Agricultural Irrigation Systems

In the last two decades, research on irrigation science has mainly been aimed at reducing water volume and energy consumption and preserving the natural ecological equilibrium of water-sensitive environments. At the same time, the effects of global warming, an increase in flash droughts, and agricultural policies have been significant research interests. Therefore, there is an increasing focus on assessing irrigation performance for improving water management and increasing the sustainability of irrigated agriculture.

Recent advances in optoelectronics, mechatronics, communications, and information technologies allow the implementation of decision-support systems to be used in soil-crop water status monitoring for smart irrigation management.

This Section in Agricultural Irrigation Systems promotes articles, technical notes, reviews, commentaries, and case/field reports reporting new developments and the results of relevant contributions, including water distribution systems, soil–plant–atmosphere interactions, the effect of spatial and temporal scales over water/energy use efficiency, as well as case studies of sensor-model-based irrigation water management at different spatial scales and water-saving strategies.

Particular emphasis is on the innovation and sustainability aspects of the adopted monitoring approach and management strategy used in the research. The published scientific methods, instruments, and enabling technologies turn toward multi-disciplinary studies dealing with the challenges of increasing the water use efficiency and productivity of irrigated agricultural, agroforestry, and urban landscape systems.

The section covers all aspects of irrigation engineering, focusing on recent sensors and model-based irrigation management advances, including artificial intelligence and/or machine learning paradigms. These allow technologies with low-cost systems, easy operating, and virtual free maintenance of data acquisition systems to be easily transferred to farms.

Related topics of interest: smart irrigation; drought monitoring and mitigation; water accounting; sensor-model-based irrigation; nested water–energy use efficiency; sustainable irrigation and water saving strategies; water–food–energy nexus; evapotranspiration; crop waterlogging and/or water-deficit response; salinization and water quality control; water distribution methods and automation; remote sensing monitoring and modelling; use of treated and low-quality water in agriculture.