Programme: Horizon Europe

Call: HORIZON-MSCA-2021-PF-01

Project acronym: REWATERING

Project name: REalistic WATER budgetING in protected agriculture


Project summary:
Protected agriculture makes use of technology to create an optimal environment for crops growth. In particular, protected agriculture makes use of covers to shield crops from adverse meteorological events including storms, droughts, temperature extremes and strong winds. However, these controls inherently disrupt the water budget terms currently accounted for in hydrological modelling (runoff, evapotranspiration, soil moisture storage, infiltration, etc…). For the first time, the project REalistic WATER budgetING in protected agriculture (REWATERING) will deliver and validate a methodology for catchment-scale models (i.e., CATHY) to explicitly account for the role of protected agriculture on water quantity and quality. REWATERING will also unprecedently monitor water quality in a stream draining a small catchment mainly used for protected agriculture by means of high-resolution mass spectrometry. I will carry out REWATERING in a globally recognised research group for hydrological modelling. Overall, the host university will be the perfect interdisciplinary hub to accomplish the proposed research because it will provide internal collaborations with excellent academics in hydrology, agriculture and environmental chemistry. Protected agriculture is a growing reality worldwide, currently covering 15% of the agricultural lands, and often occupying entire hydrological catchments. The socially relevant and scientifically innovative interdisciplinary activities proposed in this research are urged to expand catchment-scale hydrological models to predict short- and longterm water quantity and quality resulting from water management characteristic of protected agriculture.


Starting date: 01 May 2023
Ending date: 30 April 2025
Duration: 24 months


Project partners:
    • Coordinator: Università degli Studi di Padova (Italy) – Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering Department


Grant amount: 188.590,00 Euro

Experienced researcher: Dott. Daniele la Cecilia daniele.lacecilia@unipd.it
Coordinator: Prof. Matteo Camporese matteo.camporese@unipd.it