DEMETER
(DEMonstration of Earth observation TEchnologies
in Routine irrigation advisory services)
European
Commission contract EVG1-CT-2002-00078, 12/2002-11/2005
(Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development Programme)
PROJECT SUMMARY
Irrigated agriculture is the main water consumer in Europe.
The European Commission's Water Framework Directive, National
Water Plans, and National Irrigation Plans all emphasise the
urgent necessity of planning and control tools to assist in
the efficient use of water resources. Irrigation Advisory
Services (IAS) are the natural management instruments to achieve
a better efficiency in the use of water for irrigation. IAS
help farmers to apply water according to the actual crop water
requirements and thus, to maximise production and cost-effectiveness.
Some member states and the Commission have recognised the
strategic importance of IAS in sustainable water management
and have initiated a process of generalised creation of IAS.
 
Current
IAS, however, are labour- and cost-intensive, yet unable to
cover each field in extended areas at regular short time intervals.
Earth observation (EO) is naturally destined to fill such a
gap, but has so far remained short of being truly applicable
in IAS operations. We propose here a range of very practical
innovative solutions to overcome these problems.
DEMETER
is designed to assess and demonstrate in an operational perspective
how the performance and cost-effectiveness of IAS is substantially
improved by the incorporation of Earth observation (EO) techniques
into their day-to-day operations. The integration of new Information
Society Technologies (IT) in the generation and distribution
of information will make the EO easily available to IAS and
the farmers (the end-users).
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