News

The Mediterranean and the Sahel region have been identified as climate change hot-spots.
Over both Mediterranean and Sahelian regions, the temperature increase will cause higher evaporation and transpiration rates, decreasing soil moisture and increasing crop water requirements. The expected impact in rainfed agriculture is a decrease in yield due to heat and water stress and an increase in the likeliwood of crop failure in rainfed. Ongoing changes in the socio-economic and environmental background of rainfed farmers combined with the expected population growth make timely and reliable information on rainfed crop yield and its spatial variability essential in decision-support for improving food security and livelihoods.
Increased rainfall variability and evapotranspiration rates will compromise irrigation potential and expansion plans and increase competition and conflict over limited water resources. There are significant knowledge gaps and uncertainties about how much water will be available for a complete growing season, how much should be used for scheduling irrigation efficiently and extracted from these regions. More information regarding water use is necessary to improve agricultural planning and to manage water more efficiently at different scales: farm and catchment/irrigation district level.

Precipitation projections are uncertain due to high inter-annual variation, but inter-annual and spatial variability are expected to increase. It is expected the duration of the rainy season be shorter and summer dry spells be longer increasing agriculture land deterioration and desertification. Temperature and precipitation changing patterns will thus increase hazards linked to environmental conditions such as droughts, floods or crop pests like locust swarms and others transboundary pests outbreaks. In order to reduce the impact of these hazards a critical component is a comprehensive hazards monitoring system that can provide early warning and deliver that information to users in a timely manner.

In this climate change context, ACCWA aims to develop the remote sensing based monitoring tools for agriculture and water management that help risk guidance.

The Mediterranean and the Sahel region have been identified as climate change hot-spots.


ACCWA: Remote sensing based monitoring tools for agriculture and water management

ACCWA attended the [Symposium on Water Management in Semi-arid areas, Tools and Global changes (GESOC) 2022](https://gesoc2022.sciencesconf.org/), that took place from the 7th to the 10th of November in Marrakech (Morocco). In this international meeting, some ACCWA members presented their latest research seeking to understand and manage the hydrological processes at work in these regions. The ACCWA works presented were:
- R. Clavera-Gispert, from Observatori de l’Ebre (Universitat Ramon Llull – CSIC): ‘**Future Pyrenees water cycle evolution combining hydrological models**’.
- Abdelghaffar Ata, from INRGREF: ‘_**Évaluation spatiotemporelle de l’évapotranspiration réelle sur le basin versant Lebna nord-est de la Tunisie**_’.
- J. Casadesus, from IRTA: ‘**irriTer, a digital twin assimilating biophysical parameters of vegetation to assess and forecast site-specific crop water requirements at district scale**’.
- J. Bellvert, from Institute of AgriFood Research and Technology, ‘**Analysis and forecast of crop water demand of some irrigation districts across Southeastern Ebro’s river basin (Catalonia, Spain): estimation of ET through Copernicus-based Inputs**’.
- G. Paolini, from isardSAT: ‘**Classification of Irrigation Systems at Field Level from Remotely Sensed Soil Moisture and Actual Evapotranspiration Time-Series**’.
- N. Ouaadi, from CESBIO: ‘**Estimation of the FAO-56 crop coefficient of winter wheat from synthetic aperture radar data**’.
- E. Ayari, from Carthage University, National Agronomic Institute of Tunisia (GREEN-TEAM): ‘**Potential of the modified water cloud model to retrieve soil moisture within a drip irrigation context in pepper fields using SAR data**’.
- P. Laluet, from CESBIO: ‘**A combined crop water balance modeling and remote sensing approach for estimating deep percolation from the field to the irrigation district**’.
- A. Belgacem, from University of Jendouba-High School of Engineering: ‘**Modeling of citrus evapotranspiration under different water supply conditions: case study of Beni Khalled**’.
- K. Ibba, from Laboratoire des Procèdes pour l'Energie Durable et Environnement (ProcEDE): ‘**Agronomical response of Olea europaea L. cultivar Menara to sustained and regulated deficit irrigation**’.
- A. Barella-Ortiz, from Observatori de l’Ebre (Universitat Ramon Llull – CSIC): ‘**Simulation of irrigation in the Ebro River basin: new meteorological and physiographical datasets to better describe agriculture**’.
- H. Bouchra Ait, from Université Mohammed VI Polytechnique, Center for remote sensing applications: ‘**Using satellite remote sensing data to describe the environmental process that links the water, energy, and carbon cycles at the surface**’.

ACCWA attended the Symposium on Water Management in Semi-arid areas, Tools and Global changes (GESOC) 2022, that took place from the 7th to the 10th of November in Marrakech (Morocco).

ACCWA attends GESOC 2022

![](news-irrigation1.jpg)Irrigation in a maize crop field. IMAGE: Pixabay

A new study by isardSAT and IRTA provides for the first time a method to classify irrigation systems (flood, sprinkler, drip) using remote sensing. This methodology, replicable to several agricultural areas, has mapped in Lleida (Spain) the ongoing modernization of the irrigation systems, which remained unseen within the available databases.

