MAIN MOROCCO SAHARA DESERT CITIES

Merzouga is famous for its dunes, the highest in Morocco. The village adjoins the largest erg in Morocco, the erg Chebbi.
Merzouga has become a major tourist attraction for this region of Morocco, allowing the development of a hotel industry, both locally and in the neighboring towns of Errachidia and Erfoud.
Merzouga is also known by students from France and Europe, for more than a decade, for being the drop-off point of the famous student Raid, the Raid 4L Trophy, which sets up its bivouac there each year with its 1200 cars.

The activities offered to tourists are camel trekking, bivouac in the desert, quad biking, and, in summer, arénothérapie (or sand bath) also called psammatothérapie.
The balance of the site of Merzouga is threatened by the anarchic construction of hotels, the tourist overcrowding and the development of “mechanical sports” (quad).
This hotel tourism has an ecological impact: overexploitation of water resources and non-compliance with the rules of wastewater treatment

Morocco includes a part of Sahara Desert

Urbanization of the Sahara: a challenge to traditional settlement
Among the major trends that are at the origin of these phenomena, there is of course the extension of urbanization, deforestation, the expansion of areas devoted to agriculture and livestock, or the construction of dams.

The Sahara is characterized by unprecedented urbanization processes. These processes are sometimes part of a territorial development logic driven by the State, or express an informal urbanization, known as “from below”, which reflects the dynamism as well as the recomposition of Saharan territories and their societies. Cities have thus become the reference living environment for the majority of the Saharan population and constitute the real structuring poles of life in the desert.

Recent Saharan urbanization, correlated with major demographic growth, has called into question these geographical balances. On the one hand, it is re-characterizing the relationship between man and his environment, and on the other hand, the social interactions that were the basis of Saharan settlement, such as the relationship between town and country and nation-states and territories. All of these transformations have generated extremely different situations in the different Saharan regions. These concerns relate to the growth and densification of populations in fragile environments, the development and extension of urban structures that are sometimes incoherent. In addition to these, there are factors of change in economic activities, but also geopolitical contexts, such as the confrontation of divergent strategies of actors, delicate management of local resources, the destructuring of value systems and traditional spatial practices, or the emergence of new forms of mobility and migration.

Urbanizing in extreme territories
As an example, we can cite the structuring urbanization along the Atlantic Sahara, in southern Morocco, such as Laâyoune, Boujdour, Es Smara or Dakhla. These coastal cities have grown considerably over the past thirty years, and are home to 80% of the population of the region (Oued Eddahab-Lagouira); urbanization has reached a rate of 61% in the province of Guelmin-Es Smara and 92% in the province of Tan Tan. The population of these cities is now sedentary.
Since 2002, when the Agence des Provinces du Sud was created, these towns have been equipped with quality community facilities: media libraries, sports centers, and fishing villages. The supply of drinking water and electricity has become widespread. The road network was considerably extended in order to open up the cities of southern Morocco. The creation of ports, but also of tourist areas, should allow to further develop the potential of the southern cities.

All of these cities are developing in a very arid and difficult natural environment. Laayoune, the capital of the Saharan Provinces, is thus built in a site that we would describe as extreme, with all the critical infrastructure: streets, sanitation, perfectly managed water, energy, housing and even jobs. The natural environment of this city is always related to its genesis; when people have chosen a place to live, that place has always had a number of advantages over other more hostile places. However, when the creation of an agglomeration is linked to a mining or oil deposit or to a rural exodus, the conditions of habitat become imposed on an often heterogeneous and unacclimatized population.

Nevertheless, the works[ii], which deal not only with geology and climatology, but also with the problems faced by those in charge of development, conclude by highlighting the points of fragility of the coastline, partly linked to climate change.

Urbanization of the Sahara: a challenge to traditional settlement
Among the major trends that are at the origin of these phenomena, there is of course the extension of urbanization, deforestation, the expansion of areas devoted to agriculture and livestock, or the construction of dams.
The Sahara is characterized by unprecedented urbanization processes. These processes are sometimes part of a territorial development logic driven by the State, or express an informal urbanization, known as “from below”, which reflects the dynamism as well as the recomposition of Saharan territories and their societies. Cities have thus become the reference living environment for the majority of the Saharan population and constitute the real structuring poles of life in the desert.

Map of Saharan cities / urbanization
Recent Saharan urbanization, correlated with major demographic growth, has called into question these geographical balances. On the one hand, it is re-characterizing the relationship between man and his environment, and on the other hand, the social interactions that were the basis of Saharan settlement, such as the relationship between town and country and nation-states and territories. All of these transformations have generated extremely different situations in the different Saharan regions. These concerns relate to the growth and densification of populations in fragile environments, the development and extension of urban structures that are sometimes incoherent. In addition to these, there are factors of change in economic activities, but also geopolitical contexts, such as the confrontation of divergent strategies of actors, delicate management of local resources, the destructuring of value systems and traditional spatial practices, or the emergence of new forms of mobility and migration.

Urbanizing in extreme territories
As an example, we can cite the structuring urbanization along the Atlantic Sahara, in southern Morocco, such as Laâyoune, Boujdour, Es Smara or Dakhla. These coastal cities have grown considerably over the past thirty years, and are home to 80% of the population of the region (Oued Eddahab-Lagouira); urbanization has reached a rate of 61% in the province of Guelmin-Es Smara and 92% in the province of Tan Tan. The population of these cities is now sedentary.

Since 2002, when the Agence des Provinces du Sud was created, these towns have been equipped with quality community facilities: media libraries, sports centers, and fishing villages. The supply of drinking water and electricity has become widespread. The road network was considerably extended in order to open up the cities of southern Morocco. The creation of ports, but also of tourist areas, should allow to further develop the potential of the southern cities.

(source: photo of Laayoune / Agence Maroc Tour, 2017)
All of these cities are developing in a very arid and difficult natural environment. Laayoune, the capital of the Saharan Provinces, is thus built in a site that we would describe as extreme, with all the critical infrastructure: streets, sanitation, perfectly managed water, energy, housing and even jobs. The natural environment of this city is always related to its genesis; when people have chosen a place to live, that place has always had a number of advantages over other more hostile places. However, when the creation of an agglomeration is linked to a mining or oil deposit or to a rural exodus, the conditions of habitat become imposed on an often heterogeneous and unacclimatized population.

Nevertheless, the works[ii], which deal not only with geology and climatology, but also with the problems faced by those in charge of development, conclude by highlighting the points of fragility of the coastline, partly linked to climate change.