Natural Hazard Resilience in the Western Mediterranean: Insights from Urban Planning in Morocco

Abstract

Resilience through urban planning has gained prominence since the adoption of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015–2030), particularly in regions exposed to multiple natural hazards. This study examines how six Western Mediterranean countries—Spain, France, Italy, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco—address disaster risk prevention through urban and spatial planning. Although these countries share a similar geodynamic and climatic context, their approaches to integrating hazard prevention into planning frameworks vary significantly due to institutional, technical, and legal factors. Special attention is given to the case of Morocco, where delays in hazard integration are evident, particularly in the Maghreb region. Limited access to historical data, weak inter-agency coordination, and insufficient scientific capacity hinder effective planning. In response, Morocco has developed the Urbanization Suitability Map (USM) program, a non-binding planning tool inspired by the French Natural Risk Prevention Plan (PPRN). The USM tool overlays hazard information to guide land use decisions and mitigate risks such as floods, landslides, and seismic activity. Using a qualitative comparative analysis of regulatory texts, national planning strategies, and mapping instruments, this study identifies contrasting levels of disaster risk reduction integration across the six countries. The Moroccan USM initiative stands out as a pragmatic response to governance gaps and offers a transferable model for other countries with similar constraints. The findings underscore the need for clearer legislation, improved data systems, and multi-level coordination to enhance urban resilience. Recommendations are provided to strengthen hazard-informed planning practices and support more adaptive and sustainable land management in risk-prone areas.

1. Introduction

Natural hazards (NHs) pose a significant threat to human life and are increasing due to population growth, urban development, and climate change in both developed and developing countries [1]. The creation of a Scientific and Technical Committee of the UN International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction, 1989–1999, and the funding of scientific projects within this framework, significantly advanced knowledge of natural disasters, their prevention, reduction, and mitigation [2]. This UN initiative was followed by other programs aimed at strengthening the sustainable development strategy, notably the Kobe (2005–2015) and Sendai (2015–2030) frameworks for action. Despite scientific and technological advances, and the human and financial resources invested, disasters are becoming more frequent and continue to cause losses in both developed and less developed countries [3]. While the Office of the United Nations Disaster Relief Coordinator estimated a total of USD 46,600 million in losses over the 80 years of the last century [4], global disasters also caused USD 210 billion in economic losses in 2020 alone, more than 26.5% compared with 2019 [5], not to mention the human losses that amount to 60,000 deaths yearly. Economic losses in urban areas are higher than in rural areas, which paradoxically suggests that urban investments made through urban planning are not adequately assessed from a risk perspective [6]. Furthermore, the limited adaptability of urban planning has led to an increase in social conflicts and numerous environmental problems, particularly in southern countries [7].

Cities are expected to be more resilient and ready to cope with and respond to disturbances [8]. Goal XI of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development emphasizes that cities and human settlements should be inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable. The guidelines for this objective were mentioned in the conclusions of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. This underscores the need to implement land use planning and regulation that takes into account natural hazards as an important aspect of disaster risk reduction (DRR) [9]. Rather than “forecasting”, [10] place greater emphasis on the role of “prevention” through the establishment of future scenarios on which sustainable land use planning and management should be based, including the identification of suitable sites for urban expansion or any land use, as a basis for urban development plans. Since the Sendai Framework highlighted the role of resilient societies, international debate has grown around a community’s ability to prepare for and adapt to natural disasters [11]. Refs. [12,13] argue that urban planning is a key element of resilience that can prevent disasters from occurring by controlling land use. Refs. [14,15], urban planning laws and their sectoral regulations should be reviewed as risk prevention tools to strengthen resilient urban planning policies. Urban resilience is currently viewed as a transformative approach to urban planning, enabling cities to adequately avoid disaster damage [16]. To this end, Ref. [1] call on engineers, policymakers, and urban planners to integrate environmental concerns and the protection of human life into urban planning, based on natural hazard maps that allow for the assessment and identification of areas suitable for sustainable urban development. However, for an effective integration of these hazard maps into urban planning, legislation for planning policies and common guidelines are needed [17].

The Western Mediterranean (WM) countries (Spain, France, Italy, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco), which are part of the same geographical area of natural hazards [18,19], have a long history of natural disasters due to the presence of significant human and strategic stakes [20]. The Haouz earthquake, with a magnitude of 6.9, struck Morocco on 8 September 2023. It killed 2960 people, injured 5674, completely destroyed 20,000 houses, and partially destroyed 39,000 others, with an estimated economic loss of approximately 8% of the country’s GDP. This is higher than the World Bank’s 2014 forecast for Morocco, which gave the country a 90% risk of suffering an event over the next 30 years that could cause losses of USD 2.7 billion, which is equivalent to 1% of the national GDP in any given year [21]. The high economic losses in the urban area of the Valencian Community in Spain from the latest version of the DANA torrential floods, which occurred in the autumn of 2024, highlight one of the key concepts in understanding natural processes as hazards: dangerous events that previously produced disasters are now producing catastrophes [22]. Such consequences are due, first and foremost, to the existence of these countries in a tectonic convergence zone between Eurasia and Africa, and to the relatively young age of the relief of the land bequeathed by the geodynamics of this region. The result is widespread seismic activity and intense morpho-dynamic activity (erosion, landslides), intensified by a highly degraded vegetation cover [23]. Moreover, this is a climatic transition zone, where hydro-meteorological phenomena of great spatio-temporal variability are encountered, characterized by intense rainfall (torrential floods), heat waves, and advanced desertification from the south.

These WM countries are all signatories to the aforementioned UN agreements on strengthening the resilience of their respective societies, on the one hand, and to the 2016 New Urban Agenda agreements on developing sustainable urban planning. However, countries differ in their approach to urban resilience, and in the Maghreb countries, there is even a lack of natural hazard maps. In the latter case, research into urban and peri-urban environments as risk-prone areas highlights the need to prevent the adverse effects of NHs by taking them into account in urban spatial planning projects [24,25,26,27].

In Morocco, urban growth reveals significant economic potential, but regional imbalances and pressure on urban infrastructure require careful planning. Consideration of disaster risk as an impediment to the country’s economic and social development led to the launch of an integrated risk management strategy in 2008 [28]. To make up for the lack of territorial resilience, the program of the Department of Spatial Planning, Urban Planning, Housing and Urban Policy consists of covering national territories with synthetic hazard maps, nicknamed Urbanization Suitability Maps (USMs)”.

The present work is a contribution to the analysis of how NHs are taken into account in Moroccan urban planning documents, while drawing on the experience of countries in the Western Mediterranean context in terms of prevention approaches adopted using urban and territorial planning tools (the availability of regulatory risk maps and legislative texts requiring their integration into urban planning).

While urban planning is now recognized as a strategic lever for disaster risk reduction (DDR), the practices observed reveal significant disparities between countries in terms of its operationalization. This study contributes to the analysis of how natural hazards (NHs) are considered in urban planning documents in different countries in the WM region. Do these countries have regulatory maps for NH prevention and legislation requiring their integration into urban planning? What approaches do they take to promote resilience through urban planning and land use tools? The existing approaches and conditions of use provide a context for the Moroccan USM program. In this context, this work questions the capacity of this emerging Moroccan experience to effectively integrate the natural risk dimension into its instruments and procedures, and the lessons that can be drawn from the best practices of Mediterranean countries to strengthen its efficiency.

This study focuses in particular on floods, earthquakes, and geomorphic hazards, as these are the main phenomena affecting this region. Since these hazards have a direct impact on land, real estate, and urban facilities, it is important to take them into account in land use planning in general, and urban planning in particular.

2. Research Methodology

This study adopts a comparative and qualitative documentary approach following typologies proposed by [29,30], which distinguish various forms of review, such as narrative, systematic, and comparative reviews, each with specific objectives and methodologies.

The analysis centers on six countries in the Western Mediterranean basin: Spain, France, Italy, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. These countries share a common geodynamic and climatic context characterized by recurrent floods and seismic and geomorphic hazards. This regional vision allows us to assess Morocco’s initiative in regulatory hazard mapping by comparing it with those of its neighbors.

This study is based on two main categories of sources. The first category includes legislative and regulatory texts relating to urban planning, risk prevention, and environmental protection (Supplementary Materials). Only legal texts that refer to the prevention of natural disasters through spatial planning and regulatory risk maps are taken into account. The second category includes scientific and institutional publications, such as peer-reviewed articles, theses, and academic reports, as well as official documents published by national agencies and international organizations. These sources provide background information on hazard exposure and analytical data for comparative discussions.

