The European Irrigation Association (EIA) held a virtual Spring Irrigation Forum on 30 March 2023 . This  landscape forum attracted 37 participants from Europe and the United States.

During 2 hours sessions, we attended very interesting presentations whose main themes were the fight against global warming in cities. In a context of increasing water scarcity and more intense and frequent urban heat wave episodes, how can we adapt to this new reality?  The adequate management of urban spaces becomes essential and one approach that can be employed is the irrigated urban vegetation.

Course of the forum :

Moshi Berenstein, EIA President started by an introduction about The EU taxonomy for sustainable activities. For reminder, the EU taxonomy as a classification system that establishes the rules for sustainable economic activities, a common language and a clear definition of what is ‘sustainable. EU Taxonomy doesn’t apply today to the irrigation sector, but Analytical work was prepared by WG1 on the realization of a working plan how the sector should approach the Taxonomy classification process to open channels to our members to public green funds & subsidies. It was presented  29/3/2023 to the Board, and the Board approved the direction and provided guidelines to the team on how to continue to the next level.

Then, Fleur Martin, the EIA Communication Officer, welcomed the 3 new members, who have recently joined the EIA : Elie Fares, Mega Group Trade and Green Cityzen.

This introduction was followed by 2 presentations :

1. Guest Speaker: Martina Garcia de Cezar, Engineer in sanitation and environment (UFSC), PhD student (INRAE UMR G-Eau Montpellier and AgroParisTech) : “Irrigated urban vegetation to mitigate heat waves in cities: Concepts and methodology of analysis”. Martina introduced the notion of urban climate, to challenge irrigation practice and propose ways to support decision making for a better adaptation to climate change.  This to ensure the positive effect of vegetation on population’s quality of life.
2. Innovation & Technology session : Coralie Tavassoli, Urbasense : « Agronomic reasoning of trees watering in the city to facilitate their cooling effects». Using water potential sensor and data analysis allows evaluating, or managing, root activity and development. The amount of water supplied by irrigation can then be adjusted to manage the “root drying volume” with great accuracy. Such methodology will be illustrated from the example of Garibaldi Boulevard in the city of Lyon (Fr).

The presentations were followed by an interactive questions and answers sessions.

For those who are not yet members, we invite you to join EIA, to promote the continued development of irrigation products, practices and services, and to advocate for sustainable industry standards and water management policies that lead to a stable legal environment for irrigation professionals.

Please find attached the PowerPoint presentation to upload.

To watch the Forum’s video :

EIA Spring Irrigation Forum 30 March 2023 20230330 170930 Enregistrement de la réunion – YouTube

To become a member of EIA, please register online:

https://irrigationeurope.eu/en/become-a-member/