Articles & press releases

Mediterranean Geosciences Union (MedGU) aims to create a unique federation that brings together and represents the Mediterranean geoscience community specializing in the areas of Earth, planetary and space sciences.

MedGU is  structured along the lines of AGU (American Geophysical Union) and EGU (European Geosciences Union). This first 2021 Annual Meeting had an  "hybrid" format, with both in-person and virtual participation. The official journal of MedGU is Mediterranean Geoscience Reviews (Springer).

 SUPROMED's partner INRGREF participated at the Annual Meeting (MedGU-21) of Mediterranean Geosciences Union,  and  presented SUPROMED results through two papers : 

 - Paper 1: Evaluation of WaPOR evapotranspiration product for irrigated orchard in arid region . Alaya Itidel , Zitouna Rim , Mekki Insaf , Zairi Abdelaziz , El Amami Hacib

-  Paper 2: Smart irrigation management: An innovative approach in water-limited areas-Tunisian case study. El Amami Hacib , Zitouna Rim , Zairi Abdelaziz , Mekki Insaf , Alaya Itidel , Chabane Amal;

SUPROMED was presented at the  XVI Spanish Congress of Horticultural Science held in Cordoba in Spain 17-22 October 2021. SUPROMED's partner "ITAP" presented a very nice talk about the results obtained in garlic in the framework of SUPROMED project.

See the abstract attached. 

Today, SUPROMED participated at the WEFE Nexus Science Advances Conference.  See the poster presented here.

The Conference analyses the role of science as a driver of innovation for the sustainable development of the Mediterranean region,  and its interfacing with the policy and decision-making processes. It will recommend practical measures on how to integrate new paths in research and planning across the WEFE Nexus, through a collaborative response throughout the Mediterranean region.

Press release

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        26-07-2021

New SUPROMED platform for water, energy, and fertilizers management in Mediterranean agro-ecosystems available now!

SUPROMED ‘Sustainable Production in water limited environments of Mediterranean agro-ecosystem’ is a Research & Innovation project funded under the PRIMA programme section I supported under horizon2020, the European Union’s Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, that started in October 2019 for a period of 3 years. The project is composed of a multidisciplinary team of ten partners from five countries: Spain (UCLM, ITAP, HISPATEC), France (SEMIDE), Greece (UTH, 3DSA), Lebanon (DIFAF, ULFA) and Tunisia (INRGREF, INGC).  SUPROMED aims to enhance the economic and environmental sustainability of Mediterranean farming systems through a more efficient management of water, energy and fertilizers.

SUPROMED is providing a holistic crop-livestock water management system resilient to climate change. To this aim, SUPROMED is integrating a validated set of models and tools on an  online platform to increase the production and income of farms through a reduction and a more efficient use of water, and other inputs such as energy and fertilizers, while decreasing the impact on the environment.

 SUPROMED tools are using in-situ data and Earth Observation (EO) imagery, agro-alerts[1], agroclimatic classification and zoning together with drought forecast tools linked to climatic change. SUPROMED’s end-user platform is being demonstrated in pilot areas across Spain, Lebanon, and Tunisia.

SUPROMED’s ICT platform acts as a toolbox offering end-users the possibility to apply a set of interlinked models as well as to access useful information related to their farm based on their needs:

• Irrigation scheduling: MOPECO and IREY
• Optimal crops distribution: MOPECO
• Full modelling and optimisation of farm management: MOPECO
• Design and optimization of irrigation network: DOPIR (for pressurised irrigation systems), DOPIR-Solar (for solar-powered irrigation) and PRESSUD (for sprinkler and drip irrigation systems).
• High resolution medium-range weather forecast: 7-day daily forecast with WRF [2], 2km resolution (using GFS[3] data)
• High resolution seasonal climatic forecast: 6-month monthly forecast with WRF, 2km resolution (using CFS[4] data)
• Climate change scenarios: WRF for the period 2020-2050, 6km resolution (using data from CESMv1[5] under RCP4.5 [6])
• Evapotranspiration data and maps: EO derived product

Figure 1 SUPROMED PLATFORM STRUCTURE

The platform can be used by all technicians and farmers who want to optimise their water, energy and fertilizers use and increase their profitability.  It can be also used by policy-makers at local level for the estimation of the water use in the agricultural sector to reduce the pressure on the resource, as well as to assess the effect of water restrictions, water price, energy costs and subventions on the final profitability of the farms.

To start with SUPROMED Platform, users must upload the characteristics of the farm: climate, soil and crops data as well as irrigation infrastructure to generate specific outputs such as irrigation scheduling, optimal crops distribution, design and optimization of irrigation network, high resolution weather forecasts, climate forecasts, fertiliser needs, evapotranspiration data and maps. SUPROMED platform is available free of charge on SUPROMED website: https://dss.supromed.eu/portal/ . A set of video tutorials on how to use the platform is available on the project website. Specific Matlab compiler indicated in PRESUD and DOPIR manuals (available for download when installing the software) must be installed before using the platform.  

SUPROMED aims to promote a 10-20% increase in the adoption of organizational and technological innovations in farms with an overall impact across the Mediterranean basin. Thanks to its platform, SUPROMED increases the agronomic and economic/ water productivity at the farm level by 10-20%.  By applying SUPROMED, farmers can save more than 15% of irrigation water and around 10% of the energy used. The platform improves the design and management of water infrastructure and crop rotation in the farm and increases the farmer profitability by more than 10%.

Project Details

Project No: PRIMA/ Research & Innovation Activities (RIA) Grant Agreement no. 1813

Start Date: 01/10/2019

Project Duration: 36 months

More information can be found on SUPROMED WEBSITE: supromed.eu

For additional information, please contact the Project Coordinator:  Dr. Alfonso Domínguez Padilla, email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  

Or the official e-mail address of SUPROMED: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

[1] Early warning system of adverse weather phenomena with the aim of protecting agricultural production from imminent adverse natural phenomena (frost, hail, rain, thunderstorm, lightning) with great spatial and time accuracy, even focusing on specific areas of increased risk

[2] Weather Reasearch and Forecasting

[3] Global Forecasting System is a weather forecast model produced by National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP)

[4] The Climate Forecast System or Coupled Forecast System (both names abbreviated CFS) is a medium to long range numerical weather prediction and a climate model run by the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP)

[5] Community Earth System Model

[6] Representative Concentration Pathway 4.5

The 1st Review Meeting of SUPROMED took place online on 12 July 2021. The project partners and Project Coordinator presented the progress towards the project objectives to the reviewers. The Review focused on the period from October 2019 until March 2021. The Project Officer welcomed the efforts deployed by the Consortium to overcome the impact of Covid-19 on the activities of the project.

The EU-PRIMA funded project SUPROMED (Sustainable Agricultural Production in Water Limited Environment), and the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences  of the Lebanese University, organized a thematic training on Saturday 12 June 2021 on 'Decision Support System for Irrigation Advisory' at Domain Tanayel in close collaboration with Arc-en-Ciel. Welcome statements by Prof. Nadine Nassif, Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture of the Lebanese University, and Prof. Abdel Halim Mouneimne, Head of Environment Department, emphasized the importance of the topic and the collaboration with EU. Thorough description of the decision support system was provided by Prof. Fadi Karam, Project Manager, and Eng. Carole Hachem. The theoretical session was followed by a practical field demonstration of Sentek Probe being tested for first time in Lebabon. Our deep thanks go to the European Commission for the continuing support, PRIMA Foundation & SUPROMED Project, Arc-en-Ciel and all our partners and stakeholders.