Soil map of Khnifiss lagoon and its surrounding environment

Khnifiss is the biggest lagoon in the Moroccan Atlantic coast and is considered the most important wetland in the Atlantic Moroccan desert. Former studies focused on its sedimentary, hydrology, pollution, and ecology. Unfortunately, its soil never has been mapped before. In order to study the subaqueous soil of the submerged area as well as the soil of its surrounding areas, we have chosen a mixed approach based on two methods: from, the one hand, remote sensing completed by fieldwork and from, the other hand, laboratory analysis. The classification system used is the French Référentiel Pédologique 2008 (RP 2008). The first map produced is the landscape map of the lagoon and its surrounding environments. It shows four geomorphic units. The limestone plateau occupied 57% of the total area, beaches and dunes represent 21%, sabkhas with 16%, while the lagoon represents 6% of the mapped area. Moreover, we illustrate a coarse soil map at the scale of 1/150,000, which is dominated by six mapped units: Arenosols, Fluviosols, Lithosols, Regosols, Salissols, and Thalassosols. In fact, they are weakly developed soil formed under both dominated fluvio-marine and Aeolian deposit processes. Besides, the worries of the residents towards the lagoon issues, especially concerning its soil, geomorphology, and geology, for instance, the shrinking of the lagoon inlet and the nucleation of the newborn island are discussed. Some of these fears of residents are confirmed using aerial photographs from the archive and recent satellite images.