The methodological objective is to examine legal texts and their articulations, as well as the cross-references between urban planning, the environment, and risk prevention. The goal is to determine if urban planning laws address natural risks and if prevention laws reference urban planning instruments. We also examine available hazard maps and the approaches adopted, as well as their binding status.

Based on academic publications and institutional reports, a discussion follows that provides an overview of the progress and delays in urban planning resilience in each country, identifying the causes and limitations. We then analyze the USM program, a Moroccan approach to natural hazard mapping for urban planning purposes. Due to the limited number of approved maps, their legal, technical, and scientific aspects are also based on the experiences of neighboring countries.

3. Study Area

Since ancient times, the Mediterranean region has witnessed a succession and superimposition of several civilizations, and the different land uses have profoundly anthropized the natural setting. Over the centuries, human settlements have evolved from small villages near water resources and agricultural land and trading posts along the coasts, to veritable economic metropolises of several million inhabitants. At present, the urban population of WM countries far exceeds the world average, which is around 55% (Table 1), and projections of urbanized land expansion rates to the year 2100 are in the order of 152–203% for Spain and France and 204–272% for the Maghreb countries [31]. The ratio of urban areas calculated for 2015 (Table 1) is significantly higher in the countries on the northern shore of the Mediterranean than in those on the southern shore, due to the almost inhospitable conditions of aridity that prevail in the southern areas of the latter. Given social constraints, proximity to cities, and cheaper land costs, urban expansion is taking place on the increasingly dynamic peri-urban fringe, but also inside hazard-prone areas [32].

Table 1. Natural disaster exposure in the WM countries.

Country	PD (in 2021)/UR (in 2022)	Ratio UA/TNS 1	Number of Major Disasters Since 1900 (After EM-DAT Data 2)	Main NH Exposure and INFORM Risk Index 3
Spain	94.88/81.30	0.030	Floods (39) Earthquakes (3) Landslides (1)	Flood–Coastal Flood–Tsunami–Earthquake 3.8
France	123.76/81.51	0.041	Floods (63) Earthquakes (5) Landslides and Rockfalls (13)	Flood–Coastal Flood–Earthquake–Tsunami 3.9
Italy	199.97/71.66	0.070	Floods (55) Earthquake (50) Landslides and Rockfalls (18)	Earthquake–Flood–Coastal Flood–Tsunami 5
Tunisia	78.93/70.21	0.017	Floods (20) Earthquakes (1)	Coastal Flood–Tsunami–Earthquake–Flood 4.1
Algeria	18.55/74.77	0.004	Floods (55) Earthquakes/Tsunamis (20) Landslides (1)	Flood–Coastal Flood–Earthquake–Tsunami 3.2
Morocco	83.08/64.60	0.006	Floods (35) Landslides and Rockfalls (9) Earthquakes/Tsunamis (4)	Flood–Coastal Flood–Earthquake–Tsunami 4.3

Population density (persons/km²) (PD); urbanization rate (UR); urbanized area (UA); total national surface area (TNS); https://data.worldbank.org/ (accessed on 21 April 2024) (¹); https://www.emdat.be (accessed on 21 April 2024) (²); (https://drmkc.jrc.ec.europa.eu/inform-index) (accessed on 21 April 2024) (³); and flood (riverine, flash, or general).

4. Hazard Background

According to natural disaster recurrence indicators, floods, earthquakes, and landslides are the main phenomena affecting the WM countries (Table 1, Figure 1). However, according to the INFORM Risk Index, coastal hazards have been added to the list of foreseeable risks in this region. Although there is currently no serious damage associated with this hazard, coastal cities are expected to be increasingly exposed to this type of hazard given the climate change trend [33,34,35,36].

Figure 1. Likelihood of natural hazards (seismic, geomorphic, and hydrologic) in Western Mediterranean countries. Spatial distribution of hazard exposure at the provincial level, based on data from the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) website (https://thinkhazard.org/ (accessed on 21 April 2024) ).

Seismic hazard is evident in the WM countries, all of which have experienced catastrophic earthquakes in the past 123 years. These extreme events are due to the slow convergence of the Eurasian and African plates. Seismicity is moderate but inhomogeneous over the territory, but it is mainly associated with the mountain chains of the Alpine orogeny (Apennines, Alps, Vosges and Jura, Pyrenees, and Betic ranges, as well as the Rif–Atlas system, south of the Mediterranean). In addition, the activity of the Azores transform fault is the source of seismic and tsunami hazards along the Atlantic coast from Portugal to Morocco [37]. Strong seismicity (with two earthquakes above magnitude 7 since 1900) is limited to the geodynamics of the Italian Apennines, which are under stress from the Adriatic plate [38], and where the convergence of the two aforementioned plates also results in collision with the Anatolian plateau, leading even to volcanic activity.

Concerning the hydrological hazards, floods and flash floods are the most recurrent NHs in the countries of this region (Table 1), even though the Mediterranean is qualified as one of the climate change hotspots [39]. With the exception of the Cantabrian region, the Pyrenees, western France, and the Alps, which are relatively rainy owing to oceanic influences, the rest of the area is less rainy, characterized by a precipitation regime that is rather disturbed and non-sequential in places of abundance [40,41], to the point where exceptional events and extreme precipitation can occur [42]. Geomorphic responses to extreme events, such as floods, flash floods, and landslides, occur despite this global trend towards dryness [43]. For northern Mediterranean countries, the events are more common and show seasonality, with the floods occurring in autumn and winter [44,45]. In the Maghreb, the analysis of daily river discharge data for 98 river basins in Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia over the time period 1960–2018 shows that in this warm and low rainfall environment, flood events are characterized by a high variability, with either very large isolated episodes or very wet years with a succession of several episodes [46]. Although floods are more frequent in northern countries, they are less frequent but more catastrophic in the Maghreb countries [44]. Since 2000, the number of deaths in the latter has been four times higher than in the former (EM-DAT). These are attributed to local exposure and vulnerability versus advanced levels of preparedness and resilience. For example, in metropolitan France, flooding is the main disaster. However, the socio-economic impact of flooding has remained stable over the last 35 years, despite changing demographic pressures [47].

As with hydrological hazards, landslides are closely linked to rainfall conditions, although land use can intervene not only by increasing the damage, but also by amplifying the phenomenon or even triggering it directly. Studies carried out in France, Spain, and Italy agree that the mountain chains of the Alpine orogeny (Betic, Cantabrian, Pyrenean, Alpine, and Apennine) are the most prone to landslides in the area [48,49]. Their morpho-structural contexts are responsible for their slope dynamics. The Central Massif and the Iberian Massif benefit from relative slope stability due to the rocky and semi-rocky nature of the land and its gentle slopes. However, slope instability in the granitic rocks and residual soils of these zones is common on steep mountain slopes and in deeply incised valleys [50,51]. In the Maghreb, the slopes of the Tellian Atlas thrust chain in Algeria, its eastern end in Tunisia, and its equivalent in Morocco (Rif and Prerif) are most prone to landslides [52,53,54,55]. Despite the warm Mediterranean climate, exceptional rainfall in relatively wet years is the main triggering factor in the southern Mediterranean countries [25,26], although some cases of seismically induced landslides have been reported [56,57,58], such as the recent case of the burial of Douar Imen Tala and its inhabitants by the rockfall induced by the Haouz earthquake in 2023.

Other geomorphological hazards with a significant impact on property, but which are generally underestimated because they are not as spectacular as the previously mentioned ones, include coastal hazards and subsidence, especially those related to shrink–swell soils.

Expansive soils are especially found in arid and semiarid regions, where wet conditions occur after prolonged periods of drought. The expansive behavior of clay soils is a major challenge for geotechnical and civil engineering, and the associated costs are estimated to be several billion euros per year worldwide [59]. These are clay soils of the lowlands, relatively enriched in swelling minerals (smectites, vermiculites, and mixed layers with clay minerals), resulting from the leaching of the surrounding clay hills [60,61]. In the Mediterranean region, Tertiary marls are particularly rich in these swelling minerals, due to the paleogeographic and climatic conditions of formation [62,63]. The hydration of anhydrites and their transformation into gypsum also cause swelling hazards [64]. This shrinkage–swelling phenomenon mainly affects buildings with shallow foundations, and this associated vulnerability is well documented in Spain [65] and in the Maghreb countries [54,66,67,68]. However, it is in France that the shrink–swell hazard and associated losses are well documented. It is estimated that 24% of French territory is in a medium or high susceptibility to the shrink–swell hazard, that some EUR 12.3 billion has been spent over the past three decades to compensate property owners and limit the damage caused by this phenomenon [69], and that these estimations can be revised upwards under the effect of climate warming [70].

