Irrigation Water Management

Agriculture is a significant user of water resources. Sound irrigation strategies and management options need to be established in order to address water use, performance and productivity of agricultural systems. MARETEC has been developing hydrological models as tools to improve irrigation water efficiency, and help mitigating soil salinization/sodification risks and nutrient and pesticide losses by leaching and runoff.

Our solutions

• Weather forecast
• Estimates of crop water requirements
• Modelling soil-water balance at the plot and field scales
• Modelling the effects of irrigation water quality to the environment
• Modelling nutrient and pesticide fate

Our examples

• Supporting farmers’ irrigation practices with hydrologic models and EO data: http://www.agro-evapo.eu/
• Development of decision support systems for precise irrigation management: http://www.figaro-irrigation.net/
• Merging hydrologic models and EO data for estimating crop water requirements: http://mywater-fp7.eu/
• Improving irrigation and fertilization efficiency in maize irrigated with saline waters: NITROSAL Project