IRRITRE: tools and infrastructures for irrigation in Trentino (IT)

Sustainable water management in agriculture and the maintenance of current crop quantity and quality standards are pivotal elements of agricultural policy at global and local levels. One pressing issue is the concurrent use of water resources for irrigation alongside hydropower, tourism, industrial, and civil purposes. This issue is becoming increasingly urgent in the Alps due to changes in winter precipitation patterns, which affect summer water supplies. To monitor the water consumption for irrigation at provincial level, the Autonomous Province of Trento has established and leads the IRRITRE project in collaboration with Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Fondazione Edmund Mach, and Trentino Digitale S.p.A. for the technological aspects. The initiative was launched in the Summer of 2023 and aims to provide the public administrators with real-time monitoring tools to track agricultural water usage. Additionally, it will equip Irrigation Consortia with an irrigation advisory system to optimize water consumption and irrigation automation at hydraulic valve le-level by using Artificial Intelligence. The project incorporates the creation of the digital infrastructure and the deployment of humidity probes in the soil. Currently, IRRITRE is being piloted in three significant agricultural areas of the Trentino region—cultivated with grapevines, apples, and olives—with plans to expand to other irrigation consortia.