A third of the Mediterranean basin population is concentrated along coastal regions for its attractiveness and its many economic interests [71]. As a result, the coastal zone is under massive urban and other land use pressure, making it vulnerable to erosion and marine flooding hazards, especially under the increasing frequency of storms and the current trend of rising sea levels. These are local disruptions to an increasingly global problem: sea-level rise caused by climate change. If the hazard in the cliffs and sloped landscapes is manifested by rockfalls and coastal landslides [52,72,73,74,75], the sandy low coast does not protect the plains behind, which would become vulnerable to marine submersion. The specific INFORM Risk Index is up to 4,5/10 for most WM countries (Table 1). According to the EUROSION program, 24.9%, 22.8%, and 11.5% of the coastline is affected by erosion in France, Italy, and Spain, respectively [76]. In the Maghreb, the percentages of beaches subject to erosion are 59%, 54%, and 29% in Tunisia, Morocco, and Algeria, respectively [77], and the situation reveals serious shortcomings in integrated coastal management [78]. Although the effects of these hazards are only just being observed, catastrophic experiences of other NHs are prompting decision-makers to consider the resilience of this coastal fringe, at least by limiting its urbanization. This restrictive urban planning action is raised by [79] as one of the various options of the SSCACC (Strategy for Coastal Adaptation to Climate Change). Moreover, the recommendations of the Mediterranean Protocol on Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) call for a 100 m setback.

5. Results

For a measure to have the consent and enforceability of everyone, including citizens and public and private actors, it must be based on a solid and clearly defined legal framework; hence, the central role of legislation. In the case of prevention instruments and their associated maps, the legal framework translates scientific knowledge into legal requirements. The integration of these tools into regulatory mechanisms makes it possible to guarantee the coherence of land use planning and urban planning decisions and to consolidate the legal scope of prevention policies.

The following paragraphs and the associated summary tables (Table 2 and Table 3) provide an overview of the current state of legislation on the integration of NH maps into urban and regional planning legislation in each country, as a measure of territorial resilience to natural disasters.

Table 2. Regulatory framework for risk prevention in urban planning in the WM countries.

Countries	Texts of Laws in Urban Planning Documents Referring to NHs	Risk Prevention Legislation Referring to Urban Planning
Spain	Law on Land and Urban Rehabilitation Decree 7/2015: Articles 20, 21, and 22 Legislative Decree 1/2023, approving the Law on Spatial Planning and Urban Planning: Articles 50, 51, and 55	Law 21/2013 of 9 December 2013 on Environmental Assessment, Articles 6 and 45 Coastal Law 22/1988 of 28 July, as amended by Law 2/2013 of 29 May on the Protection and Sustainable Use of the Coast, Article 23
France	Urban Planning Code (2024), Articles L.300-6-1, L.443-2, R.151.53, and R.462-7	The Environmental Code (2023), Article L. 562-2 Law No. 86-2 of 3 January 1986 on the development, protection, and enhancement of the coastline, Article L.121-16 of the Urban Planning Code (Former Article 12 of the Coastal Law of 1986)
Italy	Urban Planning Law (L.765/1967), Article 5	Legislative Decree of 3 April 2006, n. 152 (Environmental Code), Articles 57 and 65
Tunisia	Articles 5 and 12 of the Spatial Planning and Urban Planning Code (published in 2011)	Article 67 of the Draft Environmental Code
Algeria	Law No. 04/2005, relating to spatial and urban planning, Article 11 Executive Decree No. 05-318, Article 18	Article 16, Law 20/2004 on Risk Prevention Law No. 02-02 of 5 February 2002, on coastal protection and enhancement, Article 45 of amended Law 90-29 (04-05) on urban planning and development
Morocco	Articles 4 and 19 of Law 12-90 (published in 1990)	Law 36-15 on water, Articles 118-119 Decree No. 2.23.80/2023 on the prevention of flood risks The National Charter for Environment and Sustainable Development, promulgated in 2012, Article 8 Law 81-12 on the coastline promulgated in 2015, Article 15

Table 3. NH prevention tools and the corresponding legal foundations in WM countries.

		Flood	Earthquake	Landslides and Other Geomorphologic Hazards
NH prevention tools	Spain	Flood risk management plans	Seismic construction standard: NCSE-02 (General and Building) and NCSP-07 (Bridges) Territorial plans and special plans	Territorial and special plans
	France	PPRN	Seismic regulations for buildings, 2011 PPRN	PPRN specifics for different geomorphic hazards (Landslides, rockfalls, and subsidence/collapses; swelling soils)
	Italy	PAI	National seismological map Seismic microzoning	PAI
	Tunisia	National and regional plans to combat calamities	Tunisian seismic rules, 1997 (in the process of being updated)	National and regional plans to combat calamities
	Algeria	General plan for the prevention of flood risks (not yet realized)	RPA24 General Earthquake Prevention Plan (not yet realized)	General plan for the prevention of geological risks (not yet realized)
	Morocco	PPRI (in progress in 12 regions)	RPS 2000, version 2011
Legal basis for the obligation of NH prevention tools in the UP	Spain	Land Law Civil Protection Regulations	Royal Decree 997/2002 of 27 September.	Land Law Civil Protection Regulations
	France	Order approving the flood risk prevention plan	Decrees No. 2010-1254 and No. 2010-1255 Order approving the seismic risk prevention plan	Order approving the landslide risk prevention plan
	Italy	Special Law on Flood Risk BD and mapping NHs according to Articles 55 and 60 of Legislative Decree 152/2006 (Environmental Code)	OPCM of 13 November 2010.	Law of 3 August 1998, No. 267 on landslides. BD and mapping NHs according to Articles 55 and 60 of Legislative Decree 152/2006 (Environmental Code)
	Tunisia	Law specific to the fight against calamities
	Algeria	Decree approving the general flood risk prevention plan	Order Approving RPA 24 Decree approving the general plan for the protection of seismic risks	Decree approving the general Landslide Prevention Plan
	Morocco	Water law for the PPRI	Decree No. 2-02-177 of 22 February 2002 for the RPS 2000.

Seismic resistant construction standard (NCSE 02); Hydrogeological Hazard Plan (PAI); flood hazard prevention plan (PPRN); Order of the President of the Council of Ministers (OPCM); eismic building regulations (RPS); and Algerian seismic regulations (RPA).

5.1. Countries on the Northern Shore of the Western Mediterranean

In France, a centralized country, decisions on hazardous areas and risk zoning are made by national government agencies. Conversely, in Italy and Spain, which are decentralized countries, the national government is limited to defining the general framework for risk assessment, while regional and local authorities play a key role in its implementation [80].

In Europe, national laws have generally been adapted to comply with European directives, such as Eurocode 8 or those on urban planning and the environment. Spain and Italy also have regional laws.

Spanish legislation addresses the mapping of NHs for urban and territorial planning through two key legal instruments: the Basic Civil Protection Regulation (Royal Decree 407/1992) establishes provisions for developing specific hazard mitigation maps at regional scales; the Land and Urban Rehabilitation Law goes further by mandating the integration of natural hazard maps (NHMs) into urban planning processes. This latter legislation contains two particularly significant provisions. It classifies areas vulnerable to NHs as unurbanizable while simultaneously requiring that environmental sustainability assessments incorporate NHMs compliant with EU Directive 2001/42/EC on Strategic Environmental Assessment. This European framework was transposed into Spanish law through Law 9/2006, creating a legal basis for hazard prevention through spatial planning. The practical implementation involves superimposing NHMs onto existing land use plans, enabling authorities to restrict urban development in high-risk areas while applying appropriate construction limitations or restrictions where necessary. This integrated approach represents Spain’s regulatory framework for mitigating natural risks through urban planning [81].

In France, the Natural Risk Prevention Plan (PPRN) is a key government tool for managing all NHs, replacing the former Risk Exposure Plan (PER). The PPRN defines risk zones for floods (PPRI), landslides (PPRG), and earthquakes (PPRS), either individually or combined for a given area. Once approved by prefectural order, the PPRN becomes a binding land use regulation, integrated into Local Urban Plans (LUPs). Additionally, the French Environment Code requires municipalities to produce a Major Risk Information Document (DICRIM) to inform residents about hazards and preventive measures.

Italy’s urban planning framework law requires special zoning guidelines for areas with restrictions, including those governed by risk prevention and building codes. The Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) process, established by EU Directive 2001/42/EC and implemented by Legislative Decree 152/2006, mandates the integration of natural hazard plans (NHPs) into urban planning documents.