The study Classification of Different Irrigation Systems at Field Scale Using Time-Series of Remote Sensing Data offers a new approach that employs machine learning models (ML) that use time-series of remote sensing data in the Catalan region of Lleida (Spain). This methodology is replicable to other agricultural areas, and provides relevant information that can improve irrigation water management in the analysed sector. Such models have been able to distinguish different irrigation systems regardless of the crop types present in each field.

![](https://files.isardsat.co.uk/web-accwa/news-irrigation-gif2.gif) Map comparation of the irrigation systems declared by SIGPAC-DUN and isardSAT’s ResNet prediction. The ResNet results, in comparison to the SIGPAC-DUN data, show the current modernisation of the irrigation system (from flood irrigation to sprinkler) and the expansion of the drip irrigation in areas that were not irrigated before. IMAGE: isardSAT.

Different machine-learning algorithm models have been used for the study, along with remote sensing products from SMOS/SMAP, Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-3 satellites concerning evapotranspiration and soil mosture data. From the results obtained, maps of irrigation systems were created, delivering detailed information on the status and evolution of irrigation practices in an intensively cultivated region in Catalunya, Spain.

This machine-learning models have been trained with ground truth data from more than 300 fields across the area, collected during a field campaign in 2020. When compared to the field data, results from the ResNet model used show a high precision, and reveal some changes that were not registered in the official databases.

![](news-irrigation2.gif) Results from the ResNet processing show a great precision compared to the field data. IMAGE: ResNet results (isardSAT).

Information about irrigation systems in use is difficult to gather, and it appears frequently outdated in the databases – when available. However, it is essential for irrigation districts in order to manage its water resources. Especially in the Mediterranean area, where climate change has extended and worsened drought periods.

Article citation:

G. Paolini, M. J. Escorihuela, O. Merlin, M. P. Sans and J. Bellvert, “Classification of Different Irrigation Systems at Field Scale Using Time-Series of Remote Sensing Data,” in IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, vol. 15, pp. 10055-10072, 2022, doi: 10.1109/JSTARS.2022.3222884.

A new study by isardSAT and IRTA provides for the first time a method to classify irrigation systems using remote sensing.

Pioneer method to classify irrigation types using remote sensing data can improve water management

4th International Conference on Global Food Security
Achieving local and global food security: at what costs?
16-19 June 2020 | Montpellier, France

The 4th International Conference on Global Food Security addresses the topic of food security at all spatial levels from local to global, and from an interdisciplinary and systemic food systems perspective. It aims to better understand environmental, nutritional, agricultural, demographic, socio-economic, political, technological and institutional drivers, costs and outcomes of current and future food security. Interactions with contextual factors including climate change, urbanisation, greening the economy and data-driven technologies will be central. The conference addresses the triple burden of malnutrition: hunger, micronutrient deficiencies and obesity. It explores the state-of-the-art of interdisciplinary insight, addresses the trade-offs that occur – and synergies that can be sought – in transforming food systems. These are aimed at reconciling the competing environmental, economic or social objectives and outcomes towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals at different levels across spatial and temporal scales.

[CALL FOR ABSTRACTS](http://www.globalfoodsecurityconference.com/)
Abstract submission deadline: 20 September 2019

Topics for sessions and abstracts
The conference emphasizes integrated analyses and perspectives and therefore particularly welcomes contributions on the following cross-cutting topics:

1. Food security and the Sustainable Development Goals: synergies, tensions and trade-offs
2. Circularity of food systems at local, regional or global levels
3. Food security and policy, governance, institutions and trade
4. Transitions to post-carbon food systems in a post-carbon economy
5. How to assess future food security: on foresight, forecasting, projecting, predicting and exploring the future
6. Influencing food consumption and demand considering the food environment
7. Development, impact and ethics of novel and data-driven technologies in food systems

Such contributions will address all dimensions of food security, preferably in an integrated way. In addition we also accept more specialized contributions that focus on one (or preferably more) of the four dimensions of food security, i.e.:

8. Availability: production, distribution and exchange of food
9. Access: affordability, allocation and preference of food
10. Utilisation: nutritional value, social value and safety of food
11. Stability and dynamics of food security aspects

Abstracts should be submitted using the online abstract submission system.

The 4th International Conference on Global Food Security addresses the topic of food security.



4th International Conference on Global Food Security:  Abstract submission now open!

 ![](wheat-dry.jpg)_© Manfred Richter (Pixabay)_

Edited content from [ESA](https://earth.esa.int/eogateway/news/satellite-data-predicts-lower-wheat-crop-yield)

A critical stage in the growth of wheat is the jointing stage - when the growth moves above the soil surface. Therefore, any soil moisture stress in the spring can negatively impact crop health and cause crop loss.

