The European Irrigation Association (EIA) Forum was held online on Friday 18 October 2024 from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm CET.

The forum attracted 46 participants from Europe, Canada, the United States and Australia.

The Irrigation Forum is a gathering event held 4 times a year with the aim to cover a range of relevant topics concerning the Irrigation Sector in Europe.

This time, we looked at the rainwater harvesting in urban areas, and how can a natural resource that we have ignored for so long become our best ally.

The Forum started with an Introduction by he EIA President, Moshi Berenstein. He started with an up-date on the Working groups of the association: The WG Sustainable Irrigation with the promotion of the Policy Paper European Taxonomy. The restarting of the WG Urban Landscape, identifying efficiency of Urban Irrigation. And the WG Training & Education, working on basic training for Landscape auditors’ course. Then he presented the EIA 2025 Road map board discussions, and the preparation of Eima exhibition (Bologna Italy – November 6 – 10, 2024), where the EIA will have a stand and organize a cocktail-party.

Fleur Martin, the EIA communication Officer, welcomed the new members, who recently joined the Association : Tarantini Giunti, HSTI and Otech.

Then we moved to the presentation of our Guest Speaker, Nicolas Griglio (Source Urbaine). In his presentation “Spring rainwater in urban areas”, he mentioned the fact that the effects of climate change are intensifying (drought, fires, floods, etc.). Since the end of the 20th century, the urban development model is no longer adapted to these meteorological changes and is accentuating the phenomena of soil sealing and heat spots in urban areas. Today’s cities lack the resilience and solutions to meet these new challenges.,Source Urbaine’s solution uses existing infrastructures to collect rainwater and ensure the watering and maintenance of vegetation in our everyday life. By doing so, not only can we reduce the consumption of resources but we can also ensure a sustainable environment in urban areas during heat waves.

The forum ended with the Innovation & Technology session, during which one of our member has the opportunity to introduce a new technology. Dorothea Sulzbacher, from Lite soil Gmbh presentated : “Sub-surface irrigation and water storage technologies for sustainable greening & water saving in gardening & landscaping””. Underground irrigation systems with full-surface geotextiles have been known in Europe for around 30 years. Compared to above-ground systems, they use significantly less water as evaporation is eliminated and capillary water distribution takes place directly at the roots. Newer systems do not use full-surface geotextiles, but cut water storage nonwovens in net form. This prevents a barrier effect and roots can grow unhindered through the spaces between the nets and thus dock onto the water storage on all sides. Dorothea Sulzbacher’s presentation compared the different systems with each other and show ways of saving water in a targeted manner

Finally, we had 20 minutes open session for Q&A with many questions of the participants to both speakers before closing the forum.

Enclosed the presentation and below the link to watch the video of the event :

https://youtu.be/21nrBCUKVnI