Spain and France have national laws protecting their Mediterranean coastlines by establishing a non-buildable zone from the shoreline. While no EU directive specifically addresses coastal protection, several policies incorporate erosion management, notably the 2008 ICZM Protocol under the Barcelona Convention. Signed by the EU and 22 Mediterranean states, this protocol mandates sustainable coastal management, including erosion control (Table 2).

5.2. Countries on the Southern Shore of the Western Mediterranean

In the Maghreb countries, with the exception of national seismic codes, the development of guidelines and regulations for the prevention of NHs in urban and regional planning is still in its infancy or is at least limited to sectoral approaches. Algeria and Tunisia, whose laws on urban planning documents are more recent than Morocco’s, make clear reference to the identification of hazard-prone areas in urban plans.

Indeed, Articles 5 and 12 of the Tunisian Land-use and Urban Planning Code call for NHs to be taken into account in master development schemes and urban development plans. With regard to the prevention of NHs in Tunisia, Law No. 91-39 of 8 June 1991, as amended by Decree No. 2023-159 of 17 February 2023, stipulates the establishment of a national plan and regional plans to combat disasters in Articles 2 and 3.

Algeria’s legal framework for natural risk prevention combines two key instruments. Law 20/2004 establishes comprehensive risk management through hazard-specific prevention plans and restricted easement zones. This is complemented by Urban Planning Law 04/2005 (Article 11), which mandates the identification of hazard-prone areas in development plans and imposes construction limitations. The system was fully operationalized through Executive Decree 15–19 (2015), requiring detailed natural hazard assessments for all urban planning schemes. Together, these measures create a binding regulatory approach to risk-sensitive territorial development.

Morocco addresses natural risks through a sectoral rather than a comprehensive legislative approach. In Morocco, there is no specific law on the prevention of major risks, but there are sectoral laws that mandate Hydraulic Basin Agencies (ABH) to develop flood atlases and prevention plans. These establish development standards for urban, industrial, and infrastructure projects. Meanwhile, Articles 4 and 19 of Urban Planning Law 12–90 regulate land use and require the delineation of non-constructible areas through the SDAU (Urban Development Master Plan) and PA (Development Plan), although neither article makes explicit reference to NHs. Consequently, urban planning often lacks precise hazard mapping, sometimes including only basic flood indicators (e.g., 100-year flood levels) or limited non-buildable zones along riverbanks (2–6 m easements) as defined by hydraulic agencies [21].

With regard to measures to protect the coastline against marine erosion and submersion, only Algeria and Morocco have enacted laws to preserve a 100 m non-constructible buffer zone from the shore to protect and enhance the coastline, legislation that can serve as a resilience tool (Table 2).

5.3. The Moroccan Experience in Strengthening Territorial Resilience Through the Urbanization Suitability Map Program

The “Urbanization Suitability Map” (USM) program is a cartographic planning tool that overlays hazard maps for a given province or urban area in response to the challenges of rapid urbanization, lack of legislative tools, and limited resources. Lacking a legal basis, the USM program is intended as a preliminary basis for urban planning, which is governed by regulations. The initiative was launched in the wake of the 6.3-magnitude Al Hoceima earthquake of 24 February 2004 (in northern Morocco), which destroyed more than 12,000 buildings and caused more than 600 deaths. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning launched this pilot project to map NHs (earthquakes, floods, and landslides) in order to enable the reconstruction of disaster-stricken neighborhoods and the restructuring of the territory in a resilient manner. A scale of 1/2000° was adopted for urban areas and 1/5000° for the rest of the province, covering 5000 km² of land to be covered.

Since then, and as part of a strategy to cover the entire national territory in USMs, several territories (provinces and communes) have recently benefited from this type of preventive mapping (Figure 2), introducing other NHs according to the specific features of each territory (coastal erosion and submersion, gullying, shrink–swell, sand encroachment, and cavity collapse). To date, the approved USMs are those for the province of Al-Hoceima and three urban communes (Chefchaouen, Taounate, and Rhafsai).

Figure 2. The Urbanization Suitability Map program. Coverage of the Moroccan territory by USMs (a). An extract from the Al-Hoceima USM (at 1/5000 scale) focused on the Boujibar district. Constructible area without condition; area not exposed to significant NHs; and area suitable for urban development but subject to seismic regulations (1); constructible area with conditions; area exposed to low-level hazards; and area that can be built under design, construction, and operational conditions that do not increase risk (2); constructible area with strict conditions; area exposed to moderate hazards; and buildable area with strict conditions to prevent exacerbating risk (3); non-constructible area except under strict exceptions; area exposed to high landslide hazard; and area with any use prohibited unless authorized by exception subject to prior geological study (4); non-constructible area; area exposed to high or very high landslide and/or flood hazards (5); fault areas (6); and topographic site effects (7).

Modeled after France’s PPRN program, the USM program serves as a parcel-scale planning tool that delineates areas by hazard type and severity while specifying required mitigation measures for stakeholders, including property owners, developers, and local governments. The final hazard zoning product distinguishes five classes of urbanization suitability according to the degree of exposure of the land to the various hazards (Figure 2), enabling informed land use decisions.

6. Discussion

Recent decades have seen population growth and rapid urbanization exacerbate cities’ vulnerability to natural disasters [17]. The scientific community emphasizes how poor land use decisions amplify hazard-related socio-economic losses [82], noting that risk-informed planning remains crucial for disaster risk reduction (DRR) [83]. Yet most countries still prioritize economic and social factors alone in urban development [1], allowing NHs to undermine sustainability goals. Effective planning must impose structured development to counter chaotic urban expansion [84] and align with UN resilience principles.

Despite the Sendai Action Framework’s call for DRR through land use planning as one of the priority actions, it has been noted that most public administrations involved in natural risk management continue to adopt reactive approaches rather than proactive ones, such as urban planning [85,86].

In any case, the degree to which hazard is taken into account in land use and urban planning differs from one country to another for a variety of reasons (political and economic priorities, degree of perception by citizens and decision-makers, degree of vulnerability, etc.). However, for the WM countries, which share the same geodynamic and climatic contexts and, consequently, a similar exposure to NHs, different approaches to resilience have been adopted or even omitted. Some of these countries adopt specific prevention plans on request and according to need, while others have moved early to the integrated communal plan. [87] prefer the latter because it has policy guidance value and allows risk mitigation to be integrated into urban planning. In the case of the Maghreb countries, the lack of regulatory mapping of NHs deprives the implementation of preventive measures, perpetuating the vulnerability of territories. This has an impact on the implementation of urban planning that takes into account NHs, as long as urban planning documents constitute the legal reference for granting building permits.

The analysis highlights how natural hazards are addressed in Moroccan urban planning, in contrast with the more preventive approaches adopted in Western Mediterranean countries through regulatory frameworks and hazard mapping tools (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Comparative framework of urban planning approaches to natural hazard resilience in Western Mediterranean countries, with a focus on Morocco’s Urbanization Suitability Map (USM) program.

We consider that the advanced status of resilience through land use and urban planning, and the differences observed, are mainly due to the following reasons, which we do not consider to be exhaustive.

6.1. Urban Sprawl and Associated Economic Vulnerabilities

Effective urban land use planning requires development on suitable, low-risk land to support economic, social, and environmental goals [88]. However, rapid urbanization and growing land scarcity intensify speculation in land markets [89], compounding planning challenges.

Although their geographical contexts are different, peri-urban and coastal areas share land dynamics marked by strong pressure linked to land attractiveness, proximity, conflicts of use, diffuse urbanization, and major environmental challenges, all of which put existing regulations and political will to the test.

In the case of the coastline, despite the existence of laws to protect it, there are several dysfunctions in their implementation. Article 23 of the Spanish law defines a buffer of 100 to 200 m (depending on the approval of the municipalities and autonomous communities), in which no construction is allowed. However, there seems to be a failure of coordination between the central government and local authorities, which makes it difficult to implement this law [90,91] goes even further. He points to the fact that application of the law has been circumvented by some municipalities to develop lands that are not suitable for urbanization, and that some autonomous communities adapt the rules to their own interests. French law requires the integral protection of a buffer of at least 100 m in width, and its codification in urban planning legislation is intended to ensure that the principle of environmental protection takes precedence over the principle of development, in order to limit urban sprawl. Nevertheless, ref. [92] considers that the law has been weakened by dispersed codification to the point where its effectiveness is questionable, as the urbanization of the coast is three times faster than the national average for urbanized areas. Coastal protection in Italy remains a low priority in law and in practice, and excessive development within the 300 m coastal buffer is due to flawed landscape laws and administrative fragmentation [93,94]. Algeria’s late implementation of its 100 m coastal buffer decree [95] has created loopholes in its 2005 updated Law 90-29, authorizing coastal urbanization. Morocco is also facing the occupation of its maritime public domain, which has serious socio-economic repercussions.

