Sub-seasonal irrigation forecasts Romagna

The sub-seasonal (4 weeks) forecasts of irrigation needs for crops are the result of the combination of different data sources such as information on agricultural land use from satellite data, Emilia-Romagna Region soil map, observed weather data and HIGHLANDER sub-seasonal forecast, by means of a soil water balance model. Provided data are irrigation and precipitation forecasts expressed as a statistical distribution, of which 5th, 25th, 50th, 75th and 95th percentiles of this distribution are available.

These forecasts are the outcomes of a climate service addressed to irrigation water management in agriculture developed by ARPAE, including seasonal probabilistic forecasts and deterministic weekly forecasts of irrigation, as described in Villani et al., 2021.

The sub-seasonal irrigation forecasts cover the Romagna Land reclamation and Irrigation Board (consorzio di bonifica). The Romagna is a reclamation and irrigation basin that covers approximately 200,000 hectares between the Sillaro to the west, the Lamone to the east, the Reno to the north and the watershed of the hydrographic basin to the south. It falls within the territory of five provinces: Ravenna (mainly), Bologna, Forlì-Cesena, Ferrara, Florence and 35 Municipalities.

The delivery of the forecast is weekly (usually on Tuesday) according to the emission of sub-seasonal forecasts produced by ECMWF.

Products

Irrigation forecast (mm)

Precipitation forecast (mm)