Author(s)

Youness Kharchaf, Hassan Rhinane, Abdelhadi Kaoukaya, Abdelhamid Fadil

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Geosciences Laboratory, Faculty of Sciences-Ain Chock, Hassan II University, Casablanca, Morocco.

Water is undoubtedly the most vital natural resource. Water use management is one of the greatest challenges that face humanity. The demand for water is continuously growing because of the population growth, the intensive urbanization and the development of industrial and agricultural activities. To face the increasing pressure on this vital resource, it is so necessary to set up the adequate instruments to ensure a rational and efficient management of this resource. In this context, the hydrological modeling is largely used as an instrument to assess the functioning of these resources at watershed scale. In addition, the use of spatial models let to depict and simulate the watershed processes at small spatial and heterogeneous scales that reflect the field reality more accurate and more realistic as possible. However, the use of spatial models requires geospatial data that must be gathered at very fine scales. The aim of this study is to highlight the contribution of geospatial data to assess the hydrologic modeling of watershed by using a spatial hydro-agricultural model, notably the SWAT model (Soil and water Assessment Tool). The study area is the Basin of Low Oum Er Rbiaa River which extends from the Al Massira dam to its outlet in the Atlantic Ocean. This watershed includes a set of dams (Daourat, Imfout and Sidi Maachou) built in waterfall fashion along the river. The objective was to simulate the hydrological functioning of this area that had never been modeled in order to assess the management of these reservoirs used essentially to produce electricity and fresh water. The implementation of the SWAT model required a spatial database that was built from topography, soil, land use and climate data. The calibration and validation of the model was carried out on a daily basis over several years (2001-2010) using The ArcSWAT tool integrated in ArcGIS software and the Parasol optimization method. The calibration of SWAT model was successfully done with 0.6 as value of Nash coefficient used commonly in hydrology to evaluate the model performance. The calibrated model was then used to estimate the hydrological balance sheet of the Low Oum Er Rbiaa to model the intermediate contribution of the three reservoirs situated in the watershed.

Modeling; Hydrology; Low Oum Er Rbiaa; Reservoirs; GIS; SWAT; ArcSWAT; Watershed

Y. Kharchaf, H. Rhinane, A. Kaoukaya and A. Fadil, "The Contribution of the Geospatial Information to the Hydrological Modelling of a Watershed with Reservoirs: Case of Low Oum Er Rbiaa Basin (Morocco)," Journal of Geographic Information System, Vol. 5 No. 3, 2013, pp. 258-268. doi: 10.4236/jgis.2013.53025.