WEAM4i project was conceived as an initiative to help the irrigation communities and end users to optimise their utilisation of resources. The realisation of this idea depended on successfully integrating the water and energy nexus into a solution that combined new technologies, demand and forecasting services. In order to prove the replicability of such solution, the consortium was built having in mind three distinctive demonstration areas, namely Spain, Portugal and Germany. Each of these areas had distinctive water & energy markets, technical approaches and socio-economic aspects that were treated at the same level of importance in specific work packages within the project.
Therefore, the main concept to be developed during the project was the water demand-side management according to the available energy offer, ensuring a solution that could be implemented in different situations present in Europe. In order to do so, the following developments were targeted in WEAM4i’s Description of Work and achieved during the project’s period:
- A water demand forecast, and an energy price forecast:
o A weather forecast was introduced into the water demand forecast module and into the energy price forecast module;
o A water demand forecast module was developed and contributed to the irrigation forecast service of WEAM4i;
- Instruments for aggregating the energy demand and Decision Support System (DSS) tools for managing water demand:
o The consortium’s work in the frame of DSS module, IT platform (field and crop data management), data presentation in WEB Server and the roll out in the demosites contributed to the irrigation decision in order to optimize the costs and the resources’ consumption, focused on the irrigation process;
o The energy experts among the partners demonstrated an energy costs forecast in Spain, Portugal and Germany, contributing to the DSS module
- Innovative techniques for resource efficiency at local irrigation systems:
o Local sensors and probes tested contributed to the data management system demonstration;
o The consortium’s work in the frame of the irrigation machinery in Germany contributed to the optimization of the irrigation process that can be replicated in central Europe;
- Last but not least, an ICT platform to support the information and the underlying applications: in this task, a service bus, local sensors and probes tested in Spain, Portugal and Germany and a new IT platform contributed to carry out the data management in the whole irrigation system. A newly developed mobile app was designed to provide the farmers with a straightforward way to have information available.
Thanks to the extensive research efforts and the demonstration activities carried out, several tools and services have been developed and will be exploited in the near future, namely:
- HydrOptim: decision support tool developed by ADASA;
- Energy price forecasting tool developed by CREARA;
- New solar and hydraulic pivots, developed by LGRain GmbH;
- Development of control systems for irrigation networks to reduce the energy consumption by Ingenieurbüro Schulz
- Short-term weather forecasting for agricultural Sector, developed by METEOSIM SL;
- Irrigation WEB Portal (ADASA), including HISPATEC’s service bus, WATERWATCH’s crop water demand forecast tool and HR’s mobile app;
- Water storage facilities’ economic feasibility calculator developed by ECLAREON;
- Yara Water-sensor developed by Yara ZIM Plant Technology
Dissemination of results has been particularly important in WEAM4i. A good proof of it are the 2 publications issued during the project and the extensive number of conferences, workshops and exhibitions both organised and attended to (over 60). Leaflets, brochures, roll ups and posters have been issued in several languages in order to maximise the project’s audience. This along with the relevant presence of the project in the social media, made the project reached an average of 10,000 website visitors per year, over 500 followers in Facebook and over 40 new contacts in LinkedIn.
With regards to the socio-economic impact, the major challenge came from gaining the trust of the farmer and the irrigation communities, so they could follow WEAM4i’s advice and thus allow the consortium to fully demonstrate the project’s concept. The consortium invested significant efforts into reaching the irrigators and the irrigation communities, including several meetings, surveying and field work. One of the key aspects if WEAM4i’s approach is to succeed in the future, is to generate trust in the end user and to be able to show them the potential benefits in a straightforward, concise way.
In order to reach these objectives, WEAM4i put together 17 partners during 42 months, across three demonstration areas in Europe, namely in Germany, Spain and Portugal. The consortium showed to be highly multidisciplinary, comprising experts in irrigation, ICT, dissemination and water and energy related technologies. RTOs, large companies, irrigation communities and SMEs were involved in this initiative that amounted up to 5 million Euros of European contribution.