Morocco's Mediterranean coastline is exposed to the tsunami phenomenon because of the submarine landslides that can occur in the Alboran Sea, in the western Mediterranean basin. The latter are favoured by the regional average seismicity (≈ 6.6 Mw) and could lead to an accumulation of massive volumes of water on the Moroccan coasts. Predictable and devastating, as demonstrated by the events in Banda Aceh, Indonesia in 2004 and Tōhoku, Japan in 2011, the tsunami hazard thus represents a latent threat to Morocco's coastal society.

The objective of the work undertaken is to establish a diagnosis of the vulnerability of the Moroccan coastline based on a numerical modeling of the hazard that specifies the potentially floodable areas of the territory. The identification and quantification of the stakes present on this territory are carried out in order to assess the potential damage, direct and indirect, that such an event would have on this coastline. The results are valued through dynamic mapping that takes into account several temporal (low and high seasons) and spatial scales (from the building to the plot). Using GIS, the mapping considers the wide variety of existing issues (urban, tourist, agricultural, environmental, etc.).

Adaptation in the face of tsunamis is at the heart of this work, which seeks to move closer to the model of a "resilient" society. This society knows how to anticipate the hazard, implement appropriate crisis management, return to a "normal" situation and learn from such events. Consequently, the work will be aimed at those involved in risk management with a view to contributing to an integrated and dynamic approach to Mediterranean coastal risks, as well as at the general public in a process of awareness-raising. 

Thesis supervisor: Denis Mercier, Laboratory of physical geography, Sorbonne University

Elia d'Acremont, co-supervisor, ISTeP, Paris Institute of Earth Sciences, Sorbonne University