Impact of climate change on water resources in MENA countries: an assessment of temporal changes of land cover/land use and water resources using multi-temporal MODIS and Landsat data and GIS techniques

Impact of climate change on water resources in MENA countries: an assessment of temporal changes of land cover/land use and water resources using multi-temporal MODIS and Landsat data and GIS techniques

Water resources are crucial to food security and rural livelihood. Global climatic variation, particularly global warming and changes of precipitation patterns greatly affect the agricultural production and food security. The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) includes countries with poor economies and resources (e.g. Morocco, Yemen) as well as oil-rich economies of Gulf countries (e.g. Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia). Water resources are being increasingly scarce in the MENA countries and have great impact on the standard of living particularly in countries with poor economies. In addition to water scarcity, poor water management has also been contributing to the water issues. For example, the countries with the highest per capita water consumption (e.g. UAE) in the world are also found in the MENA countries while in some countries (Jordan, Syria) agriculture consumes more than 85% of water.
Mapping water resources, monitoring the temporal changes of land cover and land use are the main ingredients in managing water resources. There are no better technologies than GIS and remote sensing to generate this information. Geospatial technologies, particularly GIS and remote sensing can be used to identify changes, vulnerable areas and potential areas for watershed development. Satellite data are available at varying level of detail ranging from 1km to 0.6m pixel size in spatial resolution supporting studies at global, regional and local levels. Once the vulnerable watersheds are identified, high resolution satellite and GIS data can be used to develop action plans at local levels.

The purpose of this paper is to map and monitor water resources and land cover/use to identify vulnerable areas in the MENA region using two countries (Morocco and Yemen) for a comparative assessment. Both Morocco (North African country) and Yemen (Middle-East country) are poor countries and characterize water scarcity, poor water management, desertification and growing food security issues.

The objectives are to:
* Map water resources and catchments
* Map land use and land cover in the region
* Identify and map areas of potential hotspots or vulnerable areas

The methods include developing a data base including satellite imagery and GIS data (e.g. elevation, climate, socio-economic data), use image processing techniques to extract land cover, land use and catchment information, and use GIS techniques to analyse data and modelling vulnerability. The outcome of the paper are useful in understanding the current status of water resources, production of an inventory of resources, understanding the potential areas of water resources as well as identifying vulnerable areas in selected countries.