ABOUT US

In the new economy, the role of digitization is increasingly present, and procedures, tools and other resources are becoming available in a new era in water management and smart agriculture. In the future agriculture of the Mediterranean region, concepts like “big data”, “Internet of Things” and “cyber-physical systems”, will have to coexist with the physical environments that need to be more sustainable to assure food and quality of life for the population especially regarding water resources. The project will demonstrate that the pool of non-conventional water resources together with conventional water resources of river basins in scarcity or low water quality areas, can increase quantity, quality and efficiency in cost savings and reducing loses where remote sensing communications protocols are implemented.The application of ICT to NCWTT will promote control and information available to all stakeholders thanks to the use of a platform open access. Data will be obtained and elaborated not only from a technological or sanitary point of view, but from an integrated socio-economic perspective, understanding the potentialities of water management for agriculture, and boosting growth and sustainable development in the Mediterranean region.

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Period of Implementation

Jun 1, 2019 - Nov 30, 2022
Total Budget

EUR 1,862,042.00

OUR IMPACT

Goals

Objective 1. - To study, adapt and implement technologies for reclaimed water and re-use, already validated in past EU projects in the partners, that will increase water quality and quantity, for knowledge transfer, further development and validation in other environments of the Mediterranean (work packages WP3, WP5). Objective 2.- To develop new sensor and communication protocols for monitoring and control of water distribution systems at wastewater treatment plants providing “new water” to the water cycle and making it more efficient by reducing operational and energy costs, speed up the water cycle, reduce water losses, etc. Objective 3.- To improve agricultural productivity in Mediterranean agrosystems (water scarcity, low quality water, etc.) by minimizing the use of water and fertilizers by optimizing the management of fertigation. Objective 4.- To analyse the potential of agrophotovoltaic applications (APV) with respect to a reduction of irrigation needs through shadowing, PV-based water treatment of low quality water (LQW) to avoid or mitigate soil salinization. Objective 5.- To develop socio-economic studies and to improve water governance in the Mediterranean partners countries. The objective of the studies is to determine what the long range effects of water management may have on local populations, growth, new jobs, talent, new professional specialisation, new businesses and incomes.

Objectives

The objective of WATERMED 4.0 is to develop and to apply an integrated decision support system based on the Internet of Things, for managing the whole water cycle in agriculture, monitoring water resources (conventional and non -conventional) and water demands including the measure of economic, energy, social and governance factors that influence the water use efficiency in Mediterranean agricultural production areas.

Problems and Needs Analysis

Wastewater treatment for agriculture. One of the WATERMED objectives will be to transfer and to adapt the results of Eurostars IRIS project (http://www.iris-project.eu ), where partner CEBAS-CSIC took part and will be tested it in Turkey, adapting scientific methodology to the local regulations, water sources and selected crops for the project. The IRIS research was a pilot project designed for preserving nutrients for irrigation and removing the organics, suspended solids, pathogens and reduce the salinity by removing some salts. Drainage water treatment. WATERMED will consider also the technology already developed and lessons learned from project LIFE Drainuse (http://www.drainuse.eu/), where UMU and CEBAS-CSIC were partners. Drainuse results on purification and disinfection of irrigation waters will be adapted and implemented in Algeria, where salinity levels in groundwaters and excess of nutrients are a serious threat for sustainable agriculture in the region of Kenis Miliana. The proposed technology will include nutrition unit, the disinfection unit and the purification unit (WP3, WP5). The use of new sensor and communication technologies in water systems domain have however several important constraints that have not been properly tackled by today’s available solutions in an integrated way. The proposed solution takes advantage of Internet of Things and Services technologies and standards, to leverage the integration and software/hardware developments of monitoring and control systems for the new advanced water systems (work package WP4). Nutrient pollution and agricultural productivity: new information technologies applied to different spatio-temporal scales (edaphic-climatic, agronomic, land mapping, ...) based on real-time in situ will be used and applied. soil moisture, thermo photos, multispectral photo, remote sensing etc (work package WP2, WP3, WP5. Isolated rural areas and irrigated systems: As a further research area we analyze how water pumps, sensors, water treatment or other electrical devices of the water system can use the electricity produced by the PV layer. This is a particular advantage in isolated rural areas, that will be able to produce self-consumption electricity, integrated in the irrigation system. Further, in case of low water quality the PV system offers the opportunity for a PV-based water treatment. In this context we seize the availability of water in the area in which the prototype will be realized and evaluate opportunities if and how a PV based water treatment can contribute to protect natural aquifers and reduce the overall level of water consumption (work packages WP3, WP5). End-users engagement and water governance improvement: socio-economic studies is to determine what the long range effects of water management may have on local populations, growth, new jobs, talent, new professional specialisation, new businesses and incomes. The social and economic studies will engage end-users and other key social, economic and policy stakeholders, participating actively in the research and in training and educational activities of this proposal (WP7), ensuring that research responds to society’s needs. WATERMED will measure both quantitative and qualitative aspects by combining measurable indicators along with public perceptions. Thanks the Open Platform the data related to the pilots will be collected, processed and analysed, able to be replicated in other contexts (work packages WP2, WP6, WP7).

