Eng. Kholoud Masbah | African Expert Database

Professional Summary

Moroccan Rural Engineer and water, environment, and infrastructure specialist with international training in Sustainable Water and Land Management from CIHEAM Bari, Italy, and a State Engineering background from IAV Hassan II, Morocco. Her profile brings together irrigation engineering, hydro-agricultural infrastructure, desalination, wastewater reuse, sanitation, hydraulic modelling, GIS, remote sensing, and applied water-quality analysis. She has contributed to collective drip irrigation conversion studies in Moroccan agricultural regions, irrigation network design and evaluation, desalination reliability and optimization, regional sanitation diagnosis, wastewater reuse assessments, drinking water and wastewater laboratory analysis, and satellite-based soil property research. Kholoud represents the new generation of African and Mediterranean water professionals: multilingual, technically disciplined, field-oriented, analytical, and committed to practical solutions for water scarcity, agricultural resilience, environmental protection, and sustainable infrastructure development.

Key Expertise

Rural Engineering Water, Environment and Infrastructure Sustainable Water and Land Management Irrigation Engineering Drip Irrigation Conversion Hydro-Agricultural Infrastructure Irrigation Network Diagnosis Hydraulic Sizing Pumping Systems Solar Pumping Water Distribution Efficiency Crop Water Requirements AquaCrop CropWat GAMS QGIS ArcGIS AutoCAD COVADIS EPANET HEC-RAS R Python SNAP Remote Sensing Multispectral Image Analysis Hyperspectral Image Analysis PRISMA Sentinel-2 Landsat 8 Soil Property Retrieval PLSR Random Forest Cubist Desalination Reverse Osmosis Brackish Water Treatment Seawater Treatment Activated Sludge Lagooning Drinking Water Quality Wastewater Quality BOD5 COD TSS Nutrients Heavy Metals Microbiological Water Quality Moroccan and WHO Water Standards Sanitation Network Diagnosis WWTP Assessment Wastewater Reuse Circular Water Management Flood Protection Life Cycle Assessment Technical Studies CPS BPU DQE Project Coordination Technical-Administrative Follow-Up

Major Projects and Contributions

ENOMATRAV – Localized Irrigation Projects in Morocco
Contributes to technical studies for collective drip irrigation conversion projects in Moroccan agricultural regions including Doukkala, Tadla, and Gharb, in collaboration with Regional Offices of Agricultural Development. Her work includes hydraulic sizing, equipment selection, technical-administrative follow-up, and preparation of CPS, BPU, and DQE documents for public irrigation projects.
Sant'Arcangelo Irrigation Project – CIHEAM Bari, Puglia
Worked on irrigation planning and design for the Sant'Arcangelo project in Puglia, Italy, including crop water requirement analysis, gross irrigation requirement assessment, cropping scheme optimization using GAMS, hydraulic network design, QGIS layout preparation, energy comparison between solar and electricity, and cost-benefit analysis for more efficient irrigation infrastructure.
Desalination Process Reliability and Optimization
Participated in hydraulic engineering work on desalination reliability and process optimization, including assessment of pre-treatment, reverse osmosis, and post-treatment stages, evaluation of TDS, pressure, recovery rate, and specific energy consumption, and preparation of operational improvement proposals for more efficient potable water production from saline sources.
Drinking Water and Wastewater Quality Analysis – RADEEJ
Conducted physico-chemical and bacteriological analyses of drinking water and wastewater, including pH, electrical conductivity, turbidity, BOD5, COD, suspended solids, nitrates, nitrites, ammonium, chlorides, sulfates, heavy metals, residual chlorine, total coliforms, E. coli, and fecal streptococci, while supporting compliance with Moroccan and WHO water quality standards.
Integrated Water Resources Management and Wastewater Reuse – AQP
Contributed to diagnosis and integrated management of water supply, treatment, sanitation, and wastewater reuse systems with AQP / Acquedotto Pugliese, including sanitation network diagnosis, identification of critical WWTP sectors, evaluation of reuse options, and support for water-cycle optimization and sustainability.
Remote Sensing and Soil Property Retrieval – CIHEAM Bari
Worked on analysis of multitemporal multispectral and hyperspectral satellite imagery using PRISMA, Sentinel-2, and Landsat 8 for agricultural soil property retrieval. The work included identification and classification of bare soil pixels and development of predictive models using PLSR, Random Forest, and Cubist.
Oasis Irrigation Diagnosis – Errachidia Province
Completed a final-year engineering project on irrigation practices in an oasis farm in Errachidia Province, Morocco, including technical diagnosis of irrigation networks and solar pumping systems, analysis of flows, pressures, head losses, energy efficiency, application uniformity, clogging, low-pressure issues, water losses, and improvement measures to strengthen irrigation performance.
Hydraulic Engineering Internship – Conversion to Drip Irrigation
Participated in hydraulic engineering work related to conversion to drip irrigation, supporting technical diagnosis of irrigation infrastructure, solar pumping performance, water distribution efficiency, and improvement measures to reduce losses and improve agricultural water productivity.