Satellite data has proven instrumental in tracking droughts and predicting wheat crop yields.

The [soil moisture-based drought monitor](https://accwa.isardsat.space/eo-products/), developed in the framework of the EU’s H2020 ACCWA project **shows better spatial resolution than existing drought monitors**.

This drought monitor uses long-term datasets from the L-band measurements provided by the[ Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) ](https://earth.esa.int/eogateway/missions/smos) mission, which offer global observations of variability in soil moisture.

The drought index is based on SMOS Level 2 soil moisture products downscaled to a resolution of one kilometre.

During March 2022, extreme drought was measured by the drought monitor in the Ebro basin, a wheat growing region in Catalonia, northern Spain.
![](drought-march.png)
A methodology developed by the ACCWA team showed** strong correlation between soil moisture drought indices and scarcity in crop yield production **– results were presented at ESA’s Living Planet Symposium in Bonn [1].

Maria José Escorihuela, Principal Investigator for the ACCWA project at isardSAT, says: “Current drought observation warning systems offer maps of combined drought indices, derived from different data sources – meteorological measurements, satellite data and models. However, our work has shown that **the anomaly of soil moisture in March is the best indicator for yield at the end of the season. **

![](ebro-drought-monitor.png) _Extreme drought impact in the Ebro river basin in July 2022. Credit: isardSAT_

Escorihuela adds, “The availability of a SMOS soil moisture long time series allows us to estimate the so-called “climate normality”. **The drought monitor is based on soil moisture anomaly – the difference in soil moisture and the average over the 12 + year lifetime of the SMOS mission**.

“Strictly speaking, when talking about anomalies in meteorology, you usually use a time period of 30 years, but we have seen it corresponds very well with a series of only 11 years.”

The monitor is updated monthly, but in collaboration with the Observatori de l’Ebre, the team also delivers a[ weekly drought bulletin](https://www.obsebre.es/ca/agrometeorologia) zoomed in over the part of the Ebro river basin region, where traditional rain irrigated vineyards are cultivated.

Due to climate change projections, **the vineyards are transitioning to irrigated wine production and rely on weekly information to support this transition**.

As European markets strive to offset food insecurity, the timing of Europe’s dry spring couldn’t have been worse. For the Catalonian region alone, tons of cereals have been lost in this summer’s harvest.

**Estimates for accumulated damages on the region’s wheat harvest are above nine million euro**, due to the adversely dry spring. The results of the drought monitor have an immense value for multiple economic sectors and for society in general because they allow anticipating prevention and adaptation measures to mitigate future damages.

As summer heatwaves intensified in Spain, extremely dry soil moisture conditions emerged in the western part of the Ebro basin. The drought monitor captured this drought, highlighting water reservoirs at risk.

Whether it be helping predict wheat and wine production, or simply monitoring drought, the soil moisture data products from SMOS are a key tool in unravelling the impacts of our current climate crisis.


The anomaly in soil moisture observed by the Ebro drought monitor in March 2022   – within the EU’s H2020 ACCWA project – has proven to be a critical indicator of the wheat yield decrease at the end of the season.

Satellite data predicts lower wheat crop yield

ACCWA attended the EGU General Assembly 2022, 23–27 May 2022, Vienna, Austria & Online.
The works presented are the following:
- Anaïs Barella-Ortiz, Pere Quintana-Seguí, Jacopo Dari, Luca Brocca, Víctor Altés, Josep M. Villar, Giovanni Paolini, Maria José Escorihuela, Bertrand Bonan, Jean-Christophe Calvet, and Diane Tzanos 'Improved SAFRAN forcing and ECOCLIMAP-SG datasets to simulate irrigation over the Ebro basin'
- Manel Khlif, Aicha Chahbi Bellakanji, Maria José Escorihuela, Vivien-Georgiana Stefan, and Zohra Lili Chabaane 'Potential of remote sensing data to analyze the effect of drought on wheat yields in the Mediterranean region: study area Kairouan Tunisia and Lleida Spain'
- Giovanni Paolini, Maria jose Escorihuela, Joaquim Bellvert, Olivier Merlin, josep Maria Villar, and Ivan Cester 'A novel methodology for mapping irrigation types from very high resolution remotely sensed data'


ACCWA attended the EGU General Assembly 2022, 23–27 May 2022, Vienna, Austria & Online.


EGU General Assembly 2022

Initial EO products (Soil Moisture, Vegetation and Evapotranspiration) can be browsed through the project webpage https://accwa.isardsat.space/eo-products/

Soil Moisture (SM) products at 1km spatial resolution are based on SMOS SM disaggregated with the Dispatch Methodology ([Merlin et al. 2013](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0034425712004324), [Escorihuela et al. 2018](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352938517302392)).

