Main Features and Application of a Web-based Irrigation Management Tool for the Plain of Arta

Agriculture plays a key role in the management of water use. Especially in Greece, irrigation is an essential element of agricultural production and agricultural water use has a substantial share in total water use. The presented study illustrates the key features of the IRMA_SYSTEM, a regional, user-friendly computer/mobile-based, open and free modular software for estimating site specific crop water requirements and irrigation scheduling at multiple scales, from farm to water basin level. The estimation of irrigation water requirements and irrigation scheduling is based on a modification of the FAO 56 approach. The system takes into account historical and forecast agrometeorological data, along with crop and soil-water data to accomplish its tasks. Also, it is fully customizable, allowing the users to add site and crop specific information taking advantage of additional data. Feedback and evaluation procedures are already applied and expected to contribute to the improvement of the system.