Decision support for drought-adapted irrigation management
REDSIM is a pilot project carried out within the framework of the “Halting Desertification in Europe” programme, supporting EC – DG Environment in addressing problems in water management with particular emphasis on the implementation of the Water Framework Directive and the European Water Scarcity and Drought Policy. Outcomes of REDSIM should be integrated in the EU Policy Review of the Strategy for Water Scarcity and Droughts, and in the “Blueprint to safeguard European waters” to be released in 2012.
The full project title is “Remote-sensing based DSS for Sustainable drought-adapted Irrigation Management” (REDSIM). The project was coordinated by the Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena (UPCT), Spain. The REDSIM project period was January 2011 to June 2012. The target basins were the Upper Guadiana River Basin and Segura River Basin, southeastern Spain. Practically all the key institutes and organizations acting in these basins were involved in the project as partner or stakeholder (basin authorities, irrigators’ associations and research institutes).
Project number | n/a | ||
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Subject(s) | AGRICULTURE , INFORMATION - COMPUTER SCIENCES , POLICY-WATER POLICY AND WATER MANAGEMENT , WATER DEMAND | ||
Acronym | REDSIM | ||
Geographical coverage | Spain, | ||
Budget (in €) | 500000 | ||
Programme | Halting Desertification in Europe | ||
Web site | http://redsim.net | ||
Objectives | The objective of REDSIM was improving Irrigation Water Productivity (IWP) in these two water-stressed watersheds, by developing and validating an Information-Decision Support System (REDSIM-IS) based on remote sensing data and simplified water balance and crop models to assist growers in implementing and managing efficiently deficit irrigation (DI) techniques. Key activities carried out were the (1) setting up and calibration of the REDSIM information system (REDSIM-IS) and farm advisory tools, (2) the mapping and prediction of soil and crop attributes, surface fluxes, rainfall, soil water balance and IWP, and (3) the implementation and monitoring of the irrigation treatments in pilot farms, on-farm evaluation of the acceptance of the REDSIM tools. |
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Results | The REDSIM information system was successfully implemented during the project and farm-level evaluation has been done with a group of farmers. Deficit irrigation strategies were tested in various crops during the project period and results were synthesized for dissemination among farmers. The REDSIM trials showed that IWP can be increased by around 20% in citrus orchards and melons, 30% in Nectarines orchards and about 60% in vineyards, compared to conventional irrigation strategies. Given the importance of these crops in the Mediterranean areas, and the fact that the level of knowledge and number of tools for DI are increasingly available to the farmer, REDSIM confirms that there is a significant potential to increase the economic output of irrigation water in this area, and to promote its sustainable use. Farmers should however have easy access to this knowledge (for example guidelines brochure of REDSIM, capacity building, demonstration projects), and should be supported through REDSIM-like information systems. Other key findings:
Reports can be downloaded from www.futurewater.nl. |
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Period | [01/01/2011 - 30/06/2012] |