial, and urban development. Changes were also identified in land use from reclamation, changes in hydrology, changes in sedimentology from damming, inlet modifications, and coastal engineering. The human activities in and around the lagoons exert multiple pressures on these ecosystems and result in changes in the environment, affecting salinity, dissolved oxygen, and erosion; changes in the ecology, such as loss of biodiversity; and changes in the delivery of valuable ecosystem services. Loss of ecosystem services such as coastal protection and seafood affect human populations that live around the lagoons and depend on them for their livelihood. Adaptive management frameworks for social–ecological systems provide options that support decision makers with sciencebased knowledge to deliver sustainable development for ecosystems. The framework used to support the decision makers for environmental management of these 11 lagoons is Drivers–Activities–Pressures–State Change–Impact (on Welfare)–Responses (as Measures).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Contribution of remote sensing technologies to a holistic coastal and marine environmental management framework: a review

Coastal and marine management require the evaluation of multiple environmental threats and issues. However, there are gaps in the necessary data and poor access or dissemination of existing data in many countries around the world. This research identifies how remote sensing can contribute to filling these gaps so that environmental agencies, such as the United Nations Environmental Programme, European Environmental Agency, and International Union for Conservation of Nature, can better implement environmental directives in a cost-e ective manner. Remote sensing (RS) techniques generally allow for uniform data collection, with common acquisition and reporting methods, across large areas. Furthermore, these datasets are sometimes open-source, mainly when governments finance satellite missions. Some of these data can be used in holistic, coastal and marine environmental management frameworks, such as the DAPSI(W)R(M) framework (Drivers–Activities–Pressures–State changes–Impacts (on Welfare)–Responses (as Measures), an updated version of Drivers–Pressures–State–Impact–Responses. The framework is a useful and holistic problem-structuring framework that can be used to assess the causes, consequences, and responses to change in the marine environment. Six broad classifications of remote data collection technologies are reviewed for their potential contribution to integrated marine management, including Satellite-based Remote Sensing, Aerial Remote Sensing, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Unmanned Surface Vehicles, Unmanned Underwater Vehicles, and Static Sensors. A significant outcome of this study is practical inputs into each component of the DAPSI(W)R(M) framework. The RS applications are not expected to be all-inclusive; rather, they provide insight into the current use of the framework as a foundation for developing further holistic resource technologies for management strategies in the future. A significant outcome of this research will deliver practical insights for integrated coastal and marine management and demonstrate the usefulness of RS to support the implementation of environmental goals, descriptors, targets, and policies, such as theWater Framework Directive, Marine Strategy Framework Directive, Ocean Health Index, and United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Additionally, the opportunities and challenges of these technologies are discussed.Murray Foundation: 25.26022020info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Apport de la géophysique à la détermination du remplissage sédimentaire et de la position des niveaux aquifères du Bassin côtier Dradere Soueire (Maroc Nord Occidental)

