| Issue |
BIO Web Conf.
Volume 212, 2026
1st International Conference on Environment, Energy, and Materials for Sustainable Development (IC2EM-SDT’25)
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | 01008 | |
| Number of page(s) | 6 | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/bioconf/202621201008 | |
| Published online | 23 January 2026 | |
From Index to Decision: A Critical Review of Water Quality Indices Applied to Moroccan Waters (2018–2025)
National School of Applied Sciences of Al-Hoceima / Engineering Sciences and Applications Laboratory / Abdelmalek Essaâdi University, Tetouan, Morocco
* Corresponding author: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Water Quality Indices (WQIs) are widely used to synthesize information on water quality and support decision-making. In Morocco, their application has grown significantly in recent years for the assessment of surface and groundwater. However, the diversity of indices, parameters used, weighting schemes, and reporting practices limits the comparability and robustness of results. This study offers a critical analysis of the applications of WQIs to Moroccan waters over the period 2018–2025, based on a systematic review of 244 articles indexed in Scopus. The results highlight significant methodological heterogeneity, notable classification differences for comparable contexts, and a lack of transparency regarding the management of missing data and uncertainties. In order to strengthen the scientific and decision-making value of WQIs, a minimal harmonization framework adapted to the semi-arid Moroccan context is proposed, based on a common set of parameters, explicit data processing rules, double reading by reference indices, and standardized reporting.
Key words: Water Quality Index (WQI) / Morocco / Methodological harmonization / Decision support
© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2026
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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