Vegetation products are monthly aggregated MODIS MOD13A3_NDVI (DOI: 10.5067/MODIS/MOD13A3.006, https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/products/mod13a3v006/).

and Evapo-Transpiration (ET) products are monthly aggregated MODIS MOD16A2_ET (DOI: 10.5067/MODIS/MOD16A2.006, https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/products/mod16a2v006/).

The web tool allows to explore 10 years of monhtly data over the Ebro basin and soon the other areas of interest will be added.


Initial EO products (Soil Moisture, Vegetation and Evapotranspiration) can be browsed through the project webpage https://accwa.isardsat.space/eo-products/


EO products available

ACCWA attended the 2022 Living Planet Symposium
23-27 May 2022 in Bonn (Germany).
The following works related to ACCWA project were presented:
- M. Khlif,  Escorihuela, Chahbi Bellakanj, Lili Chabaane 'Potential of remote sensing to study the influence of drought on cereals yields in semi-arid regions: study area Kairouan Tunisia and Catalonia Spain'
-  G. Paolini , Escorihuela, J. Bellvert, O. Merlin 'New disaggregated Soil Moisture product at 20 m: Validation and Applications for irrigation mapping'
-  G. Paolini, Escorihuela, J. Bellvert, O. Merlin, J. Villar, Cester 'Classification of Irrigation types at field-scale from very high resolution remotely sensed data'

ACCWA attended the 2022 Living Planet Symposium
23-27 May 2022 in Bonn (Germany).








ESA Living Planet Symposium 2022

The Symposium "Water Management in Semi-arid areas, Tools, Global changes" (GESOC) will take place from 7 to 10 November 2022 in Marrakech.
[](https://gesoc2022.sciencesconf.org/)
This event will provide an opportunity to exchange on the scientific activities developed by the international community on the theme of water in semi-arid zones. It will also be an opportunity to see how these approaches can provide information and tools to help better manage this resource.

Paper [submission] (https://gesoc2022.sciencesconf.org/) is open until 15 May 2022.

![](dsc04620-rec-str4-red.jpg)

The Symposium "Water Management in Semi-arid areas, Tools, Global changes" (GESOC) will take place from 7 to 10 November 2022 in Marrakech.

Symposium Water Management in Semi-arid areas

```YoutubeEmbed
url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVKGAKsxyHw&feature=emb_logo
```

ACCWA participated in the illustration of the research activities over the Ebro basin of the Irrigation and Drainage monitoring by remote sensing for Ecosystems and WAter resources management- [IDEWA project](http://idewa.isardsat.space/) funded by the PRIMA program. The film was shot in June 2021 in the Lleida region.





ACCWA participated in the video illustration of the research activities over the Ebro basin of the IDEWA project. The film was shot in June 2021 in the Lleida region.

IDEWA video

![](unibarcelona.jpg)

The Fourth Annual Meeting of the [Mediterranean Geosciences Union (MedGU 2024)](https://2024.medgu.org/index.php) took place in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, on the 25 – 28 November 2024. During its four years of existence, this meeting has provided a forum where scientists from the Mediterranean region and all over the world, especially researchers at the early stages of their careers, can be informed about the latest geosciences studies and discuss their latest unpublished findings with experts from the wide-ranging fields of Earth and planetary sciences.

The ACCWA team presented the following research:

- Khlif, M.; Chahbi Bellakanji, A.; Escorihuela, M.J.; Sánchez Alcalde, G.; Lili Chabaane, Z.:[ Early Multi-Year Cereal Yield Prediction Using Machine Learning Based on Satellite Drought Indices in Semi-Arid Regions](https://files.isardsat.co.uk/web-accwa/slides-manel.pdf), Presentation, Mediterranean Geosciences Union 2024 (MedGU24), Barcelona, 25-28 Novembre 2024.
- [Ablila, Y., ER-Raki, S., Bouras, E. H., Amazirh, A., Khabba, S., Escorihuela, M. J. 2024. 'Assessing of ESA CCI Rainfed Cropland Data Using MODIS NDVI and Soil Moisture in Morocco from 2000 to 2022'](https://editorial.lobelia.earth:22104/editorial/_file/slides-younes.pdf).  Mediterranean Geosciences Union (MedGU 2024), Barcelone, 25-28 november 2024.
- Khaoula Ibba, Salah Er-Raki, Abdelaziz Bouizgaren and Rachid Hadria. Assessment of Regulated and Sustained Deficit Irrigation Strategies on Menara cultivar: Impact on Fruit Characteristics and Attributes. Mediterranean Geosciences Union (MedGU 2024), Barcelone, 25-28 november 2024.
- L. Jallal, S. Er-Raki, S. Khabba, J. Ezzahar, A. Chehbouni. Optimizing Quinoa Growth: Impact of Irrigation and Fertilization in the Chichaoua Region, Morocco. Mediterranean Geosciences Union (MedGU 2024), Barcelone, 25-28 november 2024.
- Elallaoui A., Frison P.-L., Khabba S., Chakir A., Jarlan L., 2024. Analysis of diurnal cycles of C-band temporal coherence and backscattering coefficient over a maize field in a semi-arid area. Mediterranean Geosciences Union (MedGU 2024), Barcelone, 25-28 november 2024.
- Barguache H., Ezzahar J., Khabba S., Elfarkh J., Le Dantec V., Kharrou M.H., Er-Raki S., Ablila Y., Chehbouni A., 2024. Assessing the Impact of Recurrent Drought on Olive Tree Evapotran-spiration in Haouz Plain Using Remote Sensing Data and the SEBAL model. Mediterranean Geosciences Union (MedGU 2024), Barcelone, 25-28 november 2024.
- Ait Ben Ahmed H., Ezzahar J., Elfarkh J., Khabba S., Er-Raki S., Chehbouni A., 2024. Simulation of Water and Energy Exchange Using the ICARE SVAT Model in the Semi-Arid Region of Tensift-basin (Morocco). Mediterranean Geosciences Union (MedGU 2024), Barcelone, 25-28 november 2024.
- Sebbar B., Khabba S., Merlin O., Simonneaux V., Chehbouni A., 2024. Application of an integrative model combining inverse distance weighting and power law for spatial disaggregation of ERA5-Land wind speed over mountainous regions. Mediterranean Geosciences Union (MedGU 2024), Barcelone, 25-28 november 2024.

