Forest Inventory

Forest resources management requires a variety of information related to social systems and to land and its supported resources and their dynamics (land cover, forest stocking, and growth). Such information is, by nature, spatio-temporal and scale dependent and its quality relay on costs for obtaining it. Geosciences and forest geomatics offer valuable methods for ensuring a good compromise between the quality of required information and its costs. This chapter will review and discuss the contribution of geoscience to forest and land inventory. After presentation of information needed and their acquisition methods, through traditional forest inventory, the chapter will focus on technologies aiming at forest resources characterization and assessment such as aerial photogrammetry, satellite imagery, LiDAR data.

Support Irrigation Water Management of Cereals Using Optical Remote Sensing and Modeling in a Semi-Arid Region

Irrigated agriculture is an important strategic sector for Morocco, contributing to food security and employment. Nowadays, irrigation scheme managers shall ensure that water is optimally used. The main objective was to support the irrigation monitoring and management of wheat in the irrigated perimeter using optical remote sensing and crop modeling. The potential of spectral indices derived from SPOT-5 images was explored for quantifying and mapping surface water content changes at large scale. Indices were computed using the reflectance in red, near infrared, and shortwave infrared bands. A field crop model (AquaCrop) was adjusted and tested to simulate the grain yield and the temporal evolution of soil moisture status. This research aimed at providing a scientific and technical approach to assist policymakers and stakeholders to improve monitoring irrigation and mitigating wheat water stress at field and irrigation perimeter levels in semi-arid areas. The approach could lead to operational management tools for an efficient irrigation at field and regional levels.

A Testifying Development of a Benchmark Study Approach Applicable to Land in the ECOWAS Area

At independence, the leaders of the member states, in the search for ways of development of their young nations, have encountered the thorny problem of land management which was under the control of the customary regimes. West African land legislation is not sufficiently clarified and suffers from a legal dualism that hinders development and can lead to widespread conflicts. The increasingly visible development of a single regional market and the desire to create conditions for lasting social peace in the region make it imperative to secure the means of subsistence and to harmonize their governance. This work is an attempt to develop a benchmark study approach applicable to West African land. It represents a support for land reforms taking into account present and future land issues in the region. It is a methodology that develops both a set of indicators to evaluate and compare the performance of land practices as an approach to analyzing the results and proposing reforms.

A Geo-Decisional Tool for the Management of the Agricultural Development Fund Under the Green Morocco Plan

Within the agricultural strategy called Green Morocco Plan launched by the Moroccan government, the funds are allocated by the agricultural development fund to encourage investments. In this context, to manage the grant requests, the agricultural department uses an information system, which processes the files from their submission until the payment of the farmers. However, this system does not take into account the spatial data. This research aims to develop a geospatial model to study the distribution and dynamics of the allocated fund. Through this approach, policymakers will have a strategic key to survey the behavior of the spatial component, to manage funding applications, and to better manage allowed funds. The methodological approach adopted consists of carrying out a mapping of the real world identifying the needs of the future system and modeling the process of the geo-spatial tool. The result of the model will be used to develop and implement a spatial tool for policymakers to improve land information management related to the funded agricultural project.

Land Governance and the Information Society

In a globalized world evolving into knowledge societies and economies, geographic information plays a very important role, as illustrated by the spatially enabled society (SES) concept. In this context, the role of a modern cadastre in the good governance of land for sustainable development is worth noting. The international and regional agendas and various initiatives related to these themes are examined to deduce the emerging global trends and the possible transformation of the national statistical. One of the prerequisites for an integrated information system is the availability of harmonized data and the interoperability between the various dedicated systems. This depends on the effectiveness of the national statistical system and the establishment of a national spatial infrastructure. The institutional and organizational arrangements for better land governance are discussed. The resulting technological infrastructure to be implemented is then addressed.

