MorSnow

The principal rivers in Morocco originate from the mountain ranges (Atlas and Rif). These regions play the role of a water tower for the downstream lands by providing a significant volume of the superficial water for aquifers alimentation and dam recharge. The agriculture sector is considered as the primary consumer of the supplied water. Due to the orographic effect, air temperature decreases significantly by altitude, and precipitation falls as liquid or solid forms. Consequently, head watersheds with elevations above 1400 meters are covered with snow and receive an enhanced precipitation rate in snowfall in the cold season. As measured on the southern (Mgoun) and the northern (Ourika) slopes of the High Atlas range, snowfall represents between 20% and 80% of total precipitation depending on the elevation and season. Considering water scarcity and climate change constraints, proper water resources management is becoming a national priority. It is necessary to understand and quantify water fluxes redistribution at the catchment scale to design and implement accurate management plans for water resources. Despite the importance of the snow component, high watersheds are almost devoid of ground observations causing a gap in water budget calculations. Remote sensing technologies proved to provide reliable information to monitor snow cover areas (SCA). The MorSnow Project will directly compensate for the gap in ground data. MorSnow will develop decision support tools for improving water resources management, from experimental to larger basins, by integrating satellites images into hydrological models to quantify and forecast water balance components in the upstream parts of reservoirs and basins in Morocco. The outcomes of this project will be deployed in real and operational applications. They will also constitute valuable information for the national strategy and plan for water resource management and climate change adaptation. Mohammed VI Polytechnic University