Co-Creation of a Real-Time Platform for Integrated Water Resource Management: Combining Stakeholders’ Engagement, Modelling and Digital Tools at Farm and basin Scale

Agriculture is the most water-consuming sector in the Mediterranean region, accounting for up to 70% of total uses in southern regions. Addressing this high demand while fostering socio-economic growth necessitates improving irrigation efficiency and water productivity. However, the dual pressures of climate change and population growth threaten water availability and increase agricultural water demand. Effective water resource management faces challenges, including sectoral policy conflicts, fragmented governance, inefficient water use across overlapping domains, and the lack of integrated digital tools to optimize water allocation and monitor usage effectively. Digital transformation in the water sector is pivotal for sustainable Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM). Advanced digital tools enable comprehensive monitoring, analysis, and decision-making within a unified framework, enhancing cross-sectoral coordination and supporting sustainable growth. However, for these tools to impact water governance, they must be user-friendly and collaboratively developed with stakeholders and end-users from diverse fields to ensure acceptance and practical application.

For these reasons, we carried out this work, aiming to develop a real-time digital platform for irrigation optimization and water resource management, leveraging Living Labs to ensure the tools meet local needs and challenges and then combining digital innovation and participatory methods to enhance IWRM and sustainable irrigation at farm and basin scales. The work employs a suite of innovative tools, including IoT sensors for real-time monitoring, Web of Things technology for interoperability, and advanced modeling tools for efficient operations and decision support. Two interactive dashboards were developed: one for farm-level irrigation management and the other for basin-scale decision-making. Real-time data collected through sensors is stored in a OGC SensorThings compliant database, enabling models to estimate crop water requirements and assess sectoral water consumption. The platform has been developed and tested in four Mediterranean case studies: Italy's Tirso River Basin, Jordan's Central  Jordan River Basin, Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, and Tunisia's Jeffara Plain. These regions face acute water scarcity and climate challenges, making them ideal testbeds for the proposed solutions. Living Labs in these areas facilitate collaboration with farmers and decision-makers, ensuring that tools are tailored to local needs. Two series of workshop were conducted in the four pilot areas: the first aimed at collecting local needs and expectation from the digitalization of the water accounting, and the second focused on presenting initial platformn advancement refining functionalities based on local feedback, training end-users, and assessing the tools effectiveness. This feedback loop ensures continuous improvement and alignment with stakeholders' expectations. Simultaneously, data were collected both from installed sensors and from existing monitoring tools, in order to calibrate the irrigation model at farm scale and the hydrological model at basin scale.

The integration of digital tools with participatory engagement enables simulation of complex interactions between environmental and socio-economic factors over different timeframes. This holistic approach enhances decision-making and informs policy recommendations, supporting climate change adaptation and sustainable water resource management in the Mediterranean region.

This work is conducted as part of the ACQUAOUNT PRIMA Project, which aims to advance digital innovation and participatory approaches for sustainable water resource management in the Mediterranean region.