Flood Risk Management Practices in Morocco: Facts and Challenges

Abstract From ancient flood management practices driven by agricultural activities to dam’s policy for water resources management including flood protection, to the National Strategy for Natural Disaster Risk Integrated Management; Morocco has come a long way in flood risk management. This chapter describes the recurrent flooding phenomenon plaguing the country along with progress in flood risk assessment approaches in terms of technique, governance, and best practices. An extensive number of research articles, administrative documents, consultancy, and international organizations reports are analyzed to give a holistic up-to-date insight into flood risk management in Morocco and present a comprehensive and critical view from a scientific perspective. Information and data were collected from a range of various sources and synthesized to integrate all scientific and governance aspects. Though analysis of this landscape shows progresses made by the Government to protect the population and reduce flood risk, it also shows shortcomings and challenges still to be overcome. Thus, a SWOT analysis was carried out for scoping and identifying the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats pertaining to this issue. The analysis reveals various success and failure factors related to three major components: governance, risk assessment approaches, and flood risk mitigation measures sustainability.