Smart Irrigation and Nature-Based Solutions for Sustainable Water Management
A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Water Use and Irrigation".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2026 | Viewed by 144
Special Issue Editors
Interests: irrigation system; sustainable water management; blue-green infrastructure; DSS for agriculture
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: agricultural engineering; smart agriculture; irrigation management; sustainable water management; climate-smart agriculture
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Water scarcity and climate variability are posing increasing challenges to agricultural and environmental sustainability. In recent years, smart irrigation and nature-based solutions (NBS) have emerged as innovative approaches to optimise water management while maintaining ecosystem integrity. Smart irrigation relies on digital technologies, sensors and data-driven models to improve irrigation scheduling and efficiency. In parallel, NBS, such as constructed wetlands, vegetated buffers and soil conservation practices, use natural processes to enhance water retention, quality and resilience to extreme events.
This Special Issue aims to provide an interdisciplinary platform for advancing research and innovation in sustainable water management through the integration of smart technologies and NBS. We seek to highlight cutting-edge studies combining remote and proximal sensing, modeling tools, decision-support systems and experimental approaches that improve water use efficiency, crop performance and ecosystem services.
We invite contributions addressing theoretical advances, methodological developments and practical applications at different spatial scales. Papers focusing on socio-economic assessments, policy frameworks and real-world implementation of smart irrigation or NBS are also welcome. The overall goal is to foster knowledge exchange and promote resilient, climate-smart strategies for the efficient use of water in agriculture and related landscapes.
Dr. Lucia Bortolini
Dr. Alessia Cogato
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agronomy is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- irrigation technologies
- sustainable water management
- climate-smart irrigation
- NBS for sustainable agriculture
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