The University of Ibnou Zohr (UIZ) is one of the most important institutions in Morocco; it covers 50% of the national territory including the area of Souss-Massa-Draa and the provinces of Southern Morocco. The university develops several scientific and social research programs. Several research topics are elaborated within the framework of natural resources management (water, food, halieutics resources, social sciences, energy…). Researchers will lead this project from the Earth Sciences Department of the Faculty of Science, Faculty of Applied Sciences, National Institute for Scientific and Technological Research in Water, and others from the Informatics and Soceital Departments. The main activities of the Department focus on natural resources management under global changes in collaboration with the agency of hydraulics and agricultural departments, which are the federator operators, decision-makers within regional and national scale.
The Moroccan team has a wet laboratory equipped with water spectrophotometry, Laser spectrometer for stable isotopes, Edy-Covariance station, and Tomography instrument. In addition to several mobile instruments, DRONE, and multispectral camera for field measurements, remote sensing, and GIS. The group has a large dataset dealing to climate variability in the south of Morocco. EMPOWERMed will benefit also from the participation of the Cité d’innovation of the UIZ which is and incubation program hosting startups and labs with chromatography (IC), atomic absorption analyzers (AAS) as well as high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS).
The experiences that provide the UIZ will help in the formulation of policies that will support the analysis of the agroforestry value chain.
Weblink: https://www.uiz.ac.ma/
Fatima Abdelfadel, Assistant Professor of Hydrogeology.
Expertise: Hydrogeology, Hydrochemical and Isotopic assessment.
PI of UIZ partner.
Mohammed Hssaisoune (male): professor and researcher (Associate professor).
Specialist in Groundwater geochemistry, in hydro-geophysics, he is experienced in groundwater investigation using chemical and isotopic tracers. His research also includes construction of a high-resolution monitoring network of water resources and climatic parameters in poorly investigated and monitored watersheds in semi-arid areas.
He is co-investigator/ WP lead of various local and international research grants. WPs particpant.
Lhoussaine Bouchaou (male): senior professor since 1988 in Ibn Zohr University.
Has been working extensively on water resources management under global changes in Morocco in collaboration with the hydraulic and agricultural departments, farmers and ONGs. His research is focusing mainly on the contribution of Chemical and isotopic tracers for water resources management in semi-arid areas, salinity of water and soil, karst hydrology, environment, climate change and its impact on natural resources in arid zones.
He is Leader of several national and international research contracts (EU, IAEA, UNESCO, NATO, EU, CNRS, CNRST, IRD, ABH, ACADEMIE Hassan II, OCP…). WPs participant.
Prof. Mohammed El Hafyani (male), Assistant Professor, specialist in Applied Geomatics.
Expertise: Remote sensing, GIS, Spatial Hydrology, Land Use /Land cover changes, Water Resource Management.
WPs participant.