A Novel Approach as a Smart Irrigation Decision Support and Management System Providing Environmental Optimization in Sustainable Irrigation Management: ENORASIS

ABSTRACT ENORASIS has been developed as a real‐time smart irrigation decision support and management system consisting of weather forecasting systems based on satellite observations, irrigation optimization techniques and wireless sensor networks. This study revealed that irrigation could be managed with ENORASIS without a significant decrease in efficiency when less water is used (14%–71%) than with the conventional irrigation management approach. Thus, fewer agricultural chemicals are washed away from the soil, but water efficiency increases, leading to the use of less water and groundwater pollution. According to these results, although ENORASIS usually stands out as a recommended irrigation management system in terms of water usage parameters and performance indicators for both cotton and maize, either of the two irrigation management systems could be preferred considering yield, technological and agronomic characteristics. Among these, the choice should be made according to the results of an economic analysis on factors such as time, labour and energy needs for water supply, as well as metered irrigation and pricing in water and irrigation costs. This study revealed that ENORASIS can be used for sustainable irrigation and water resource management.