Background The region of Sahel-Doukkala is a plain situated on the Atlantic coast between the city of Casablanca in the North and Safi in the South of Morocco. Since the 1960s, the Doukkala Plain has experienced economic growth and is now considered as the second industrial pole of Morocco. There is a concentration of chemical (phosphates complex of Jorf Lasfer) and agrifood (sugar, milk and pharmaceutical) industries in the region. Another important activity is the extraction of marine salt from the salting onshore swamps (Oulja). The economic growth and increase in the population has put considerable pressure on the existing underground water resources. A deterioration in the quality of water has been noticed in irrigated zones.Moroccan legislation about underground water requires the establishment of an up-to-date inventory of the resource: this work requires the integration of ecological information, notably to address the issues related to water availability in the Sahel region.Access to this know-how and dissemination had to be improved. Objectives The objectives of the SaDIN project focused on the evaluation of the potential of aquifers in the Sahel-Doukkala region, which supply an arid, yet increasingly densely populated area. These investigations were to be accompanied by an epidemiological study on the health situation of the local population, which would be seriously affected by groundwater pollution. The project was also to focus on environmental parameters, such as wildlife, vegetation and illegal waste dumps. Results In the framework of the SaDIN project, a number of scientific studies were carried out on the state of the environment in the Sahel-Doukkala region. These studies covered subjects such as: geology, hydrogeology, ecology and epidemiology. The epidemiological investigations dealt with the impact of emissions from waste dumps on the health of certain categories of the population (aged between 20 and 40 years). The epidemiological report was passed on to the Ministry of Health for consideration. Another important result of the project is the setting up of a scientific information system (SIS). This system was based on a tool previously developed by the Data Centre of the GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam (partner in SaDIN project), which was adapted to meet the project's needs. The SIS enables researchers at Chouaïb Doukkali University (UCD) to access a centrally managed database via intranet/internet. Although a comparable geoinformation system exists in some other countries of Africa (www.sist-sciencesdev.net), this is a pionnier initiative in Marocco. In addition to the research and the development of the SIS, the project team disseminated the methodology of the geoinformatic system. Furthermore, the project enabled several students and junior researchers to be trained in one of the partner institutions. The knowledge gained in the project will enable technology transfer and facilitate policy decisions. SaDIN is a pilot project which can be duplicated in other regions of Northern Africa and beyond.