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Water
scarcity has become a worldwide phenomenon, with acute problems at some
localities. The objective of the Hortimed RTD project was to develop a
context sensitive strategy for managing irrigation and nutrient supply to
protected cropscrops
and
hydroponics, under constraint conditions on the quantity and quality
of the water
supply. The economical (quality and quantity of crop yield/ the producer
side) and the ecological (sustainability, contamination risks of water
table, and healthy vegetables/ the consumer side) factors, affecting the
strategic and operational decisions, have been the focal points of the
research.
The
research activities of the project have advanced our knowledge on:
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biological information about detailed plants’ responses (i.e. nutrient
uptake models, yield response to salinity etc),
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technical developments on how to precisely furnish such needs
(cooperative root and shoot environment management), as well as
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complex optimization algorithms to utilize such information and provide
best tradeoff solutions regarding the consumer quality requirements, the
sustainability of the environment and the income of the grower, and all
these in a very competitive world
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