Regarding the suburbs, peripheral and less attractive land, which lies outside the urban fabric or is physically unfavorable, becomes the target of further expansion. Thus, urban growth in developing countries follows the “status quo” scenario [14], characterized by uncontrolled urban sprawl, where population pressure is largely offset by new individual constructions. As a result, the peri-urban area is constantly dynamic and expanding on rural/natural land, making it the main area of physical and human conflicts, such as the occupation of floodplains and unstable slopes [26,96]. Over time, efforts to restructure the existing situation have unfortunately come up against the legacy of previous practices. All in all, such occupations cannot support the hoped-for sustainable development but rather create cycles of risk exposure: hazard-prone areas depreciate in value, disproportionately attracting disadvantaged populations to low-cost, high-risk areas [97].

According to studies carried out in Spain, France, and Italy, a number of districts and urban agglomerations developed in recent decades are now located in areas at risk of landslides or flooding. This is due to illegal land occupations [98,99,100,101], inadequate conversion of peripheral and agricultural land to urbanizable areas under demographic pressure [98,102], or extensions prompted by the tourist appeal of seaside municipalities [103]. Regrettably, the inaction against illegal urbanization has fostered impunity and irregular urban growth [104] and indicates that territorial control by local and central authorities needs to be strengthened [99].

Whether in Morocco, Algeria, or Tunisia, numerous studies have highlighted the increasing vulnerability of urban areas to natural disasters due to the uncontrolled development of peri-urban areas, where the informal sector and lack of awareness or compliance with regulations are commonplace [26,27,54,105,106,107,108,109,110] notes that this rapid urban growth reduces planning to reactive measures, exacerbating territorial inequalities while overlooking hazard vulnerability in underserved areas, ultimately amplifying urban risks. All things considered, the extent of this phenomenon of urban sprawl in the countries of the Maghreb is exacerbated by the legislative and cartographic lag in the face of urban growth and social vulnerability.

6.2. Reactive Awareness of NHs Following Major Disasters

In general, people, including policymakers, tend to react to recent events and then forget about them because knowledge about NHs and their impacts is relatively scarce [111]. It is only when major catastrophic events occur or disasters recur that decision-makers become aware of the situation and take action.

In Spain, natural disasters led to the inclusion of NHs in national legislation. Following the collapse of the Tous dam in 1982 and the floods in Vizcaya in 1983, Law 2/1985 on Civil Protection was passed, which required the establishment of special, specific territorial plans for the management of NHs and required their analysis and mapping [112]. In addition, following the Biescas floods of 1996 and the Alicante and Badajoz floods of 1997, Land Law 6/1998 was approved, which classified land at natural risk as non-constructible [113]. Later, the seismic hazard maps required by the Seismic Building Code were updated after the destructive Lorca earthquake of 2011 [112].

The catastrophic floods in France in the 1980s and 1990s and the large number of urban areas at risk of flooding led to historic reforms, including the Barnier Law of 1995, which mandated the preparation of NH prevention plans (PPRN) at the local level under the authority of the prefectures, embodying France’s three-tiered disaster policy [114]: intergovernmental cooperation based on subsidiarity, national solidarity for vulnerable populations, and science-based preventive planning.

Similarly, in Italy, recurrent disasters since 1980 [115] have gradually improved both the understanding and the legal framework of NHs. Law 225/1992 expanded civil protection mandates to include risk prevention and forecasting, complementing existing emergency response roles [116]. Major disasters such as the landslides of May 1998 (which affected Salerno, Avellino, and Caserta) led to the systematic mapping of this hazard through the National Landslide Inventory (IFFI), established by Law 132/2016 (Article 6g) and implemented by ISPRA with regional partners.

Regarding the local management of urban planning, the catastrophic floods that have occurred since 2003–2004 and those of 2018 in Tunisia have led several municipalities to require a hazard study in the specifications for developing urban development plans as a non-structural measure to prevent these risks [117].

In Algeria, seismic disasters prompted the development of the country’s DRR policy [118,119]. The Chlef earthquake of 1980 led to the creation of the National Center for Applied Research in Earthquake Engineering (CGS) and the microzoning of the Chlef urban area [120], while the catastrophic Boumerdes event of 2003 led to major reforms, including the 2004 Major Risks Prevention Law, the DRR policy integrated into the National Spatial Planning Scheme in 2010, and updated seismic building codes. In terms of seismic microzoning, the Wilaya of Algiers has been selected as the pilot zone for this project [121].

In the case of Morocco, the succession of several events—including the 1994 Al Hoceima earthquake, forest fires, numerous floods and flash floods, the 2023 locust invasion, and landslides—over the 1994–2008 period, culminating in a second major earthquake in Al Hoceima in 2004, that triggered the development of the national disaster risk reduction (DRR) strategy in 2008. The strategy began with the USM for the affected province of Al-Hoceima as a pilot mapping area and the updating of seismic regulations (RPS 2000, 2011 version). Moreover, recurrent flooding revealed gaps in Law 10-95 (1995–2015), which led to its revision by Law 36-15 in 2016 by introducing proactive flood management measures [122]. Recently, the unexpected magnitude of the 2023 Al Haouz earthquake forced authorities to review the country’s seismic zoning.

6.3. The Availability of Data and Information on NHs

Information on past events, previous studies, records, and reliable testimonies is an invaluable source for understanding phenomena and a prerequisite for subsequent studies aimed at identifying and qualifying hazards for their subsequent zoning. Depending on the nature of the hazard, these data can be used to define thresholds based on hazard occurrence and frequency, to determine spatial extent, or to estimate the associated vulnerability. While current events are well covered by the media and telecommunications, those of the past, which constitute historical data, are rarer and less reliable the further back in time we go. Therefore, researchers must turn to archival sources such as the administrative records of local institutions (town halls, cathedral chapters) or testimonies (memoirs, diaries) to reconstruct past events [123].

The availability of this source of information and the possibility of sharing it between the actors involved in the natural hazard management process, as well as the availability of detailed geospatial data, are all scientific and technical prerequisites for the implementation of resilient urban planning [6,87,124,125].

Spain, France, and Italy all have public services that, among other tasks, carry out research studies on natural hazards [126], databases [80,103,127], specific atlases [128,129], and risk maps [130,131,132,133] to support territorial services in the production of regulatory hazard maps (Table 4). However, cartographic documents are produced at a minimum scale of 1:10,000 to match the municipal cadastral maps [113,134,135]. The local authorities also call upon universities to carry out studies for this purpose [98,136].

Table 4. NH mapping programs and the institutions in charge of their production.

Country	Flooding	Earthquake	Ground Movement
Spain	- Atlas of flood-prone areas - National Flood Mapping System (NFMS) Confederation and hydrographic agency	- Earthquake catalogs - Seismotectonic map - National seismic zoning - Seismic microzoning IGN-Protection Civil-ING-IGME	- The national Spanish database for landslides, BD-MOVES - Provincial Maps of Landslides and Water Erosion - Foresight risk map for Expansiveness of Clays of Spain at a scale of 1:1,000,000 - Geotechnical and geological hazard maps of selected cities, from 1:25,000 to 1:5000 Spanish Environment Department IGME
France	- Historical flood database (BDHI) - Departmental atlases of flood-prone areas (AZI) - PPRN CEREMA	- Earthquake catalogs - Seismic zoning enacted in 2010 (Decree of 22 October 2010, effective 1 May 2011) - PPRN IRSN-BRGM	- Departmental atlases for each geohazard (landslides, rockfalls, shrinkage and swelling, collapses, etc.) - Departmental susceptibility maps for each geohazard - Specific PPRN to different hazards BRGM-CEREMA
Italy	- Report on Hydrogeological Disaster - Hydrological hazard maps since 1998 - PAI Watershed authorities ISPRA	- Earthquake catalogs - Seismic microzoning Department of Civil Protection National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology. ISPRA	- Report on Hydrogeological Disaster - Landslide inventory (IFFI program, according to the Law 132/2016, paragraph g, Article 6) - Avalanche inventory - Coastal erosion maps - PAI ISPRA
Tunisia	- Map of flood zones (for some watersheds) ONM	- Seismotectonic zoning of Tunisia INM ONM
Algeria	- 865 flooding sites identified - Atlas of flood zones (in progress) - PPRI (in progress), of which 16 maps have been achieved ANRH	- Seismic Zoning Map of Algeria RPA99 v.2003 - CGS—CRAAG - International support for seismic microzoning of selected urban areas
Morocco	- 1032 sites identified, of which 272 are high priority - Flood atlas (in progress) - PPRI (in progress): 6 map projects in process ABH	- Earthquake catalogs - Seismotectonic map - RPS 2000 Seismic Zoning (2011 Version) ING	- Geotechnical maps of selected urban areas Geological Mapping Division

National Geographic Institute (IGN); Geological and Mining Institute of Spain (IGME); National Institute of Geophysics (ING); Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN); Bureau of Geological and Mining Research (BRGM); Centre for the Study and Expertise on Environmental Risks, Mobility and Planning (CEREMA); National Agency for Water Resources (ANRH); National Center for Applied Research in Earthquake Engineering (CGS); Centre for Research in Astronomy, Astrophysics and Geophysics (CRAAG); National Office of Mines (ONM); Inventario dei Fenomeni Franosi in Italia (IFFI); BD-MOVES according to INSPIRE regulations (Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community); and National Institute of Meteorology (INM).

