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Geophysical Roots Observation for Water savING in arboriculture, viticulture and agronomy

Descrizione del progetto

Dare la giusta importanza a ogni goccia

La scarsità di acqua è la più grande minaccia alla produzione alimentare mondiale. Un terzo del consumo di acqua in Europa è destinato al settore agricolo, ma molte regioni, specialmente nel sud, hanno ancora tanta sete. Il progetto GROWING, finanziato dall’UE, sta lavorando con agricoltori, accademici e parti interessate nel settore privato per sviluppare nuovi strumenti e servizi pratici per l’arboricoltura, la viticoltura e l’agronomia. La sua soluzione si basa su una tecnologia avanzata di fenotipizzazione delle radici delle piante, un sistema di monitoraggio in superficie e sottoterra e uno schema di assimilazione dei dati per costruire un modello di distribuzione dell’acqua.

Obiettivo

GROWING is a project dealing with the use of minimally invasive methods for roots monitoring, with the specific aim of improving water use in arboriculture, viticulture and agronomy. The aim of GROWING is to develop our capability of understanding, through measuring and modeling, the actions of the root system on water state and fluxes in the soil-plant-atmosphere system. This is particularly critical in areas of water scarcity, such as the Mediterranean region.

GROWING is based upon three scientific pillars: (a) an advanced plant root phenotyping technology using geophysical methods, overcoming current limitation in imaging roots under field working conditions; (b) a coupled above and below-ground monitoring using geophysical, plant physiology and atmospheric measurements and (c) a data assimilation scheme that uses the data above to construct a hydrogeophysical model of water distribution in soil and exchanges with the atmosphere.

The scientific developments above will then foster the design of new tools and services for arboriculture, viticulture and agronomy with the ambition to transfer innovative knowledge to stakeholders, farmers, and winemakers in particular. The ground breaking nature of GROWING lies in the pooling of human, technical, and data resources, in order to better understand the hydric stress and roots response under a range of soil and agricultural practices.

In order to warrant effective dissemination of the project’s results, I will work both with academic partners, the university in Padua (UNIPD) and the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL) during the outgoing phase, and with farmers and stakeholders thanks to private companies’ collaboration (FruitionSciences, Noble research institute). A two- way knowledge transfer is expected, with novel practical solutions to be developed in order to make non-invasive geophysical methods a state-of-the-art practice particularly in high-value crops.

Coordinatore

UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI PADOVA
Contribution nette de l'UE
€ 251 002,56
Indirizzo
VIA 8 FEBBRAIO 2
35122 Padova
Italia

Mostra sulla mappa

Regione
Nord-Est Veneto Padova
Tipo di attività
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Collegamenti
Costo totale
€ 251 002,56

Partner (1)