Managing and Planning Water Resources for Irrigation: Smart Irrigation Systems for Providing Sustainable Agriculture and Maintaining Ecosystem Services

Dear Colleagues,

Smart irrigation systems provide attractive instruments and methodologies for saving water and improving soil conservation in view of mitigating the impacts of climate change as well as increasing agricultural production. They can avoid over-watering, excessive runoff and soil erosion by scheduling the amount of irrigation according to soil characteristics, crop types, weather conditions and field geometries.

New devices based on open-source and low-cost technologies and apps allow the management of irrigation at field and farm scales through a sustainable water supply system based on actual crop water requirements and accounting for the local variability of soil properties. Tailored management approaches of water resources for irrigation oriented towards agro-hydrological models and decision support systems at the farm and district irrigation scales can also maintain reliable and flexible water allocation during dry seasons, preserving water for environmental requirements and decreasing conflicts between water users. Likewise, the use of marginal water resources such as saline or treated wastewater, both from industrial and domestic origin, becomes a source of irrigation in semi-arid and arid regions, where the future of irrigated agriculture is threatened by existing or expected shortages of fresh water and raising concerns of potential hazards to the environment and/or humans. Therefore, smart irrigation systems that aim to adopt single or combined automation and information–communication technologies at the farm/district scale, as well as customized and integrated model approaches at larger scales, would appear to be a farsighted way to promote future resilient irrigation management.

Within this framework, this Special Issue offers an opportunity to gather studies and multidisciplinary approaches related to advanced technologies and innovative methodologies for irrigation management and soil conservation at different spatial scales, taking into account key issues such as:

• New remote and proximal sensing techniques and methodologies for detecting soil hydraulic properties, crop water and nutrient status.
• Innovative laboratory and outdoor experiments for detecting surface and subsurface runoff and soil transport.
• New irrigation methods and techniques for improving the water use efficiency in different crops and environmental contexts, as well as preventing soil degradation such as compaction, loss of soil structure, nutrient degradation, erosion, sedimentation and salinity.
• New agronomic and irrigation management practices to favor soil biodiversity and improve or restore natural ecosystems.
• Systems and methodologies for improving the effectiveness of traditional irrigation methods.
• Role of traditional irrigation methods in maintaining ecosystem and environmental equilibrium.
• Automatic and remote-controlled systems for improving surface, sub-surface, drip and sprinkler irrigation.
• Use of agro-hydrological models and decision support systems to promote better informed decisions on irrigation management and in safe surface water–groundwater interactions.
• Pros and cons of marginal water use in irrigated agriculture.

Dr. Daniele Masseroni
Dr. Gerard Arbat
Prof. Isabel Pedroso de Lima
Guest Editors

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