![](medgu3.jpg) The ACCWA team that attended MedGU in person.




[](url)The Fourth Annual Meeting of the [Mediterranean Geosciences Union (MedGU 2024) took place in Barcelona, Catalonia.

ACCWA attends MedGU Annual Meeting

One of the objectives of ACCWA is to improve rainfed crop yield monitoring over the Mediterranean and Sahelian zone by better accounting for long-term and short-term changes in soil water availability.
The identification of areas particularly prone to degradation in agricultural production conditions and a better understanding of the underlying drivers is increasingly important for long-term mitigation and adaptation strategies. Land degradation is mainly approximated through the study of the remotely sensed vegetation statistical trend as an indicator of changes in vegetation productivity. Among other causal factors, soil moisture (SM) is considered as an important driver of changes in vegetation productivity since it corresponds to actual water available for vegetation growth, but this has rarely been investigated as a driver of long-term changes in vegetation productivity, owing to the lack of SM data at high spatial and temporal resolution over large areas.
Recently, an approach based on remote sensing, crop modelling and machine learning techniques has been proposed. We have shown that SM at high spatial resolution brings an improvement in the crop yield estimation, impacting mainly the crop water stress over the grain filling and maturation phases of the crop development. Since crop yield are mainly limited by the soil water content in the root zone, in ACCWA we propose an additional improvement by using the root zone soil moisture (RSZM).

[Leroux, Louise, et al. "Maize yield estimation in West Africa from crop process-induced combinations of multi-domain remote sensing indices." European Journal of Agronomy 108 (2019): 11-26.](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eja.2019.04.007)

One of the objectives of ACCWA is to improve rainfed crop yield monitoring over the Mediterranean and Sahelian zone by better accounting for changes in soil water availability.


Improving rainfed crop yield monitoring

The ACCWA** Open Project Day 2022** took place on 11th March 2022 in Barcelona, at [isardSAT](https://www.isardsat.cat/)'s headquarters (Auditori Parc Tecnologic BCNord, Carrer Marie Curie 8 -14, Barcelona). This event was organised jointly with [IDEWA project](http://idewa.isardsat.space/).

The Open Project Day focused on the tools developed for water accounting and management. Here's the agenda of the event:

![](https://editorial.lobelia.earth:22104/web-files/open-meeting-accwa-2022.jpg)

The presentations can be found here:

- [ACCWA: developping tools to Account for Climate Change in Water and Agriculture management.](https://files.isardsat.co.uk/web-accwa/accwa-od2022-project-overview.pdf)
- [IDEWA project: a water accounting system of irrigation districts including downstream rivers.](https://files.isardsat.co.uk/web-accwa/2-idewa-projet-overviewpptx.pdf)
- [Classification of Different Irrigation Types at Field Scale Using Annual Time-Series of Remote Sensing Data.](https://files.isardsat.co.uk/web-accwa/3---accwa-giovanni-paolini-irritypeclassification.pdf)
- [Monitoring possible discrepancies between crop water needs and consumptions over an irrigation district: a remote sensing-based modeling approach](https://files.isardsat.co.uk/web-accwa/4--accwa-20220310---oliverapptx.pdf)
- [Potentiality of digital twins representing the Soil-Plant-Atmosphere Continuum as a tool for automatically scheduling irrigation and forecast seasonal crop's water demand at irrigationn district level.](https://files.isardsat.co.uk/web-accwa/opd2-bellvert.pdf)
- [Advancing yield predictions based on Remote Sensing.](https://files.isardsat.co.uk/web-accwa/6--accwa-open-project-day-2022-manelpptx.pdf)
- [Estimating the drainage of irrigated crops from the field to the irrigation district.](https://files.isardsat.co.uk/web-accwa/7--accwa-20220311---laluetpptx.pdf)
- [Irrigation Management at field scale in the Algerri-Balaguer District.](https://files.isardsat.co.uk/web-accwa/8--idewa-victor-altes-11-3-22pptx.pdf)
- [Towards a better representation of the real water cycle: introducing irrigation in the SASER modelling chain.](https://files.isardsat.co.uk/web-accwa/od22-barella.pdf)
- [Evaluation of the hydrological cycle in the context of Climate Change.](https://files.isardsat.co.uk/web-accwa/roger-clavera-reunio-accwa-idewa.pdf)