The Drader Souiere basin is a part of the hydrological basin of Sebou that is known by a high agricultural activity. The work aims to establish the relationship between sedimentary filling and aquifer facies distribution as well as to provide a new approach to interpretation, interpolation and identification. In this paper, a methodology that combines, a geological field and boreholes data with geophysical data (tomography, logging and seismic), is adopted and integrated, in a Geographic Information System (GIS), in order to establish isobaths map of Tortonian-Messinian marls bedrock, to determine the sequential position of Pliocene-Quaternary aquifers and to highlight the roles of deep structures in these aquifers arrangement. Tortonian-Messinian marls constitute the basin substrate; deposited on the Pre-Rif layers, from where he inherits his structuration, in the form of NW-SE ripples (an anticlinal-synclinal succession). The Pliocene-Quaternary sedimentary filling by paleo-channels, sea level oscillations and Miocene syn-sedimentary tectonics, give to the basin a «piano keys» geometry with various sedimentary environments. The most important aquifers of the basin match the regressive sea level periods of Zanclean and middle-upper Pleistocene. These new data provide other perspectives to quantitative research by hydrodynamic modeling of the water resources basin.La cuenca Dradere Soueire pertenece a la gran cuenca del río Sebou, conocida por una actividad agrícola muy importante. El objetivo del trabajo es establecer la relación entre el relleno  de sedimentos y la distribución  de facies sedimentarios de los  acuíferos y también aportar un nuevo enfoque a la interpretación, interpolación e identificación. En el presente estudio, los métodos utilizados combinan datos geológicos de terreno y de sondeos, así como datos geofísicos (tomografía, diagrafía y sísmica), integrados en un Sistema de Información Geográfica (SIG),con un fin de establecer el mapa de isobaras del sustrato de margas Torto-Mesinienses, y determinar la posición secuencial de los acuíferos del Plio-Cuaternario además de poner en relieve el papel de las estructuras profundas en la disposición de estos acuíferos. El sustrato  a nivel de la cuenca es de edad Torto-Mesiniense, depositado sobre los mantos pre-rifeños, de donde hereda su estructura, en forma de ondulaciónes NO-SE (una sucesión  pliegues anticlinal-sinclinal). Se debe destacar que el relleno sedimentario pliocuaternario por paleocanales antiguos, las oscilaciones del nivel del mar y la presencia de movimientos tectónicos  sinsedimentarios del Mioceno, confieren a la cuenca una geometría «en teclas de piano» con contextos sedimentarios que varían. Así mismo los acuíferos más importantes de la cuenca coinciden con los períodos regresivos de los niveles de Zancliense y Pleistoceno medio y superior.Estos nuevos datos abren nuevas perspectivas para estudios cuantitativos por modelización hidrodinámica.Le bassin Dradere Soueire fait partie du bassin hydrologique du Sebou qui est connu par une activité agricole très importante. Le travail vise à établir la relation entre le remplissage sédimentaire et la distribution des faciès aquifères ainsi que d’apporter une nouvelle approche d’interprétation, d’interpolation et d’identification. Dans la présente étude, une méthodologie où sont combinées, les données géologiques de terrain et de forages, ainsi que des données géophysiques (tomographie, diagraphie et sismique), est adoptée et intégrée dans un Système d’Information Géographique (SIG), afin d’établir la carte des isobathes du substratum marneux torto-messenien, de déterminer la position séquentielle des aquifères plio-quaternaires et de mettre en évidence le rôle des structures profondes dans l’agencement de ces aquifères. Le substratum au niveau du bassin est marneux d’âge torto-messenien, déposé sur des nappes pré rifaines, d’où il hérite sa structuration, sous forme d’ondulations NW-SE (une succession anticlinal-synclinal). Le remplissage sédimentaire plio-quaternaire par des anciens paléo-chenaux, les oscillations du niveau marin et la présence de mouvements tectoniques syn-sédimentaires miocènes, confèrent au bassin une géométrie « en touches de piano » avec des contextes sédimentaires variant. Les aquifères les plus importants du bassin coïncident avec les périodes régressives du niveau marin d’âge zancléen et pléistocène moyen et supérieur. Ces nouvelles données ouvrent de nouvelles perspectives aux études quantitatives par modélisation hydrodynamique

Solar Desalination: Current Applications and Future Potential in MENA Region – A Case Study

The Middle East and North Africa region countries are rapidly shifting towards adoption of desalination techniques to overcome shortage of freshwater reservoirs. Climatic conditions of the region showed that these areas are arid or semi-arid with higher solar flux which makes them highly suitable for harnessing solar energy. Hence, technology of solar photovoltaic cells coupling with desalination unit is investigated extensively to treat brackish water in Middle East and North Africa region. The large-scale usage of this technology can only be happened by government quick action and subsidies to encourage the installation and commissioning of PV desalination plants or coupling existing ones. This solar desalination technique has been found to be highly environment friendly with no greenhouse gas emission. This review study will provide a road map for the future solar powered desalination plants in Middle East and North Africa region, obstacles in applicability of technique and how to overcome it to ensure a sustainable future water production in Middle East and North Africa region

Statistical approach of factors controlling drainage network patterns in arid areas. Application to the Eastern Anti Atlas (Morocco)

International audience12 13 Abstract: 14 Several studies have revealed that the complexity in the distribution of drainage network patterns is not 15 random and controlled by major parameters, variable in space but also throughout geological time. Drainage 16 networks in the Eastern Anti-Atlas of Morocco consist of complex spatial arrangements with various types of 17 patterns, such as trellis, angular, dendritic and parallel. The objective was to distinguish, quantify and rank 18 the relationship that may exist between the different drainage networks patterns, geology and 19 geomorphology. A total of 230 basins were extracted from the ASTER-GDEM Elevation Data (USGS), which 20 were assigned 16 parameters reflecting their topography, morphometry, slope and geology. The statistical 21 treatment of the dataset (16 variables x 230 observations) was carried out through principal component 22 analysis (PCA), linear discriminant analysis (LDA) and agglomerative hierarchical clustering (AHC), in order to 23 investigate the complexity of drainage network patterns and their distribution. The PCA showed that the 24 topographical, slope and geological parameters, i.e. primarily the parameter associated with structural 25 control, best explains the variation in the type of the drainage pattern. The LDA made it possible to distinguish 26 between the four types of drainage patterns with a success rate of 90%, using 3 discriminant functions that 27 were better correlated with geological and slope parameters. LDA and AHC statistical treatments show 28 confusion between the parallel, trellis and angular patterns, on the one hand, due to similar factors 29 responsible for their formation, and on the other because of transitions phenomenon from one drainage 30 pattern to another over time or space. Such possible drainage network shifting may be explained by the 31 geological events that have occurred in the Eastern Anti Atlas from Lower Mesozoic to the Quaternary. 32 3