In the case of the Maghreb countries, local authorities face a common obstacle: the lack of natural hazard maps when preparing urban planning documents [106,137,138]. As things stand, these documents do not seem to consider NHs [21]. Without validated scientific risk studies and records of past events, the relevant department is unable to issue an opinion on easements to preserve urban resilience.

Recently, efforts in hydrological hazard research have been made to produce atlases of flood-prone areas and flood hazard maps in certain major catchment areas [139,140]. However, previously, there had only been isolated initiatives, such as the consideration of natural hazards in the development plans of certain municipalities in Tunisia, or the production of landslide risk maps, nicknamed “constructability maps” or USMs, for certain urban areas in Algeria and Morocco, respectively.

We believe that the lack of such maps, or at least of scientific research studies on NHs, is partly due to the lack of public services dealing with these tasks and to the weak political will to promote scientific research in this field. Given the essential role of scientific research in the prevention of NHs through the development of knowledge, analytical tools, and mitigation strategies, Morocco, for example, should give priority to this in its scientific research policy. In fact, despite the natural disasters suffered and the OECD recommendations [141], natural hazards are not clearly among the Moroccan priority scientific research areas for funding research projects.

6.4. The Community Framework: A Means of Federating Efforts and Converging Decisions

Another aspect that has greatly improved the risk culture and resilience through spatial and urban planning in Europe is the adoption of a community policy, including the funding of research projects.

In order to harmonize the legislation of the EU Member States, guidelines have been adopted by this organization to provide the different countries with a general framework for improving the living environment and the tranquility of European citizens, especially in terms of resilience to NHs. Thus, for urban planning instruments, the implementation of European Directives (2001/42/EC) has promoted the integration of environmental criteria into spatial planning and urban planning policies, considering urban planning not only as a tool for managing urban development, but also as an instrument for environmental protection. This Directive on Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) urges Member States to take DRR into account in urban planning [142].

European Directive 2007/60/EC urges member countries to complete the assessment and mapping of flood hazards in their territories by 2014. This directive was preceded by the Exchange Circle on Flood Mapping (EXCIMAP), which aimed to assess flood mapping practices in Europe. The standardization of flood hazard assessment procedures was also raised, as there are watercourses and their catchments that are transboundary in nature [143].

We should also mention Eurocode 8 (EC8) on paraseismic design and microzoning, to which all European countries are expected to follow. Spain updated its national seismic zoning in 2012 through the National Geographic Institute, which can be used for planning purposes at both regional and local levels. France proceeded in 2011 with the same update of its seismic microzoage dating back to 1991, and the seismic hazard is calculated for each municipality and not for each canton. [144] refer to the responsiveness of the Italian authorities, where the Department of Civil Protection has launched a National Earthquake Prevention Plan 2010–2016. This plan has allowed the microzoning of almost half of the Italian municipalities (those most exposed to seismic risk). This zoning is more detailed, and the building standards are among the strictest due to the high seismic activity in the country.

Directive 2014/89/EU on maritime spatial planning requires Member States to take into account land–sea interactions in their planning process, as erosion and sediment accretion can have serious impacts on the economic development and growth of this transitional area, particularly with regard to coastal land use.

Refs. [111,145] point out the lack of European guidelines for landslide hazard assessment to improve legal standards and provide a common methodological guide for the preparation of hazard maps, such as those for floods.

However, a framework similar to the EU Flood Risk Assessment and Management Directive for improving legislative standards on land movements is still lacking, as well as a common methodological guide for the development of respective hazard maps [111,145]. In fact, a proposal for a European framework directive on soils was already formulated in 2006 so that Member States could identify areas at risk of erosion and landslide [125]. These states were supposed to set their own risk reduction targets for these areas and set up action programs. European funds have even been used to finance scientific projects to inventory landslides across Europe and to develop a methodological guide for landslide hazard mapping [80,103,127]. However, this directive never saw the light of day because of the opposition from some countries over its difficulty in implementation and the redundancy with national legislation [125]. According to [146], this reflects the absence of the “spatial planning” component of the European Union’s reference policy, as a prerequisite for mitigating the effects of natural disasters. In fact, the particularism of each country still persists due to the existence of environmental and urban planning laws specific to each European country, and there are even regional laws, as in the case of Spain and Italy. Moreover, the scales and methods used to map geohazards vary widely, not only from one European country to another, but even within the same country [111]. Ref. [147] points out the important prerogatives of the central government in Italy regarding the DRR strategy and the great decision-making power of the autonomous regions, which sometimes leads to very contrasting situations.

However, in general, this Community framework has made it possible to pool efforts and promote scientific research in the field of NHs by funding scientific studies in the European area, which has boosted the progress made by these countries in preparedness. For example, the EU co-funded the EuroGeoSurveys program, and eight research funding programs (the Seven FPs and Horizon 2020) were established by the European Community in 1983. The LIQUEFACT project is a technical guideline for assessing earthquake-induced liquefaction hazard at the urban scale [148]. Under the Sixth FP Framework Program, a RAM-Landslide (risk assessment methods for Landslides) project has been funded [80]. Regulation (EU) No. 1255/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council supports Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) through the European Structural and Investment Funds.

On the southern side of the Mediterranean, a similar Community framework could have had a positive impact on the efficiency of urban planning documents between the countries of the Maghreb. When the Arab Maghreb Union was founded in 1989, there were high expectations for economic and political cooperation and integration. However, political tensions between Morocco and Algeria have largely contributed to the slowdown of the regional integration process [149,150]. Without a common reference framework, all supposed actions will evolve at different speeds depending on national priorities. If the urban and spatial planning tools in the European area are subject to an environmental assessment requiring the inclusion of hazard maps, in accordance with the European Directive on Strategic Environmental Assessment, the consideration of NHs in urban planning tools in the Maghreb countries is not an environmental requirement. The prevention of environmental risks is absent in Morocco and Algeria, and not enforceable in the case of the draft Tunisian code; furthermore, DRR strategies are lagging. Owing to the support of international organizations, in particular the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) and the World Bank, actions have been taken. In its study entitled “For a resilient Algeria” [151], UNISDR recommends the development of a comprehensive and integrated national DRR strategy under the auspices of the National Delegation for Major Risks. Since 2008, Morocco has benefited from WB support to gradually change from a “post-disaster” approach focused on emergency response to an anticipatory approach focused on building resilience. Owing to this support, a Moroccan Fund for Combating Natural Disasters (FLCN) was established in 2014 to finance structural and non-structural projects, such as the USM program.

Other specific projects are being co-funded, such as the implementation of a seismic microzoning map of the Wilaya of Algiers as a pilot area with the support of Japan’s international cooperation [121] or participation in the UNISDR DesInventar project, which allows countries to fill gaps in their own disaster data. Tunisia has cataloged 2167 events (1981–2013), while Morocco has documented 732 events (1960–2014). Ref. [117] emphasizes the need for regular updating of databases to support risk reduction planning.

6.5. Integration of Natural Hazard Prevention into Urban Planning as an Environmental Requirement

Under EU Directive 2001/42/EC, planning tools are subject to an environmental assessment requiring the integration of hazard maps into urban and spatial planning documents. The implementation of this procedure at the level of European countries for urban planning instruments promotes the integration of environmental criteria into urban and spatial planning policies by considering urban planning not only as an instrument to frame urban development, but also as an instrument for environmental protection [152].

