Over the next three years (2024-2026), the main objective of the I-ReWater project will be to improve water resource management in agriculture by integrating the use of urban reclaimed water in agricultural irrigation, taking into account environmental, social and economic aspects that ensure its proper use in light of the current climate crisis.
The final results will be the presentation of the ‘Transnational Strategy for the Use of Regenerated Water’ and a ‘Regenerated Water in Agriculture Resource Hub’ that will be available online for open consultation.
Another important task in I-ReWater will be to improve general knowledge about regenerated water by promoting the exchange of information between all stakeholders.
Technology is a key tool in achieving the objectives of I-ReWater. In the 15 active pilots in Spain, Portugal and southern France, the consortium has deployed a robust network of sensors to monitor the state of the water in the soil and the plant, facilitating the management of irrigation and the nutrients available in the reclaimed water used for irrigation.
The integration of commercial sensors in low-cost equipment enables 90 measurement points connected to the mySense cloud platform for joint data processing.
The real-time information returned by these sensors (together with the results of water and soil analyses and leaf analysis of crops at critical stages of development) will form the basis for developing I-ReWater’s future decision support tool (Decision Support System (DSS)).
The agronomic knowledge of the I-ReWater partners in each of the six crops studied: vineyards, hops, almonds, olives and horticultural crops (watermelon and industrial tomatoes), will enable us to respond to farmers’ demands for information on when to irrigate and what nutrients are being incorporated through the reclaimed water used for irrigation.
In addition, the DSS developed by our project will reduce the use of synthetic fertilisers, thereby minimising their environmental impact by using resources from the immediate environment instead of fertilisers manufactured outside the country.
