EU Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC and the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in Europe together with the present national policies of the Northern Africa countries, and UN SDGs goals, highlights the need of improving water irrigation management towards its sustainable use and economic saving. In this framework, the project, responds to the call objectives proposing a real-time operative water and economic management web-gis tool for parsimonious and precise irrigation optimizing crop yield and economic income, integrating farm analysis into water district one. The tool will allow to monitor and forecast the soil moisture behaviour at farm and district levels to define the right irrigation discharge, optimizing water and economic indicators. The tool supports different levels of stakeholder: i) farmers who control soil moisture avoiding plant water and saline stress, ii) irrigation consortia which allocates water among users; iii) water authorities which manage water withdraw from reservoirs. In addition, the tools present also the possibility to be used as simulator of water allocation supporting decision strategy at irrigation district scale in real time and for seasonal forecast scenarios. Multi satellite data, ground measurements, daily and seasonal meteorological forecast, soil water budget numerical modelling, crop growth model, and economic analysis will support the tool. The proposed tool and embedded methodology will be applied in different case studies of the Mediterranean area: Italy, Spain, Egypt Tunisia and Morocco and also in China characterized by different climatic conditions, fresh and saline water availability, crop types, irrigation practices, polices and water pricing. These case studies will be also used for diffusion of parsimonious irrigation practice through technology transfer and dedicated courses for farm and irrigation district people.

There is a growing interest on achieving a better understanding on the interactions between land use and climate and their effect on water resources and people's livelihoods, with the aim of improving long-term sustainable water use. This is even more relevant in areas such as the EU Mediterranean (EUM) region, which is a major climate change hotspot due to water scarcity, concentration of activities, and reliance on climate-sensitive resources. Irrigated agriculture is the largest blue water user in the EUM, accounting for more than 50% of total water withdrawal, largely doubling the EU average. Among non-extractive water uses, forests and rainfed agriculture have the largest green-water footprint and play a fundamental role on the allocation of effective rainfall between green- and blue-water flows, determining the water availability for other uses. INNOMED promotes a holistic approach to water resources management by: i) considering the full water cycle as manageable and the catchment scale as the most relevant management level; and ii) addressing the integrated management of land and water, with a special focus on irrigated agriculture and forests. Its main objective is to develop and test advanced modelling tools to quantify the physical and economic effects of alternative land management options in order to improve water use efficiency in both sectors and promote sustainable water management solutions. INNOMED addresses specific scientific challenges in: i) estimating the allocation of green- and blue-water flows of different land uses and their spatial and temporal variations, at the catchment scale; ii) determining the water footprint of different management options on forests and irrigated crops, including experimental trials, field monitoring and modelling, at the field scale; iii) integrating the physical and economic flows resulting from alternative management options. An enhanced interface between scientists and stakeholders (water and forest managers and farmers) in five pilot study sites will allow: i) mapping and devising current and innovative water-use efficient land management options; ii) gathering relevant biophysical and socio-economic data needed for analysis; and iii) focusing on relevant issues for the practical implementation of IWRM in the pilot study sites and beyond. INNOMED will provide scientific research outcomes of high standards taking into account the current biophysical and socio-economic challenges in the EUM region, and provide resilient solutions aiming at reducing the pressure for water in the agriculture and forestry sectors, while strengthening international cooperation in water research.