This consideration of NHs in urban planning tools as an environmental requirement is lacking in the Maghreb countries, and there is no clear vision for sustainable development. A draft Tunisian Environmental Code proposed for 2022 has not yet been implemented. Article 67 of the Act requires strategic environmental assessment of plans and programs developed for strategic sectors, such as land use planning and urban planning. However, it does not require the inclusion of NH maps in these plans, unlike the practice in European countries. Algerian Law No. 03-10 on Environmental Protection also makes no reference to the prevention of natural hazards through land use planning and urban development. In Morocco, Article 8 of the 2012 National Environmental Charter, which is based on the European Code, provides for the revision of the environmental impact assessment framework to include risk management. In addition, Article 2 of Law 49-17, published in 2020, provides for the submission of sectoral plans to a strategic environmental assessment (SEA). However, the implementing decrees for the latter, which define the projects concerned and the procedures to be followed, have not yet been promulgated, leaving open the question of whether the environmental assessment will also cover urban planning documents.

Yet not applying a strategic environmental assessment (SEA) to urban planning documents risks perpetuating the vulnerability of infrastructures and populations, as well as neglecting the principles of sustainability. It can also lead to inconsistencies between urban and environmental policies, weak citizen participation, uninformed decision-making, and conflicts between institutions.

6.6. The Effectiveness of Natural Hazard Mapping and Legislation

The presence of hazard risks needs to be demonstrated through appropriate evidence [153]. Mapping is one of the most effective ways to mitigate natural hazards because it helps to understand, disseminate, and communicate geographic information to public administrators, technicians, and the general public [113]. For [15,86], natural hazards can only be properly assessed if they are identified and mapped, and their reduction is improved only if zoning is legislated.

The legal provisions for taking natural hazard prevention into account in urban and regional planning are clearly set out in the recently reviewed and revised urban and regional planning laws of Spain, France, and Tunisia. They mention natural hazard prevention maps and even impose restrictions or prohibitions. The Italian and Moroccan laws, on the other hand, are outdated and have not yet been revised; they remain vague, calling only for the maintenance of safety. However, in Italy, this legislative gap is filled by the Environmental Code.

In France, the primacy of risk prevention over urban planning is guaranteed by the PPRN, whose legal effects are firm, as [154] point out. In fact, the regulation of the PPRN, which is included in the list of “public utility easements” (Article L126-1 of the Urban Planning Code), is annexed to the plans of any city or town that wishes to draw up its urban plan and must respect the public utility easements when making decisions on land use. And in the event of a discrepancy between the provisions of the RPP and those of the urban plans to be drawn up, the PRP will prevail. However, despite this evolution of the French legislation, which is relatively advanced compared with the other countries of the study area in terms of taking into account natural risks at the urban scale and territorial planning documents, voices are raised for the revision of these plans. [155] highlight the shortcomings of the French urban and spatial planning system, which does not facilitate the integration of risk and vulnerability into land use planning and urban planning, and points to the separate implementation of urban planning documents and regulatory risk mapping, which makes the application of the legal principles of ‘taking into account’ and ‘compatibility’ insufficient to properly articulate the two dimensions in question. [102] point out the pressure that developers and the population exert on mayors to violate regulations by granting building permits in vulnerable areas at risk in order to meet the development needs of municipalities. Ref. [49] recommend the integration of new space and digital technologies to refine hazard assessment.

In Italy, despite efforts to map risk prevention, ref. [156] attributes the fragility of the Italian territory in its physical, socio-economic, and political aspects to problems of inadequate implementation of legal frameworks, both qualitative and quantitative. This finding is reiterated by [99], who suggested that it was not a lack, or inadequacy, of laws or regulations at both national and local levels, but rather a lack of respect for the legislation. Similarly, [85] stress that Italy has the Hydrogeological Hazard Plan (PAI), which is a fairly powerful and legally binding instrument for NH prevention. According to these authors, the problem does not lie in the existing planning instruments, but in the need for better implementation of prevention policies. These authors propose the strengthening of urban planning regulations through rigorous enforcement measures that could include inspections, incentives for renovation, and more severe and effective sanctions in the case of violations of the law, particularly in the case of illegal construction. To this end, given that the Italian legislation is firm regarding the protection of heritage and landscape at the level of urbanism through the “Code of Cultural Heritage and Landscape” [157], could a similar prevalence of legislation for the prevention of NHs in urban planning constitute a solution, such as that of the French PPRN? In fact, this Code of Cultural Heritage and Landscape Protection stipulates in its article 143 that from the date of approval of the landscape plan, the provisions and requirements relating to it are immediately binding and take precedence over the provisions of the town and country planning plans.

In Spain, the legal framework for natural risk management is characterized by a multiplicity of laws involving different public administrations, which complicates the coordination between these administrations on the ground, despite the legal clarity of the mechanisms that frame this coordination [86,112]. Although there is a substantial amount of mapping on natural hazards, it is fragmentary and lacks adequate legal coverage, such as the French system that sets criteria and obligations in regulating land use. Refs. [81,135] also raise the issue of inappropriate scale, since flood hazard maps at scales smaller than 1:5000° are generally ineffective for urban planning. With respect to landslide hazard zoning, refs. [145,158] suggest scales that take into account the needs and objectives of planners and land use regulators.

If the above observations concern the implementation of specific legislation on the prevention of NHs in urban planning and the technical aspects of mapping, in the Maghreb countries, it is the overall risk management strategies that are lagging significantly behind, with repercussions for DRR policy in general and the inclusion of NH prevention in land use planning in particular.

In Algeria, the lack of regulatory mapping of NHs was raised by [137,159] and reiterated by the WB diagnosis of climate risks and disasters management in Algeria [138]. This analysis shows that despite the large number of existing texts, which constitute a solid foundation for the establishment of a disaster risk management policy and the strengthening of resilience, the application of the regulations is still a challenge because many implementing texts have not yet been adopted, leaving a lack of clarity on the roles and responsibilities of the various stakeholders. For example, Law No. 04-20 on the prevention of major risks provides for the adoption by decree of a general prevention plan specific to each “major risk”. Of the 15 general risk prevention plans provided for in this law, none have been adopted in relation to NHs.

The Tunisian strategy for DRR until 2030 refers to the UNDP report on the legal and regulatory framework for DRR, which emphasizes that the current framework is fragmented [160]. The regulatory framework is made up of several texts, laws, and decrees that deal totally or partially with DRR. Similarly, the proposal of institutional and normative reinforcement for disaster risk management in Tunisia points to the absence of a framework law that would encompass all the components of DRR, in its preventive, corrective, and compensatory dimensions [160]. Thus, to meet the requirements of resilient urban planning, the supervising ministry will establish a national urban risk information and analysis system (RIAS) to assess the impact of natural hazards on the population and the economy, and to reduce their effects [125].

In Morocco, despite the significant progress made in the field of NH prevention through USMs, the study by [161] recommends accelerating the rate of production of these maps, drawing up the Flood Zones Atlas, and urgently carrying out seismic microzoning maps for highly exposed areas while proposing the acceleration of efforts to integrate risks into urban planning. The report also highlights the inadequate involvement of urban agencies, the key institutional players in urban planning, which are supposed to ensure that risk is integrated into urban planning. This insufficient involvement is due to the limited human resources of these structures, the lack of know-how in the field of natural risk prevention, and the difficulties in developing their mission. The self-referral of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council underlines the inadequacy of the current legal framework to the new demands of climate change, coupled with the multiplicity and heterogeneity of texts and stakeholders, and recommends, to this end, the introduction of a framework law on natural risks, clarifying the responsibilities of the actors involved and reinforcing the policy of assessing and mapping NHs [162].

6.7. Deficiencies in Maghreb Initiatives for Mapping NHs in Urban Planning

A large number of studies on urban and peri-urban areas, as risk areas, call for a new way of thinking about the city, as they raise the need to prevent the damage of NHs by taking them into account in urban land use planning projects [24,25,26,163,164]. This lack of resilient spatial planning tools is reflected in the publication of scientific studies proposing seismic zoning and seismic microzoning studies [165,166,167,168], spatial simulations of floods [169,170,171], modeling of landslide susceptibility [172,173], and spatial coastal risk assessments [125].

In Algeria, some municipalities, such as Ain El Hammam, Constantine, and Greater Algiers, have hired engineering firms to prepare landslide hazard maps, known as “constructability” maps, for use in revising urban development master plans [172,174]. According to [117], some Tunisian municipalities have included NH studies in their specifications for urban development plans. However, these initiatives remain local and targeted, rather than part of an overall national strategy, such as the Moroccan USM program discussed in the next section.

Unfortunately, this lack of a natural risk prevention strategy is not limited to the countries of the Maghreb but concerns the countries of the Middle East and Africa [175,176].

