The GEORGIA project has successfully reached Milestone 4: “Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) & AI-supported Smart Irrigation Baseline is developed and ready to be integrated with Irrigation Systems.” This achievement establishes the scientific and technological foundation of the project’s intelligent irrigation ecosystem, bringing together artificial intelligence, real-time monitoring, digital modelling and nature-based solutions into a single operational framework. The milestone marks the transition from system design to integration, paving the way for deployment and validation across GEORGIA’s seven demonstration pilots throughout Europe.
The newly established Smart Irrigation Baseline combines continuous field monitoring through IoT sensors, drone and satellite Earth Observation, weather observations, and advanced Crop Digital Twin models to create a comprehensive understanding of crop, soil and water dynamics. These data streams are processed through AI-powered decision support services capable of generating transparent, explainable irrigation recommendations that adapt to changing field conditions in real time. The platform’s cloud-native architecture enables seamless interoperability between sensors, simulation models, digital services and irrigation infrastructure, creating an intelligent closed-loop system where observation, prediction and irrigation management continuously inform one another.
A defining feature of the GEORGIA approach is the integration of digital intelligence with circular water management and Nature-Based Solutions. Rather than optimising irrigation alone, the baseline is designed to work alongside innovative solutions including treated wastewater reuse, rainwater harvesting and storage, atmospheric water condensation technologies, and Biological Water Absorbing Geo-composites (BioWAG). By combining alternative water resources with AI-driven irrigation scheduling, the system aims to improve water-use efficiency, enhance soil water retention, strengthen drought resilience, reduce dependence on freshwater resources, and support sustainable agricultural production under increasingly variable climatic conditions.
With this milestone achieved, GEORGIA enters its next implementation phase, during which the integrated platform will be deployed and validated across seven pilot sites representing diverse European farming systems and climatic regions. The demonstrations will assess how the combined use of AI, Crop Digital Twins, smart sensing technologies and Nature-Based Solutions can support farmers in making informed irrigation decisions while reducing water consumption, maintaining crop productivity and strengthening resilience to climate change. By bridging cutting-edge digital technologies with practical on-farm innovation, GEORGIA is laying the foundation for a new generation of sustainable, resilient and climate-smart irrigation systems for European agriculture.
Grant Agreement No | 101181572 |
Project Acronym | GEORGIA |
Total budget | 4 970 932.24€ |
Project Title | Green dEal cOmpliant iRriGation Increasing Europe’s Agriculture resilience to drought |
Start – ending date | 1 February 2025 – 31 January 2028 |
Granting Authority | Research Executive Agency |
Project Coordination | Project Communication |
Dr. Theodore Zahariadis | Georgia Michailidou |
SYNELIXIS | reframe.food |
zahariad@synelixis.com | gmichailidou@reframe.food |
Farmakidou 10, Chalkida, Greece | Leontos Sofou 20, Thermi, Greece |
|
Disclaimer:
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or Research Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
