Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Satellite Remote Sensing(RS) to Assess Changes in the Water Reservoirs in the MOHAMED V Dam in Moulouya Basin Morocco

The Moulouya basin, Morocco, represents a very important area for the country as comprising many agricultural lands that help for ensuring the local demand for many food types. However, during 2021, there was a dramatical reduction in the surface water area in this basin in front of Mohamed V Dam. This threatens the sustainability of agricultural activities there and makes it necessary to understand the behavior of this surface water. Therefore, this study intends to assess the fluctuation of this surface water over the period (1986–2022) in conjunction with human involvement and climate change. Using remote sensing, the Waterbody feature was extracted for the study area based on the Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) values that were generated from Landsat TM/ETM + /OL data. Results show that the water dam surface areas have decreased from 37 km2 in 1984 to 25.9 km2 in 2020. This area rapidly reduced again in 2022 to reach 21.3 km2. Findings from the present study indicate that human involvement and hydrological drought had a significant influence on the long-term changes in the surface water of the Mohamed V Dam.