Edited by Flavio Lupia

This publication contains an exhaustive description of the developed methodological approach to estimate the irrigation water consumption at farm level in Italy by using the data collected though the 6th General Agricultural Census realized by ISTAT in the period 2010-2012.

In 2008, Eurostat awarded grants to 13 European Member States (MS) to develop methodologies for irrigation water consumption estimation that could be extended to all MS. This necessity arose from the EC-Regulation Nr.1166/2008 that binds all MS to provide, for each holding surveyed with the Statistics on Agricultural Production Methods (SAPM), an estimation of irrigation water consumption measured in cubic metres. 

The Italian grant, titled a Modelling Approach for irrigation wateR eStimation at fArm Level (MARSALa), has been leaded by INEA in partnership with the Instituto de Agricoltura Sostenibile-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (IAS-CSIC), the Spanish research institute based in Cordoba specialized in irrigation and agricultural sciences. IAS-CSIC cooperated with INEA for the realization of the work package (WP) dealing with the design and integration of the computational models (Models Design).

[Read more]