**ACCWA Open Project Days**

The ACCWA project has scheduled three Project Open Days (in 2019, 2022 and 2023) and one final international workshop in order to engage collaboration and receive feedback from the scientific community and stakeholders.









The ACCWA Open Project Day 2022 took place on 11th March in Barcelona.



ACCWA Open Project Day 2022

The ACCWA Open Project Day 2019 took part  from November 12th to 13th at Universityh of Carthage (Tunisia). On the first day, the project objectives and its state of development was presented. The specific sessions were the following:

![](Open_meeting_ACCWA.jpg)

The presentations can be found here:

- [ACCWA objectives, project framework, status calendar, Outreach and Diffusion.](https://files.isardsat.co.uk/web-accwa/accwa-opd-2019-project-overview.pdf)
- [EO for SM and ET retrieving-impact of CC on wheat yield and water requirement in Morocco.] (https://files.isardsat.co.uk/web-accwa/2-accwa-meeting-carthageppt.pdf)
- [Drought indexes derived from global ET and SM remote sensing data for drought assessment.](https://files.isardsat.co.uk/web-accwa/3-humid-accwa-jaime-gaona-v2pptx.pdf)
- [Multi-scale monitoring of water use from multi-sensor remote sensing: recently initiated studies over the Tensift and Ebro basins.](https://files.isardsat.co.uk/web-accwa/accwa-opd-2019-merlin.pdf)
- [Water resources and agricultural management under global changes: Cap Bonsite.](https://files.isardsat.co.uk/web-accwa/5-water-capbonpptx.pdf)
- [Use of Remote Sensing data to estimate groundwater extraction in the Haouz Plain.](https://files.isardsat.co.uk/web-accwa/6-seminaire-accwapptx.pdf)
- [The effect of soil spatial variability on traditional irrigation scheduling method.](https://files.isardsat.co.uk/web-accwa/7-presentacion-labferrerpptx.pdf)
- [Feasibility of using Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-3 to schedule irrigation at different water regimes in an Almond Orchard. ](https://files.isardsat.co.uk/web-accwa/8-presentacion-accwa.pdf)
- [Remote sensing data in SARRA-O model for yield forecast.](https://files.isardsat.co.uk/web-accwa/9-presentation-sarra-h-sarra-o-agalippt.pdf)
- [Crop yield monitoring from remote sensing and crop modelling: recent cases studies for rainfed crops in West Africa.](https://files.isardsat.co.uk/web-accwa/10-leroux2019-accwa-nov2019.pdf)
- [Synergie Sentinel 1 and Sentinel 2 for the characterization of agricultural land conditions in the Kairouan plain.](https://files.isardsat.co.uk/web-accwa/11-accwa-meeting-12-nov-ucar-zlpptx.pdf)
- [Improved SM products at 1km spatial resolution and derived indices.](https://files.isardsat.co.uk/web-accwa/12-improved-sm-productspptx.pdf)

On the second day, the project members met the stakeholders to discuss the project objectives and results, and their potential utility in their respective organisations. The specific sessions were the following:

![](Stakeholders_meeting_ACCWA.jpg)

The presentations can be found here:

- [Présentation générale du projet ACCWA: Contexte, objectifs, résultats attendus.](https://files.isardsat.co.uk/web-accwa/accwa-opd-2019-project-overview.pdf)
- [Synergie Sentinel 1 et Sentinel 2 pour la caractérisation des états de surfaces agricoles dans la plaine de Kairouan.](https://files.isardsat.co.uk/web-accwa/13-accwa-meeting-12-nov-ucarpptx.pdf)
- [Présentation des institutions respectives des partis prennantes.] (https://files.isardsat.co.uk/web-accwa/14-accwa-stakeholders-meetingpptx.pdf)


**ACCWA Open Project Days **

The ACCWA project has scheduled three Project Open Days (in 2019, 2022 and 2023) and one final international workshop in order to engage collaboration and receive feedback from the scientific community and stakeholders.

The ACCWA Open Project Day 2019 took part from November 12th to 13th at Universityh of Carthage (Tunisia).