Intervention Strategy(ies)

WATERMED4.0 strategy is addressing the lack of efficiency in the management of conventional and non-conventional water resources applied to agriculture from an integral perspective. The new perspective comes from the assumption that barriers facing water use efficiency are not only due to the lack of knowledge and awareness about the water treatment technologies and the results of the research projects about water, but also to the lack of an appropriate and credible instrument for accessing these solutions, in a form that best fits the needs of end-users and the associated supply chain, from high waters to the plot. This will be provided by identifying processes all along the water cycle for agriculture that could be real- time controlled and monitored by the Internet of Things and Services, helping to increase quantity and quality of water available for agriculture. The stratetegy of WATERMED 4.0 is integral because it considers not only research and innovation activities, but also activities tackling Mediterranean challenges related to the environment, socio-economic effects of end- users behaviour and governance issues. The activities are oriented to the identification and conceptual modelling of the problem of water resources deficit and water stress areas. All these components will be managed through a system based on the use of the Internet of Things and Cloudcomputing, able to provide content for impact indicators on the social and economic development of the region, including gender dimension. This means a framework where the outputs of the research can reach the potential users (mainly irrigation communities, farmers and water administrations) in an applied and useful way, providing a practical and replicable solution that meets their needs and addresses their priority problems. For this reason, WATERMED4.0 actively involves partners SMEs and irrigation communities, able to facilitate and accelerate the deployment of applied services from the previous outcomes, and the real effective dissemination of the research tools and results. In this sense, the users will have a service that allows them to find the solution to their needs, that ar mainly: to follow the national or EU directives (Water Framework Directive), to exploit farm lands in a sustainable and competitive way and, for the water authorities, to act as public servants to the benefit of the citizens. We call the solution the “Open platform of software as a service” (SaaS)”. The open platform adds the missing link to the situation: on one hand, water resources planning and the need to optimize the allocation of water to the irrigation communities; on the other hand, farmers and irrigation communities demanding water which depends on multiple variables such as crop pattern, soil, quality of water, water prices and energy consumption. Adittionally, the platform will include a functionality to measure social and economic aspects related to the farmers and companies exploiting the plots and the indirect effects on jobs and growth in the territory.

Impact Pathway

The overall approach of WATERMED4.0 is increasing the efficiency in the management of conventional and non- conventional water resources applied to agriculture from an integral perspective. The new perspective comes from the assumption that technology development, societal engagement, governance and transferring knowledge will be enhanced by the new possibilities of digitalisation and cyber-compyting through an open platform, in a form that best fits the needs of end-users and the associated supply chain, from high waters (water management authorities, water planning organisations, wastewater treatment plants, technology SME’s) to the plot (irrigation communities, farmers and technology SME’s). The expected impacts will be easily monitored all along the water cycle for agriculture, real-time controlled by the Internet of Things and Services, helping to increase quantity and quality of water available for agriculture and to save water and nutrients.

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