Groundwater flow modeling: a case study of the Lower Rusizi alluvial plain aquifer, North-Western Burundi

The study area, in northwestern Burundi, is an alluvial plain consisting of fine clayey sands and coarse sands with mixed lithology. The aquifer of the lower Rusizi plain could be considered as confined under a clay layer. A 2D horizontal groundwater flow model was developed under steady-state conditions using the Modflow software. The study aims to determine the most productive areas of this confined alluvial aquifer and the main aquifer inflow and outflow values together with the recharge and river–aquifer interactions. The groundwater potential is dependent on the spatial distribution of hydraulic conductivity and aquifer thickness values providing the local transmissivity values. The calibrated model made it possible to assess the spatial distribution of the hydraulic conductivity values at the regional scale, which ranged from 6 x 10-6 (contact between alluvial plain and Precambrian basement) to 7.5 x 10-3 m/s (coastal barriers). The results also provided the computed groundwater flow directions and an estimation of the groundwater levels in areas not yet investigated by drilling. The results of the computed groundwater flow budget allowed us to deduce that recharge and river–aquifer interaction constitute the main inflow while the downwards boundaries (where piezometric heads could be prescribed) are the main zones where outflows occur. The results of this model can be used in the planning of pumping test programs, locating areas with high groundwater potential to plan water supply for different private and public users. This predictive tool will contribute to the resolution of problems related to the use and integrated management of the groundwater resource in this part of Burundi

Mapping the pollution plume using the self-potential geophysical method: case of Oum Azza Landfill, Rabat, Morocco

The main landfill in the city of Rabat (Morocco) is based on sandy material containing the shallow Mio-Pliocene aquifer. The presence of a pollution plume is likely, but its extent is not known. Measurements of spontaneous potential (SP) from the soil surface were cross-referenced with direct measurements of the water table and leachates (pH, redox potential, electrical conductivity) according to the available accesses, as well as with an analysis of the landscape and the water table flows. With a few precautions during data acquisition on this resistive terrain, the results made it possible to separate the electrokinetic (~30%) and electrochemical (~70%) components responsible for the range of potentials observed (70 mV). The plume is detected in the hydrogeological downstream of the discharge, but is captured by the natural drainage network and does not extend further under the hills.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The contribution of remote sensing and input feature selection for groundwater level prediction using LSTM neural networks in the Oum Er-Rbia Basin, Morocco

The planning and management of groundwater in the absence of in situ climate data is a delicate task, particularly in arid regions where this resource is crucial for drinking water supplies and irrigation. Here the motivation is to evaluate the role of remote sensing data and Input feature selection method in the Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) neural network for predicting groundwater levels of five wells located in different hydrogeological contexts across the Oum Er-Rbia Basin (OER) in Morocco: irrigated plain, floodplain and low plateau area. As input descriptive variable, four remote sensing variables were used: the Integrated Multi-satellite Retrievals (IMERGE) Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) precipitation, Moderate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), MODIS land surface temperature (LST), and MODIS evapotranspiration. Three LSTM models were developed, rigorously analyzed and compared. The LSTM-XGB-GS model, was optimized using the GridsearchCV method, and uses a single remote sensing variable identified by the input feature selection method XGBoost. Another optimized LSTM model was also constructed, but uses the four remote sensing variables as input (LSTM-GS). Additionally, a standalone LSTM model was established and also incorporating the four variables as inputs. Scatter plots, violin plots, Taylor diagram and three evaluation indices were used to verify the performance of the three models. The overall result showed that the LSTM-XGB-GS model was the most successful, consistently outperforming both the LSTM-GS model and the standalone LSTM model. Its remarkable accuracy is reflected in high R2 values (0.95 to 0.99 during training, 0.72 to 0.99 during testing) and the lowest RMSE values (0.03 to 0.68 m during training, 0.02 to 0.58 m during testing) and MAE values (0.02 to 0.66 m during training, 0.02 to 0.58 m during testing). The LSTM-XGB-GS model reveals how hydrodynamics, climate, and land-use influence groundwater predictions, emphasizing correlations like irrigated land-temperature link and floodplain-NDVI-evapotranspiration interaction for improved predictions. Finally, this study demonstrates the great support that remote sensing data can provide for groundwater prediction using ANN models in conditions where in situ data are lacking

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements