International Archives of Photogrammetiy and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXII Part 7C2, UNISPACE III. Vienna. 1999 
105 
ISPR5 
UNISPACE III - ISPRS/EARSeL Workshop on 
“Remote Sensing for the Detection, Monitoring 
and Mitigation of Natural Disasters” 
2:30-5:30 pm, 22 July 1999, VIC Room B 
Vienna, Austria 
La complexité du phénomène, 1 interdépendance des facteurs mis enjeu, et leur variabilité spatio-temporelle nécessite la mise en place 
d un système intégré (SID) permettant la combinaison des résultats sectoriels, en vue d’évaluer les projets antérieurs et proposer des 
aménagements dans le futur. 
1. STATE OF DESERTIFICATION IN 
MOROCCO AND MEANS OF 
CONTROL 
Desertification is defined by UN/CCD as a decline in land 
productivity in arid, semi-arid and drought sub-humid regions, 
resulting from many factors, such as human activities and 
climate changes. It is a phenomenon that is exhibited world 
wide and has a profound effect, especially in Africa. 
According to the global assessment undertaken by UNEP in 
1990, more than 2/3 of arid and semi-arid areas are affected 
by desertification and the economic losses are estimated at 
42,3 billion US dollar per year. 
1.1 State of desertification in Morocco 
The achieved diagnosis allowed us to highlight the excessive 
degradation of vegetation and soil resulting from many 
factors such as (Bensouda Koraclu. 1995) : 
- deterioration of vegetation cover by the deforestation of 
30.000 hectares (ha) a year ; 
- overgrazing exceeding 23% of the capacity of natural 
rangelands ; 
- water erosion, which threatens 2/3 of tire cultivated lands and 
reduces the capacity of irrigation by 6.000 lia ; 
- wind erosion, which causes the damage of infrastructures, 
especially in the south of the country ; 
- salinization affecting an area of 37.000 lia in the great 
irrigated perimeters. 
This situation has a tendency to be worsed by the combined 
effects of severe climatic conditions and demographic pressure 
(doubling of the population during the last 30 years, reaching 
30 million inhabitants in the year 2.000). 
1.2 Means of control 
With a view to reduce such degradation, a national plan was 
set up in 1986. It includes several sectorial programs : 
- The preservation of the forest sector : the managed areas are 
about 1.065.000 ha and the reforested area is about 
530.000 ha ; 
- National Plan for Rangeland Management : as an example, 
the Project of Rangeland and Cattle Raising Development in 
tlie Eastern part of Morocco (PDPEO) allowed to put in rest 
100.000 lia per year and the plantation of 17.000 lia by fodder 
bushes ; 
- Project for Watershed Protection : permitted the study of an 
area of 3,3 million ha upstream of 16 great dams and the 
management of 465.000 ha among the studied basins ; 
- National Programme of Irrigation : thanks to the policy of 
great dams, the country' lias a permanently irrigated area of 
890.000 ha, compared to an irrigable potential of 
1.350.000 ha ; 
- Strategy for the Development of Pluvial Zones : 
which has led to the realization of integrated projects on an 
area amounting to 25% of the “ agricultural useful area ” of 
the country, along with the preparation of law on the 
development of pluvial zones ; 
- Sand immobilization : by the realization of protective actions 
on 43 perimeters in the provinces of Ouarzazate and 
Errachidia, on a total area of 29.400 ha. 
Currently, Morocco is beginning the preparation of a new 
national action plan which will be based on the assessment of 
the above mentioned programs and the utilization of tire new 
technologies. 
2. CONTRIBUTION OF INNOVATORY 
TECHNOLOGIES : REMOTE 
SENSING AND GEOGRAPHIC 
INFORMATION SYSTEMS 
Satellite data and GIS offer key methods and tools for the 
quantification of the extent of the deterioration in soil, 
vegetation and water resources. They also permit to monitor 
the desertification dynamics, adopting a gradual approach at 
two levels : local and national (Table 1). 
2.1 Assessment of natural resources 
At the local level, the high resolution satellite data, Landsat 
and Spot, allowed the inventory, the monitoring as well as the 
management of forest and rangeland resources. Thus, several 
projects were developed, such as : 
- the pilot project on the evolution and management of the 
Maamora forest, which allowed the production of the 
evolution map of the forest at the scale of 1/50.000, and the 
statistical inventory in terms of cuts and reforestations. In this 
view, a database was developed using the produced maps and 
available data under GIS (Ait Belaid and Ahlafi, 1995). 
- the GEO ST AT-Morocco project, relating to the rangeland 
analysis and monitoring, which allowed us to provide the 
following products (Ait Belaid and Lefevre, 1997) : the