6.8. The Moroccan Experience in Resilience Through Urban Planning

Although the USM program is ambitious and a significant step forward in territorial resilience, the analysis we have conducted on the finalized USMs, including that of Al-Hoceima for the provincial territory, and those of the cities of Taounate and Chefchaouen in northern Morocco (Figure 2 and Figure 4), allows us to identify incompatibilities and inconsistencies that affect this mapping program and technical, legislative, and scientific features:

Figure 4. Consequence of not taking into account hazards when drawing up urban plans. Extract from the urban plan of the city of Chefchaouen approved in 2012 at a scale of 1/2000. The red polygons correspond to the areas classified as high hazard and non-aedificandi, according to the city’s USM, which was finalized in 2017.

• Lack of legal opposability: Although the USMs are technically designed in the manner of PPRNs, they lack a legal basis. They are supposed to be the technical basis for urban plans. The paradox is that in the majority of municipalities where USMs have been carried out, urban plans are already in use. The overlay of the USM of the city of Chefchaouen, finalized in 2017, on the urban plan, approved in 2012, reveals anomalies in the efficiency of the urban plan by revealing the existence of an area of approximately 100 ha open to urbanization but not constructible according to the USM. This area represents 10% of the areas open to urbanization in the urban plan of the city. This inefficiency of the urban planning document due to the lack of prior studies on NHs opens the possibility of granting building permits in areas unsuitable for urbanization. We consider that the only way to remedy this situation is to revise the urban plan and incorporate the USM prescriptions into a new plan. This is in order to give the USM a legal basis and regulatory opposability, since Moroccan law does not give the USM the same status as the French PPRN, which is considered a public service obligation, nor does the Spanish legislation, which stipulates that risk maps must be an integral part of the urban planning process [153].
  In order to give the USM the same binding scope as the PPRRN in France, it is necessary to give the Urbanization Suitability Map a real legal basis. This presupposes its submission to a public inquiry, followed by a deliberation by the municipal council concerned, and then its approval by the competent authority. In addition, a reform of urban planning legislation is necessary in order to make it mandatory to include Urbanization Suitability Maps in urban planning documents.
• Incompatibility of scales: The scale of production of the USM does not correspond to that of the urban planning documents, which are produced in the territories of the provinces, of thousands of km². In principle, a large scale is required for the final production mapping, but the scales used for analyses are not because of the lack of precise input data. [113,135,177] made the same observation for Spanish flood hazard maps, as they are not carried out at a scale adapted to serve as a basis for urban planning. In the framework of the proposal of a specific methodology for the integration of geohazards in urban planning and its application to three European cities, [17] suggest scales of 1/5000 and 1/1000 in geological suitability studies for the needs of consideration in urban planning.
• Lack of technical, financial, and institutional arrangements: The absence of a technical, financial, and institutional framework for large-scale prevention actions complicates the coordination and pooling of the efforts of the various stakeholders and compromises the effective implementation of the USM.
• Impact of land statutes: The fragmentation of land into small parcels makes it difficult to implement preventive measures, especially those subject to strict prescriptions, due to the multiplicity of stakeholders compared with large parcels, where the number of stakeholders is limited. Sometimes, the cost of preventive interventions far exceeds the land value itself.
• Dissipation of effort: Efforts are often dispersed over vast areas (on the scale of provincial territories), with no significant elements at risk, instead of focusing on urbanized or potentially urbanizable areas. Since the spatial input data is of small to medium scale, we suggest that susceptibility maps be made for the entire regional or provincial territory to identify the geographical areas exposed to each type of hazard, and the dedication of hazard maps to high-stakes sectors, since the analysis requires a technical effort.
• Lack of data: Lack of records and archives makes it difficult to analyze the recurrence and follow-up of dangerous phenomena over periods long enough to estimate their frequency. This problem is raised by [145] in some European countries where official statistics on landslides are lacking. Moreover, updates are needed to avoid falling in the case of the Italian IFFI program which serves as a basis for the PAIs and which has not been updated since the finalization of the database in 2015 [178].
• Lack of participatory approach: The lack of a participatory approach with the population of the USM area has a negative impact on the sustainability of natural risk prevention measures [122]. This participatory approach is adopted in the process of developing the French PPRN through the submission of the document to a public inquiry before its final approval.
• Diversity of approaches to risk assessment: The responsibility of the USM program is to unify the final products throughout the national territory, but differences may remain between the USMs of contiguous provinces. This is due to differences in the analysis and evaluation approaches adopted, since operators (design firms) have not followed the same methodology or have not had the same input data available.
• Ambiguity in the assessment of geological hazards: While the institutional responsibilities for the characterization of seismic and flood hazards are clear, respectively, by the ING and the Hydraulic Basin Agencies, there is no law or state service responsible for geomorphological hazards (landslides, rockfalls, sinkholes, subsidence, or coastal erosions). This shortcoming leaves opinions unclear on the evaluation of these hazards, just as it hinders the standardization of the products hoped for by the Ministry of Spatial Planning, Urban Planning, Housing, and Urban Policy.

7. Conclusions

The increased consideration of NHs in urban planning is the result of a gradual evolution, influenced by dangerous, catastrophic events, scientific advances, and changes in attitudes towards territory management. Urban planning based on better integration of NHs remains the most effective instrument for risk prevention. It is an ideal tool for risk reduction, due to the scale required and its ability to assess the exposure of risk elements. As it is a preventive action, based on the orientation of urbanization outside the exposed areas or its adaptation to them, it is therefore the most cost-effective solution. However, this efficiency depends on the availability of mapping adapted to urban planning, based on reliable and accurate data, scientifically sound methodologies, and firm legislation that consolidates achievements.

WM countries face several major NHs, often exacerbated by climate change and urban growth. Despite this common exposure to NHs, perceptions of resilience and land use differ between these countries. These differences are influenced by economic, political, technical, cultural, and institutional factors.

Indeed, European countries generally have an improved legislative framework for taking natural risks into account in urban planning, despite the particularism of these different countries, which is linked to the vulnerabilities of the respective territories, their institutional, technical, and financial capacities, and the level of development of culture and awareness in terms of resilience to NHs. It should be noted that the European Community framework has greatly boosted efforts in this area. In the Maghreb countries, this Community framework is lacking, which has repercussions on policies for the prevention of natural risks and hampers the long-term monitoring of adaptation projects. There was a slow and late awakening that required the intervention of international organizations to strengthen the institutional capacity of these countries to characterize risks, an operation still in its infancy, and to integrate them into urban planning. Additional efforts at the level of these countries are needed to deepen knowledge of NHs, encourage scientific research, improve inter-institutional coordination, and share information, as raised by academic researchers, especially since many rivers and floodplains are part of transboundary hydrographic networks (e.g., Oued Kiss, Oued Guir). These cases could be the subject of regional integration projects that the UNISDR and the World Bank could support. These institutions are well known for their specific assistance and support to the Maghreb countries. In this context, they could unify the water basin agencies’ visions on both sides of the border regarding a common flood warning system, the transfer of good practices, database building, flood hazard mapping, and more. These initiatives could pave the way for a regional integration strategy that incorporates other hazards and territories in the Maghreb countries.

To this end, it is desirable to strengthen cooperation between all the countries of the Western Mediterranean that belong to the same risk basin, given their common geomorphological, geological, and climatological characteristics, in order to exchange good practices and benefit from technical and financial assistance for the improvement of technical, legislative, and institutional frameworks toward the prevention of natural risks.

A reading of the Moroccan experience in the field of USMs, which was inspired by the French PPRN program, shows the interest in applying this tool as a remedy for the existing technical, legislative, and regulatory deficiencies, while making the necessary technical and legislative improvements to this experience.

Given the similarities in the physical and societal conditions to which the countries of the Maghreb are subjected, this approach to the USM program initiated in Morocco could well serve as an example for these countries, while taking into account the remarks made in this article in order to improve efficiency and ensure reliable and effective consideration within urban planning documents. In this regard, an evaluation of this approach could be the subject of a case study once other provincial maps have been finalized and published, in order to obtain a sufficient sample required to conduct such an evaluation. In addition, this approach could be applied to countries that do not yet have their strategy for risk prevention through urban planning, particularly those in the Middle East and Africa.

This work highlights the need for a perpetual updating of risk mapping and legislation because of the development of risk characterization techniques to better understand natural hazards in light of the inevitable occurrence of natural disasters. This update reveals the gaps and inadequacies of the regulations in force in relation to the realities on the ground.

This comparative study reveals that although DRR considerations are increasingly present in planning frameworks, implementation varies significantly. Morocco’s USM program offers a replicable model for integrating hazard mapping into land use decisions. Future research should focus on evaluating the effectiveness of these planning tools in mitigating natural hazard risks and guiding sustainable urban development.