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Abstract

In the context of a sustainable agriculture, a controlled and efficient irrigation management is required to avoid negative effects of the increasing water scarcity, especially in arid and semi-arid regions. Within this background, the project 'Participatory multi-Level EO-assisted tools for Irrigation water management and Agricultural Decision-Support' (PLEIADeS: http://www.pleiades.es) addressed the efficient and sustainable use of water for food production in water-scarce environments. Economical, environmental, technical, social and political dimensions are considered by means of a synergy of leading-edge technologies and participatory approaches. Project partners, represented by a set of nine pilot case studies, include a broad range of conditions characteristic for the European, Southern Mediterranean and American regions. PLEIADeS aimed at improving the performance of irrigation schemes by means of a range of measures, made possible through wide space-time coverage of Earth observation (E.O.) data and interactive networking capabilities of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). Algorithms for a number of basic products to estimate Irrigation Water Requirements (IWR) in an operational context are defined. In this study, the pilot zone at the Nurra site in Sardinia, Italy, is chosen to test, validate and apply these methodologies.