The Phenomenon of Floods in Urban Areas: Properties, Expectations & Ways of Handling: The City of Fes as a Sample of an Urban Area (The Moroccan Kingdom)

Abstract

The natural dangers are defined as all the definite and visible dangers that can be sudden, and that can affect all living beings. They are also called disasters. This study is to be an endeavor to treat the danger of floods resulted from the rise and the excess of the water level to the limits of the small watercourse of the valley. This danger takes various forms: the rainy floods, overflowing, inundation, etc.. . The dangers of floods are not restricted to a certain area, but it also strikes most of world states having heavy rain on certain periods of time. The danger of floods increases in the constructional areas where the rate of natural dangers are growing and widening. In this connection, Morocco witnesses frequent floods owing to important socio-economical and spatial effects, especially in the urban areas where the residential provinces and the public utilities nearby the valleys. Thus, in recent years, we find that the cities of Tangier, Tetuan, Oujda, Elanthoor, Fes, Aqadir, and al-Dar al-Baida (Casablanca) witnessed dangerous floods which caused great losses. The paper specifically studies the phenomenon of the floods in the city of Fes, which is an area of accelerated constructional development on one hand, and it is an area known for its frequent floods of its valleys on the other hand.