The Iguerferouane watershed, located in the western High Atlas of Morocco, is highly vulnerable to soil erosion for its geomorphological and climatic characteristics. This process threatens the physical environment, agricultural productivity, and local socio-economic development. The present study aims to quantitatively assess soil erosion in this watershed and to map the spatial patterns of erosion risk, to achieve this, the Erosion Potential Method (EPM) was applied by integrating multiple factors such as climate, slope, land cover, and soil type. Spatial datasets were processed using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to generate thematic layers, which were subsequently incorporated into the EPM framework to estimate both the magnitude and spatial variability of erosion. .The results reveal significant spatial heterogeneity, with erosion rates ranging from 64 to 34,000 m³/km²/year and an annual mean soil loss of 5,312.36 m³/km². Severely affected areas, representing 33.76% of the watershed, are concentrated in the south, where steep slopes (40–267%), sparse vegetation, fragile lithology, and intense rainfall converge to accelerate erosion. Central and eastern sectors are moderately impacted, whereas northern areas experience limited erosion due to gentler topography and lower rainfall. These findings demonstrate that soil erosion in the Iguerferouane basin is driven primarly by the interaction topography, a degrading vegetation, rainfall aggressiveness, and lithological fragility. This study represents the first quantitative assessment of erosion in the iguerferouane watershed, providing insights into the spatial dynamics and main controlling factors of soil erosion in this area.