Smart water for sustainable agriculture through climate resilient assessment and integrated soil water crop management

Irrigation water quality is a cornerstone of agricultural sustainability, yet conventional assessments remain constrained by narrow hydrochemical indices that rarely capture the complex interactions among soils, crops, and climate. In an era of climate uncertainty, water scarcity, and technological acceleration, rethinking irrigation water quality is essential to sustain productive and resilient agroecosystems. This state-of-the-art review synthesizes conceptual, technological, and policy-level advances across three interlinked domains. First, it critically revisits classical hydrochemical frameworks salinity, sodicity, toxic ions, and microbiological contamination while identifying their limitations in predicting long-term soil degradation and crop responses. Second, it explores how agroecosystem intelligence, through the integration of remote sensing, geographic information systems, and artificial intelligence, enables predictive and spatially explicit water-quality monitoring. Third, it situates irrigation water quality within the soil–water–crop nexus, linking water composition to soil health, nutrient cycling, and food security within the broader context of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This review follows a structured literature-analysis approach based on peer reviewed articles retrieved from Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar (2000–2025) using keywords such as “irrigation water quality,” “soil water crop nexus,” and “smart water management.” Studies were screened for relevance, originality, and methodological rigor to ensure balanced coverage. The synthesis highlights persistent knowledge gaps, including the need to integrate water-quality indices with system-level models, evaluate trade-offs between productivity and environmental risk, and design governance frameworks for equitable access to safe irrigation water. Ultimately, this article advocates a paradigm shift from static assessments of water suitability toward intelligent, integrated, and adaptive frameworks that enable climate-resilient irrigation and sustainable futures.