An integrated multi-risk assessment for floods and drought in the Marrakech-Safi region (Morocco)
This article describes a multi-risk assessment for the Marrakech-Safi region (Morocco)—an important economic and demographic hub in the country that is prone to multiple natural hazards, most notably floods and droughts. Through multiple consultations with local experts and stakeholders, a multi-risk assessment framework was constructed based on a set of single-risks related to flood and drought hazards. For each risk, spatial analysis was employed to assess the hazard exposure component of multi-risk, while a set of vulnerability indicators and stakeholder-informed weights were used to construct a composite indicator of vulnerability at the municipal level.
The results show a significant proportion of municipalities (28%) reaching very high multi-risk levels, with a large influence of drought-related risks, and a prominent contribution of the vulnerability component on the overall multi-risk results. While the approach has allowed the exploration of the spatial variability of multi-risk in its multiple sub-components and the incorporation of stakeholders' opinions at different levels, more research is needed to explore how best to disentangle the complexity of the final multi-risk product into a tool capable of informing policy-makers in the identification of entry points for effective disaster risk governance.