2024-07-17 05:57:39
This annual international event, which is being held for the first time in Africa at the initiative of Al Akhawayn University in collaboration with USDA-ARS (US Department of Agriculture research) and Texas A&M AgriLife Research, brings together, over three days, the largest community of experts and international institutions specializing in the field of river basin management.
On this occasion, the President of the College of Northern Canada, Ms. Chehrazade Aboukinane, said in a statement to MAP that the SWAT model is a “very powerful and comprehensive” tool used for decades to predict the level of water resources in countries, noting that this model is unique in that it allows the analysis of both underground and surface water resources.
“When we are faced with a drought, as is the case in Morocco, it is important to be able to predict its severity over the next five, ten or fifteen years, hence the usefulness of a tool like SWAT,” the expert stressed, adding that this open source software is constantly evolving thanks to contributions from scientists around the world.
For his part, SWAT co-founder and director of the Blackland Research Center at Texas A&M University, Raghavan Srinivasan, indicated that SWAT is a platform for assessing the quantity and quality of water due to the impact of human interventions.
“Since water is a limited resource, we cannot manufacture it, hence the interest in SWAT, which helps us both to understand how to protect natural resources and to have quality water,” said the researcher, stressing that this mechanism is particularly useful for a country like Morocco given its diverse climate.
In the same vein, Al Akhawayn University Vice President for Academic Affairs Christopher Taylor stressed that “SWAT is a resource of critical importance in the efforts of African countries, including Morocco, to combat chronic drought.”
“Water is essential to all life on the planet. It is one of the most critical and potentially contentious issues facing societies and governments at all levels in the 21st century,” he said.
This event was preceded by a workshop on SWAT which was an opportunity to train participants, discover the latest advances in sustainable water resources management, share knowledge and best practices and establish new collaborations.
Widely recognized as the most cited soil and water assessment software in the world, SWAT is today an essential reference with more than 6,000 academic articles published in more than 500 scientific journals.
2024-07-17 05:57:39