Enabling technologies for climate-resilient mediterranean agriculture: A multicriteria decision-making study in Sicily (Italy)

The Mediterranean agricultural sector faces growing pressures from climate change, including prolonged droughts, heat waves, and chronic water scarcity, which threaten productivity and sustainability. These challenges are particularly acute in Sicily, one of the European regions most affected by desertification, soil degradation, and structural weaknesses in farming systems. To address these vulnerabilities, Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) – such as precision irrigation, IoT sensors, drones, and decision support platforms – are increasingly considered essential for fostering resource-efficient and climate-resilient agriculture. Their effective deployment, however, depends not only on technical performance but also on adoption capacity, cooperative learning, and governance frameworks able to overcome cultural, economic, and infrastructural barriers. This study employs the Living Lab as a participatory platform to engage farmers, researchers, policymakers, and agri-businesses in co-designing innovation priorities. A multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) framework, combining Weighted Sum Model (WSM), Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), was applied to evaluate stakeholder preferences across environmental, economic, and social criteria. Results reveal strong convergence across methods, highlighting water management technologies and digital monitoring solutions as top priorities. These findings provide robust evidence to guide innovation strategies and policy design, supporting sustainable and territorially adapted agri-food transitions in water-stressed Mediterranean regions.