Impact of Climate Conditions on the Water Potential of the River Ansegmir Watershed (Morocco)

The aim of this study is to assess the impact of climatic conditions on the water potential in the watershed of river Ansegmir (WRA) over the period 1970-2018. The processing and exploitation of the climatic data acquired has made it possible to carry out an evolution of the climatic conditions at the level of the aforementioned basin. Interpolation of the precipitation data, using the inverse distance weighting (IDW) method, has produced a precipitation map for the catchment area. Combining this with temperature and Emberger's bioclimatic stages will make it possible to define the bioclimate of the WRA. Statistical processing of Oued Ansegmir flow data and its combination with climatic conditions will make it possible to monitor climatic trends and their impact on the water potential of the WRA. As a result, the climate of the WRA can be characterised by low rainfall, less than 396 mm/year, which is very poorly distributed in time and space. Rainfall has very high intra- and inter-annual variability, which stimulates thunderstorms in the catchment area, particularly in summer. Thermal amplitudes are high, exceeding 33°C, which justifies the cold that is fairly frequent in winter. The bioclimate is semi-continental, very cold to cold semi-arid. As a result, the climate is a natural constraint on the development of vegetation, particularly for rain-fed agriculture. This climatic summary provides an introduction to the surface context of the water potential of the WRA. However, further research will be needed to determine the state of the groundwater in the WRA in order to define the different forms of input and the factors causing a drop in the water table in the context of climate change, as well as to assess changes in the piezometry of water sources with the establishment of farms over the said period.