Country

Morocco

Explore historical and projected climate data, climate data by sector, impacts, key vulnerabilities and what adaptation measures are being taken. Explore the overview for a general context of how climate change is affecting Morocco.

Vulnerability

Overall risks from climate-related impacts are evaluated based on the interaction of climate-related hazards (including hazardous events and trends) with the vulnerability of communities (susceptibility to harm and lack of capacity to adapt), and exposure of human and natural systems. Changes in both the climate system and socioeconomic processes -including adaptation and mitigation actions- are drivers of hazards, exposure, and vulnerability (IPCC Fifth Assessment Report, 2014).

This section provides a summary of key natural hazards and their associated socioeconomic impacts in a given country. And it allows quick evaluation of most vulnerable areas through the spatial comparison of natural hazard data with development data, thereby identifying exposed livelihoods and natural systems.

Natural Hazard Statistics

The charts provide overview of the most frequent natural disaster in a given country and understand the impacts of those disasters on human populations.

Natural Hazard / Development Nexus

This tool allows the overlay of different natural hazard maps with social economic datasets by sliding the bar horizontally, which provides a broad sense of vulnerable areas.

 
Loading...
Metadata

Metadata

Key Vulnerabilities

  • Morocco’s rainy season extends from October through April, often resulting in devastating floods. Within the past decade (2002-2011), nine out of the top ten natural disasters in Morocco were floods.
  • The rains that cause flooding are often of a greater intensity and localized, making it difficult to predict and apply appropriate management solutions. Floods often result in loss of life and economic damage. PreventionWeb estimates that over 23,478 people in the country are exposed to potential flooding and associated losses
  • Droughts rank on top of the list of natural disasters in terms of the number of people affected and associated economic losses. Droughts affect water supplies in rural areas and have negative impacts on rainfed agriculture.
  • Drought frequency and intensity have increased in recent decades and are projected to worsen with climate change. Extended meteorological droughts in the Middle Atlas Mountains of Morocco, namely the Oum er Rbia watershed, have severely impacted water availability.
  • Fire incidents have been on the increase causing estimated losses in forest products (timber and non-timber forest products) of 18 million DH (dirham) per year (approx. US$1.8 million).
  • The northeastern part of Morocco is highly susceptible to landslides resulting from both precipitation events, as well as earthquakes. The landslide of April 1982 affected over 12,216 people.

More information on natural hazards can be found at ThinkHazard.

  • Increased temperatures and evapotranspiration coupled with declining and increasingly erratic rainfall may lead to increased drought conditions.
  • Reduced agricultural yields and crop failures from longer drought periods.
  • Lower mountain snowfall and, consequently, increased stream flow variability.
  • Changes to the Canary Current potentially threatens fisheries.
  • Coastal erosion from sea level rise.
  • Decreasing resilience of forest resources, leading to habitat fragmentation and threats to endemic biodiversity.