Climate change is one of the main long-term drivers of economic, social and environmental change, and significant investment will be required to face droughts, heat waves, forest fires or flooding. One of the economic sectors that will be affected the most by climate change impacts is agriculture, since this sector is responsible for the 70% of potable water consumption worldwide.
Efforts must be focused in the elimination of inefficiencies in farming water management, in order to allow the sector growth (essential to feed a world’s continuously growing population) without jeopardizing water availability. Agriculture also needs to be adapted to the new scenario of extreme weather and desertification in progression in great part of the world. Although great efforts have been invested in improving efficiency of irrigation (Spain and Israel are well-known for developing advanced irrigation techniques), there is still an important problem that remains unsolved: evaporation losses occurring in irrigation reservoirs.
Irrigation reservoirs store water required to irrigate crops for long periods, and they are usually big ponds dug in the land and open to air. These reservoirs are exposed to evaporation, provoking losses of 5-7% of water which has been previously abstracted (with its energy cost), and paid by the farmers.
The objective of EVAPO-CONTROL is to bring into the market a system for water reservoirs covering by floating modules in order to avoid evaporation losses, especially designed for its use in agriculture due to its low price, simple use and weather conditions resistance.
