The proposed methodology is based on information gathered and knowledge acquired during a number of workshops and scientific meetings held in Morocco including:
The International workshop on drought management in the Mediterranean, which took place on 1-2 November 1999 in Rabat, and reviewed the experiences of Australia, Morocco, South Africa, Spain and USA with regard to national drought management policies in these countries.
The National workshop on drought contingency planning and management in Morocco, held in Agadir, 22-26 January 2001, with the collaboration of the US Corps of Engineers (IWR Alexandria Virginia and HEC Davis California), which focused on the demonstration of shared vision simulation tools on preferred methods for drought planning.
The National workshop on drought planning tools organized in Rabat, 6-11 February 2001, with the active participation of the US National Drought Mitigation Center, Nebraska.
The International advanced course, in collaboration with IAMZ-Zaragoza and EU sponsorship, held in Rabat, 20-26 May 2001, on “management strategies to mitigate drought in the Mediterranean with particular reference to risk analysis and contingency planning”.
All these activities are part of a wider program concerning drought planning and management in Morocco within the framework of the National Drought Observatory’s activities sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development, Water and Forestry. The National Drought Observatory of Morocco is currently obtaining scientific support from the National Drought Mitigation Center, Nebraska. The current project will help to strengthen the institutional capacity building on how to cope with drought in Morocco and in the Mediterranean region.
The participating partners rely on a multidisciplinary and multi-institutional team of experts including an agricultural meteorologist, a hydrologist, a water management specialist, a soil erosion control specialist, a remote sensing specialist, a geographic information analyst, an agronomist, a livestock specialist, a forestry management engineer, an agricultural economist, an environmental impact assessment specialist and a public awareness specialist.
