Water4ever: Optimizing water use in agriculture to preserve soil and water resources - Mid-term Report

Agriculture is by far the largest consumer of water, with about 70% of the diverted water being used in irrigation. Agriculture is also considered as a key source of diffuse pollution with inefficient practices resulting in high water and nutrient (particularly N and P) surpluses that are transferred to water bodies through diffuse processes (runoff and leaching), promoting eutrophication, with associated biodiversity loss. WATER4EVER aims to demonstrate the connectivity between the two scales by combining the most performant monitoring strategies at the plot scale to provide detailed information of water and nutrient flow, integrating then this information at the catchment scale to close the gap between diffuse loads and water quality degradation. The specific objectives are: (i) to develop an automatic irrigation and fertilization Decision Support System based on online data and forecast models; (ii) to develop new strategies based on optical sensors installed on fixed and mobile ground, drone and satellite platforms for continuous monitoring of crop development; (iii) to improve soil process-oriented models for the dynamics of soil organic matter and its implication on nutrient budgets, crop development, and soil erosion; (iv) to connect plot and catchment scale models to quantify the effect of local agriculture practices on downstream water availability and quality; and (v) to disseminate and transfer knowledge and technology by means of public information adapted to different stakeholders. WATER4EVER is currently implemented in 10 agricultural fields and 5 catchments in Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Turkey. The Catalonian catchment further includes the Algerri Balaguer irrigation district as case study. Partners' early work was on the collection of field sensor datasets from each case study and reference period 2012-2018 to calibrate/validate the modelling and remote sensing products to be developed within the Project. The following are already available for each case study: soil moisture maps (1 km resolution) produced using the DISPATCH (DISaggregation based on a Physical And Theoretical scale CHange) algorithm for the downscaling of soil moisture products (40km resolution) from MODIS remote sensing data; vegetation indices (LAI and NDVI) and land use maps (30m resolution) derived from Landsat/Sentinel 2 products; soil water budgets using the MOHID-Land model. A modular smart camera for crop monitoring is also being developed, with field testing expected for Spring 2019. This prototype is part of the modular and open-source IoT based technologies (AgIoT) which can upgrade conventional machinery with variable rate technologies to reach higher levels of precision on the monitoring of crop status. WATER4EVER can contribute directly to the implementation of the Nitrates Directive and of the Water Framework Directive. The Project is particularly dedicated to raising awareness on the causes of diffuse pollution and respective impacts on the availability and quality of downstream water bodies; on reducing costs of production factors by improving irrigation water and fertilizers efficiency; and on demonstrating the capabilities of emerging technologies (smart cameras, satellite data, process-based models) for improving irrigation water and fertilization management. WATER4EVER is led by Instituto Superior Técnico (Portugal) and includes Deimos Engenharia SA (Portugal), Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores, Tecnologia e Ciência (Portugal), isardSAT (Spain), Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena (Spain), Institute for Agricultural and Earthmoving Machines of the National Research Council of Italy (Italy), and Abant Izzet Baysal University (Turkey). More information on WATER4EVER is available at http://water4ever.eu/.