REAL TIME SOIL MOISTURE FORECAST FOR SMART IRRIGATION – RET-SIF

The work develops and improves an operational system for real-time forecast of irrigation water need to support parsimonious water management in case of present or forecasted drought period. The system will be a prototype version of a worldwide web platform that will support users in parsimonious irrigation water management from water authorities to single farmers according to actual and forecasted irrigation water demand. The project starts from an already implemented system developed by project partners in the “SIM project” funded by ERA-NET Cofund Water Works 2014 under Water JPI (Horizon 2020).
In particular, the system will support: i) farmers to maintain soil moisture in an optimum interval allowing water saving and reducing plant stress, ii) irrigation consortiums to manage the water among users; iii) water authorities to manage water withdraw from reservoirs.
The system combines satellite monitoring of soil moisture and of evaporative fluxes using thermal infrared and microwave data, quantitative meteorological forecast, detailed distributed hydrological modelling of soil water balance, crop growth model. The system provides real-time and forecasted soil moisture behavior at high spatial and temporal resolutions (from 10 m to 250 m, from 1 hour to daily) with forecast horizons from few up to thirty days. This forecasted soil moisture will be continuously compared with water stress thresholds characteristic of each specific crop and its growth stage, allowing to determine the correct timing and amount of irrigation.
Economic impacts of a parsimonious water use will be evaluated using specific indicators from single farm to larger irrigation districts considering not only the role of water and energy saved in financial terms based on the local cost of the water and crop production, but also the increase of crop yield and the environmental benefit.
The proposed methodology will be applied in different case studies in the Mediterranean area in Italy, Spain and Morocco, which are characterized, by different climatic conditions, water availability, crop types and irrigation schemes. The proposed system, for its versatility, can be easily exported for applications to the other case studies worldwide as one in China. The presence of Chinese partner will help in demonstrating this.
The project stakeholders (Water authorities, farmers consortium and single farms) for the different case studies will be involved from the project beginning sharing project approach, activities and type of outputs, customizing the system so that its uptake will be easily promoted in the stakeholder habits.
The proposed project complements previous partners’ heritage, providing the necessary starting experience on integrating meteorological, soil hydrological, remote sensing and economic modelling in the stakeholders needs.
The expected innovative tool will have impact both on the scientific community, as well as on operative farms and water authorities. These results will be guarantee from the work team that represents a good compromise between research institutes and small enterprises, which can implement advance research tools into an operative industrial product.