Management of the Public Land in Morocco Actors and Logics

The land heritage held by the public authorities represents an important part of the Moroccan land system. The management of this land heritage obeys various logics arising from its functional, legal, and institutional complexity. The objective of this study is to identify the numerous logics that drive the management of land assets by various actors and to describe the impact of these logics on the land management. The adopted methodology is to analyze the theoretical aspects and functions of the land tenure, study the regulatory framework of the land and the territorial land, and deal with the institutional framework of the land heritage management. The achieved consequences of this study have enabled the authors to distinguish three logics: the conservative logic, the regulatory logic, and the promoting logic. The goal behind the chapter is to provide the stakeholders with a functional paradigm to take into account for creating the conciliation tools reinforcing the coordination to carry out the urban development of the country.

The Cadastral and Land Information Systems for an Effective Land Governance

The cadastral system as a civilian register of a property has a fundamental role in every society because it ensures the relationship between the land and the humankind. This relationship is evident in the form of property rights and established in many different manners from the full control, through communal forms of tenure, to the individual property rights. This chapter has the aim to deal with the nature and categories of the existing cadastral systems. It will highlight the new approaches and visions to establish cadastral systems that will meet the requirements of re-engineering the framework of land development projects. An overview of the state of the art of the modern concepts of cadastral systems will be provided such as Cadastre 2014, 3D Cadastre, and Marine Cadastre. The goal behind this approach is to enable decision makers to have an idea on the existing paradigms of land administration and to master the relationships between humankind and land, infrastructures and business systems, and between the human being and technological issues.

Land Use Land Cover Dynamics in Ribb Watershed and Its Implication to the Sustainability of Ribb Dam

Land use land cover dynamics is a widespread phenomenon in many parts of Ethiopia and in Ribb watershed. The main objective of the research was assessing land use land cover dynamics and its implication to the sustainability of Ribb Dam in 1973, 1986, 2001, and 2016 by using Landsat image and household questioner. During the last 44 years, cultivated and settlement land and forest cover showed an increment from 26.29% to 54.89% and 9.45% to 12.86%, respectively. The bush land, grazing land, water body, and wetland, however, showed a relative decrement from 29.48% to 17.09%, 21.45% to 12.70%, 4.64% to 2.39%, and 8.70% to 0.08%, respectively. Population pressure, poverty, weak policy and institutional enforcement, and tenure insecurity revealed as a major cause of the change in land use land cover. Soil erosion, lack of fuel wood, and impact on livelihood are major consequences of land use land cover change.

Time Series Multispectral Images Processing for Crops and Forest Mapping

This chapter highlights time series image processing for accurate agriculture characterization through two Moroccan experiences. The first case aims at crop mapping. A new classification approach based on multiple classifiers combination (MCC) was developed and applied to multi-temporal enhanced vegetation index (EVI) bands. The whole process is performed in three stages: (1) Landsat data preparation and multi-temporal staked EVI image extraction, (2) MCC construction from six advanced and supervised classifiers, and (3) stacked EVI image classification using the build-up MCC. Some post-classification contextual rules were also added in order to optimize the crops classification and the final parcel shape. In the second case, a post-classification change detection process was implemented to detect changes in forest area. Many classification schemes with different vegetation and texture indices were investigated. The two experiences are cost-effective, reproducible, and transferable. Consequently, they can regularly be used to produce up-to-date land use maps.

Spatial Data Infrastructures in Morocco (From the Diagnosis to the Success of the Implementation)

A spatial data infrastructure (SDI) is a platform for coordinating the exchange and sharing of spatial data between several producers or users of spatially referenced data. In Morocco, there is a massive production of spatial data and several generally public administrations are starting to feel the need for geographic information governance through a mechanism of exchange and management of data to optimize their efforts and avoid a redundant production. The purpose of this chapter is to draw up an inventory of the state of the art of geo-spatial data, systems, and tools existing in the central administrations in Morocco in relation with the collection, management, storage, and dissemination of geographical information. Through this study, it was found that the problem is more a question of global governance, and that the current context has assets for the establishment of a spatial data infrastructure in Morocco.