ACCWA Open Project Day 2019

![](patt2.jpg)

The Technical Workshop ‘How can satellite data improve agricultural management? Available technologies and success stories’ (in Catalan: Què poden fer els satèl·lits per a la gestió de la vinya? Tecnologies disponibles i casos d’èxit) took place in Vilafranca del Penedès, Catalonia, on 20th November.

Maria José Escorihuela, from ACCWA, presented the MARE project: Drought Monitoring at High Resolution (in Catalan: _Monitoratge de la Sequera a Alta Resolució_)

![](patt4.jpg)

[Check the full program here](https://files.isardsat.co.uk/web-accwa/vilafranca-del-penedes-satellits-vinya-1.pdf).

Watch the video of the presentation here:

[![](patt3.jpg)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ou5sQmF83M)



Technical Workshop ‘How can satellite data improve agricultural management?



Technical Workshop: How can satellite data improve agricultural management?

The 7th International Symposium on the [Recent Advances in Quantitative Remote Sensing (RAQRS)](https://ipl.uv.es/raqrs/?q=content/home) was held in Torrent (Valencia), Spain, on 23-27th September 2024. The Symposium adressed the scientific advances in connection with real applications, its main goal being to assess the state of the art of both theory and applications in the analysis of Remote Sensing data.
The research presented by the ACCWA team was the following:

- Sánchez Alcalde, G., Escorihuela, M. J. (2024) ‘[Hydrological drought monitoring in the Ebro basin:Standardized Soil Moisture Index](https://files.isardsat.co.uk/web-accwa/raqrs2024-hydrological-drought-index.pdf)’.
- Escorihuela, M.J., Sánchez Alcalde, G., Gilè, C., López, L. (2024) [‘Towards operational high-resolution drought monitoring based on Soil Moisture](https://files.isardsat.co.uk/web-accwa/raqrs-vii-escorihuela.pdf)’.
- López, L., Escorihuela, M. J., Domingo, X. (2024) [Estimate of the Snow Water Equivalent for the Barasona Reservoir](https://files.isardsat.co.uk/web-accwa/raqrs2024-lucaslopez-poster.pdf).


![](raqrss5.jpg)


The 7th International Symposium on the [Recent Advances in Quantitative Remote Sensing (RAQRS) was held in Torrent (Valencia), Spain.


ACCWA attends RAQRS VII 2024

![](space-star-2.jpg) The Space STAR attedants © Space STAR 2023

The ACCWA Open Project Day 2023 was held at the [SPACE STAR’23](https://spacestar23.crmn.tn/) conference, that took place on October 18-20 2023 at Sousse (Tunisia). The ACCWA team co-organised a Conference Session dedicated to the project, where some results of the project were explained. Maria José Escorihuela, principal investigator of ACCWA, also took part in a panel discussion on Mediterranean Cooperation for the Development of Space Domain.

![](https://editorial.lobelia.earth:22104/web-files/news-spacestar-2.png)

The SPACE Star conference is a unique scientific and technological event aiming at crossing research activities in the fields of Space Science, Technology, Applications and Regulation, and its second edition has been dedicated to** cooperation between Africa, the Mediterranean region and Europe. ** It is also part of the deployment of the Tunisian national strategy launched on March 2018 by the CNEEA (National Committee for Outer Space).

All the presentations are available here:

- [ACCWA: An Innovative Set of Remote Sensing Based Monitoring Tools for Agriculture and Water Management in the Mediterranean Region. Ebre Basin Case Study.](https://files.isardsat.co.uk/web-accwa/accwa-od2023-project-overview.pdf)
- [EO_01 Classification of Irrigation Systems at Field Level from Remotely Sensed Soil Moisture and Actual Evapotranspiration Time Series. ](https://files.isardsat.co.uk/web-accwa/accwa-od2023-eo-01.pdf)
- [EO_02 Exploring Agricultural Drought Indices for Cereal Yield Prediction Assessment in Semi-Arid Regions.](https://files.isardsat.co.uk/web-accwa/accwa-od2023-eo-02.pdf)
- [EO_03 Irrigation and Drainage Monitoring by Remote Sensing for Ecosystems and Water Resources Management.](https://files.isardsat.co.uk/web-accwa/accwa-od2023-eo-03.pdf)
- [EO_04 Characterization of Cereals Yields Using Different Models Based on Remote Sensing Indicators from the Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 Images in a Semi-arid Region. ](https://files.isardsat.co.uk/web-accwa/accwa-od2023-eo-04.pdf)
- [EO_05 Automatization of an Early Cereal Classification Model Using Random Forest and Remote Sensing Data in a Semi-Arid Region. ](https://files.isardsat.co.uk/web-accwa/accwa-od2023-eo-05.pdf)
- [EO_06 A set of Remote Sensing-based Monitoring Tools and Methods for Agriculture and Water Resources Management in the Semi-arid Region: Case Study of Merguellil. ](https://files.isardsat.co.uk/web-accwa/accwa-od2023-eo-06.pdf)


**ACCWA Open Project Days**

The ACCWA project has scheduled three Project Open Days (one per year) and one final international workshop in order to engage collaboration and receive feedback from the scientific community and stakeholders.

