Assessing Soil Erosion Vulnerability in Semi-Arid Haouz Plain, Marrakech, Morocco: Land Cover, Socio-Spatial Mutations, and Climatic Variations

The most serious type of land degradation is soil water erosion, which negatively affects agricultural production and has important environmental and socio-economic implications. Human activity promotes soil water erosion. Although much research has been conducted on this subject, there are few studies on soil erosion, especially in the study area. The spatiotemporal variation of soil erosion from 1992, 2002, and 2020 was studied using the spatial model of soil erosion risk and mapping the annual rate of soil loss in the Haouz plain in the lower part of the Tensift Basin in Morocco. The Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) model, analyzed in a Geographic Information System (GIS), was adopted to estimate soil loss. This study aimed to identify the characteristics and variations in soil erosion under the combined effects of climate factors and land use change. The soil erosion rate of the study area experienced erosion at different levels and is estimated to be 9.84, 13.76, and 14.32% in 1992, 2002, and 2020, respectively. Precipitation, soil, land use, and digital terrain model data were used to construct individual model variables. The GIS platform processes and multiplies the raster layers of topography, cover management, soil erodibility, rainfall erosivity, and conservation techniques. At sites with steep slopes and degraded slopes, the predicted soil loss ranged from 0 to 35 t/ha/yr. Based on the spatial distribution of soil erosion risk, 2.90, 7.74, and 19.01% of the plains experienced soil losses greater than 26t/ha/yr in 1992, 2002, and 2020, respectively. The results indicated strong soil erosion. To effectively plan and execute sustainable soil management methods to prevent soil erosion, especially for the sustainability of the plain, an accurate estimate of soil loss was provided by the RUSLE and GIS methodology.