Digitalisation offers the opportunity to make irrigation more resource-efficient in terms of water use in order to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals of food security (SDG 2) and sustainable water resource use (SDG 6). For farmers, it is important that digital tools are practical and user-friendly, support management, provide accurate forecasts and secure yields and thus income. For water managers and researchers, decision-making tools with temporally and spatially accurate information and forecasts on the water balance are particularly important. To support digitalisation projects, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Regions and Water Management provided a special budget of 2 million Euros as part of the 2021 Research Day.
As part of the project “Irrigation — Opportunities of Digitalisation (LABEDI)”, a comprehensive overview of digital tools in connection with irrigation in Austria was compiled. Stakeholders from the fields of agriculture, water management and research were directly involved in the process in order to analyse the digital tools in terms of their awareness, use, deficits and potential. This was done through surveys and round tables.
An information sheet was created for each digital tool, which contains a brief description and is intended to facilitate the selection of suitable applications. In addition, topic sheets were created to summarise the digital tools according to different interests and objectives. The interest groups surveyed use different digital tools, and overall awareness and use of these tools was low. A few digital tools of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Regions and Water Management, such as eHYD or eBOD, are used by several interest groups.
In addition to the survey of digital tools, potential improvements for their applicability and acceptance were identified and corresponding recommendations for action were derived. For example, the improvement of the spatial and temporal resolution of existing data bases, the better linking of existing applications and information, and the development and provision of decision support systems, for example via an Austria-wide digital platform. |