The ACCWA Open Project Day 2023 was held at the Space STAR conference, that took place on October 18-20 at Sousse (Tunisia)



ACCWA Open Project Day 2023

The online workshop “Training on Artificial Intelligence” took place on the 3rd of December of 2021, and it consisted of several presentations:

- '**[Regionalization approach to link physical characteristics with reservoir model parameters using a genetic algorithm](https://files.isardsat.co.uk/web-accwa/training-regionalization.pdf)**', by Omar Cenobio-Cruz and Pere Quintana-Seguí.
- **'[AI4SM 100m Artificial intelligence for Soil Moisture Based on EO data](https://files.isardsat.co.uk/web-accwa/training-ai4sm.pdf)'** by Melissande Machefer.
- **'[Cereal Yield Forecasting with Satellite Drought-Based Indices, Weather Data and Regional Climate Indices Using Machine Learning in Morocco](https://files.isardsat.co.uk/web-accwa/training-cereal.pdf)**' by El houssaine Bouras.
- '**[Using Radar Sentinel-1 and Random Forest Approach for Retrieving Crop Albedo](https://files.isardsat.co.uk/web-accwa/training-albedo.pdf)**' by Amazirh Abdelhakim.
- '**[Classification of Different Irrigation Systems at Field Scale Using Annual Time-Series of Remote Sensing Data](https://files.isardsat.co.uk/web-accwa/training-classification.pdf)**', by Giovanni Paolini

The online workshop 'Training on Artificial Intelligence' consisted of the five presentations.


Training on Artificial Intelligence

**Hydrus-1D** is a public domain Windows-based modelling environment for analysis of water flow and solute transport in variably saturated porous media. You can find here the slides of Hydrus 1D software training (in Spanish) elaborated by ACCWA in collaboration with [LabFerrer](https://www.lab-ferrer.com/).

Click [here](https://editorial.lobelia.earth:22104/web-files/training-hydrus-slides.pdf) to view the slide presentation.


Hydrus-1D is a public domain Windows-based modelling environment for analysis of water flow and solute transport in variably saturated porous media.

TRAINING: Introduction to software simulation Hydrus-1D

The **Two-Source Energy Balance Model (TSEB) **is an energy balance model which partitions surface energy fluxes into canopy and soil based on vegetation structural and biophysical parameters, land surface temperature and meteorological data. This energy fluxes estimated using Satellite images can be converted into daily evapotranspiration maps which are essential for diverse applications such as hydrological models, irrigation scheduling, among others.

Due to the amount of inputs required to run the TSEB model different sources of information are required. In this workshop a** methodology which can use only Copernicus data sources is proposed.
**

One of the main issues to obtain daily evapotranspiration maps is that there are no high resolution thermal missions with a high revisit time. To solve this a **data mining sharpening technique** (Gao et al. 2012) is applied using Sentinel-2 high resolution images but without a thermal band in combination with Sentinel-3 SLSTR  land surface temperature images  to obtain daily  land surface temperature at high resolution.

[You can find the slides presentation here](https://files.isardsat.co.uk/web-accwa/training-pytseb-slides.pdf).

The **Two-Source Energy Balance Model (TSEB) **is an energy balance model.

TRAINING: 'Using Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-3 to obtain daily Evapotranspiration maps using the TSEB model'

LabFerrer organises a Webinar on ‘Remote Sensing, sensors and simulation data for irrigation management on April 5th, 2019

Currently there are different methodologies to monitor the continuous Soil - Plant - Atmosphere to improve the management of irrigation. Examples include remote sensing, field sensor installation and simulations. Sometimes the use of only one of them and not the combination of all of them makes us forget a lot of information of interest.

In order to expose some problems that these methods can have and to emphasize in what points can help us, in the following seminar it will be tried to answer the following questions:

- How can we use these methodologies in a correct way?
- What are the advantages and disadvantages?
- Any of them, can you always provide representative data?
- Are they complementary?

The seminar is open and free but please register following the link:
https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/9001636123450767361




LabFerrer organises a Webinar on ‘Remote Sensing, sensors and simulation data for irrigation management on April 5th, 2019
Currently there are different methodologies to  […]

Irrigation Management Webinar

On June 28, 2019, LabFerrer organizes a technical conference entitled International projects to improve irrigation management. The workshop will be held at the Cartographic and Geological Institute of Catalonia (ICGC).

The seminar aims to present three projects, the VIA.FARM in Africa, FERDOÑANA in the Doñana Park and the Irrigable Zone of Lleida. The three projects have in common the improvement of the management of the irrigation, the combination of knowledge and ICT technology and the information and the learning through the practice. In all cases, the objective has also been the evaluation through indicators of economic, environmental and social sustainability.

Workshop on  "International projects to improve irrigation management" on June 28, 2019.