Special Session 12

In recent decades, irrigation has become one of the crucial factors for agricultural development, to increase production in terms of yields and quality, giving greater flexibility to production systems and reducing uncertainty due to water supply deriving from rainfall.
Emerging digital technologies have the potential to improve the traditional agricultural practices, with what the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has called a ‘digital agricultural revolution’ that could ensure agriculture meets the needs of the world population in the future.
The session will focus on water management and its critical role in climate-smart agriculture and how sensors and technologies can help increase the resilience of production systems at different spatial scales, from crop fields to irrigation districts, mainly when water and soil are limiting factors.
Research findings related to estimating effective crop evapotranspiration, new technologies for irrigation water management, as well as the cost and suitability of technology to monitor soil and plant water status are welcome. Participants can share their experience on how the acquired proximal and remote data can be integrated into decision support systems to address current irrigation problems and to guide decisions in irrigation management.

Simona Consoli, full professor at UNICT in agricultural hydraulics. PhD in environmental hydrology.

• Associate editor for the Journal “Agricultural Water Management”, Elsevier, since 2016;
• EIT independent “Water Scarcity expert” years 2021, 2022;
• Director of the CUTGANA - University Center for the protection and management of natural environments and agro-ecosystems, University of Catania, 2022- 2026;

Main research activities include crop water needs evaluation by energy balance, micrometeorology, and satellite remote sensing; deficit irrigation application; wastewater reuse in agriculture; natural wastewater treatment plant design.

Giuseppe Provenzano full Professor of Irrigation and Drainage and Water Management in Agriculture at the University of Palermo and Ph.D. in environmental hydrology. He has been responsible for national and international research projects mainly focused on soil hydraulic characterization, smart technologies for irrigation scheduling at different spatial scales, sensors calibration, micro-irrigation system design, and water and energy balance in the soil-plant-atmosphere system. He has been a member of the editorial board and guest editor of several scientific journals treating topics related to irrigation and agricultural water management. Authors of more than 100 papers published in journals with impact factor or conference proceedings.

Giuseppe Longo Minnolo Ph.D. student in Agricultural, Food, and Environmental Science at UNICT. Main research activities are related to the use of remote sensing and alternative (e.g. forecast, reanalysis) agrometeorological data sources for supporting the planning and the monitoring of irrigation water uses at different spatial scales; application of deficit irrigation strategies.