TY - JOUR N2 - Soil erosion has been severely affecting soil and water resources in semi-arid areas like the Mediterranean. In Morocco, this natural process is accelerated by anthropogenic activities, such as unsustainable soil management, overgrazing, and deforestation. With a drainage area of 395,600 ha, the Bouregreg River Watershed extends from the Middle Atlas Range (Jebel Mtourzgane) to the Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah (SMBA) dam reservoir south-east of Rabat. Its contrasted eco-geomorphological landscapes make it susceptible to unprecedented soil erosion due to climate change. Resulting changes in erosive dynamics led to huge amounts of solid loads transported to the catchment outlet and, thus, jeopardised the SMBA dam lifespan due to siltation. The research aims to quantify the average annual soil losses in this watershed using the Revised Universal Equation of Soil Losses (RUSLE) within a GIS environment. To highlight shifts in land use/land cover patterns and their effects on erosional severity, we have resorted to remote sensing through two Landsat 8 satellite images captured in 2004 and 2019. The C factor was combined with readily available local data regarding major erosion factors, e.g. rainfall aggressiveness ( R), soil erodibility ( K), topography ( LS), and conservation practices ( P). The helped to map the erosion hazard and determine erosion prone areas within the watershed where appropriate water and conservation measures are to be considered. Accordingly, from 2004 to 2019, average annual soil losses increased from 11.78 to 18.38 t∙ha –1∙y –1, as the watershed area affected by strong erosion (>30 t∙ha –1∙y –1) evolved from 13.57 to 39.39%. L1 - http://www.czasopisma.pan.pl/Content/123468/PDF/2022-02-JWLD-11.pdf L2 - http://www.czasopisma.pan.pl/Content/123468 PY - 2022 IS - No 53 EP - 99 DO - 10.24425/jwld.2022.140784 KW - Bouregreg Watershed KW - diachronic mapping GIS KW - Revised Universal Equation of Soil Losses (RUSLE) KW - model KW - water erosion A1 - Moudden, Fouad A1 - El Hafyani, Mohammed A1 - El Ouali, Anas A1 - Roubil, Allal A1 - El Ouali, Abdelhadi A1 - Essahlaoui, Ali A1 - Brouziyne, Youssef PB - Polish Academy of Sciences; Institute of Technology and Life Sciences - National Research Institute DA - 2022.06.20 T1 - Diachronic mapping and evaluation of soil erosion rates using RUSLE in the Bouregreg River Watershed, Morocco SP - 86 UR - http://www.czasopisma.pan.pl/dlibra/publication/edition/123468 T2 - Journal of Water and Land Development ER -