Water Retention and Nutrient Recycling in Soils and Streams for Improved Agricultural Production

The WATERAGRI vision is to solve agricultural water management and soil fertilisation challenges in a sustainable manner to secure affordable food production in Europe for the 21st century. The WATERAGRI concept aims to introduce a new framework for the use of affordable small water retention approaches for managing excess and shortage of water as well as better recovery of nutrients from agricultural catchments applying a multi-actor approach. The objectives are to (a) Co-develop (multi-actor approach) the links between agricultural land and soil-sediment-water management for improved management of water excess and shortage, maximizing crop production and improving water quality and nutrient uptake by crops; (b) Undertake both technical and sustainability assessments of proposed measures considering tested and reviewed management options; (c) Develop a cloud-based simulation and data assimilation system based on a physically-based terrestrial system model, which is able to assimilate in situ and remotely sensed observations of hydrological and plant variables and meteorological data in near-real time to analyse effects of structures such as drains and dams for improved farm-scale water management and retention; (d) Identify, develop and test affordable and easy-to-implement long-term technical and operational farm solutions such as controlled drainage, regulated deficit irrigation, subsurface irrigation, groundwater recharge, farm constructed wetlands, soil management and nutrient recovery options; (e) Assess the techniques for their potential regarding adaptation to climate change and their impact on ecosystem services for different biogeographic regions using case studies; and (f) Disseminate the implemented innovations to farmers, advisory services and decision-makers as part of a multi-actor approach. The key performance indicators are increased crop production, enhanced nutrient recovery from streams and a simulation and data assimilation system.