Soil moisture contents were measured by FDR probes at 10 cm, 30 cm, 50 cm and 70 cm depth at various field plots for the experimental site near Picassent, Valencia, Spain. These soil moisture data were assimilated by the Local Ensemble Transform Kalman Filter (LETKF) into the Community Land Model (CLM) to improve the estimation of the complete soil moisture profile (all ten layers). The measured soil moisture was assimilated five times per day. In these data assimilation experiments, both atmospheric forcings and soil properties were considered uncertain. The uncertain model forcings were taken from an ensemble of weather forecasts from the ECMWF, and delivered in this project by Meteo France for the particular grid point under consideration. The improved soil moisture profile was used to calculate the irrigation requirement taking into account the root distribution of the citrus trees in the subsurface. The estimated irrigation amount was scheduled operationally during the irrigation period of 2013.

In irrigation districts where water is delivered by pressurized networks, a way of reducing the energy consumption is to schedule the operation of hydrants or intakes (demand network nodes) that compose sectors in such a way that the required pumping head is lower and the pump efficiency is higher. A sector is a group of demand nodes that operates at the same time. To apply this technique, a calibrated mathematical network is required. A method has been developed that allows scheduling the intake operation just the required time to fulfill the crop water requirements with the minimum energy consumption. Crop water requirements are calculated and irrigation time is assigned to each irrigation intake according to their flow rates. Then, the simulation code, implemented in the HuraGIS tool decides when these intakes have to operate. The scheduled irrigation guarantees that the energy consumption is minimum. It was tested in the Picassent irrigation district achieving a saving of 36.3% compared to actual scenarios.

The total amount of irrigated water for the six irrigation plots from July to September in 2013 was compared for the different sites. AGADAPT suggested smaller irrigation amounts than according the traditional irrigation method. 23% amount of water (averaged over two irrigation plots) was saved (compared with the FAO method) from July to September in 2013. The traditional irrigation method is based on the FAO calculation, and the irrigation results show that the farmers tended to increase irrigation above the recommended amount. The reduced irrigation did not result in soil water decrease. The measured soil moisture at the surface layer (10 cm) and root zone layer (50 cm) was kept above 30% constantly. This means the suggested irrigation amount was enough to compensate soil moisture loss related to uptake by citrus and infiltration. The stem water potential (SWP) is a good indicator of plant water stress. Nine SWP measurements were collected during the irrigation period and twelve samples were used to calculate the mean of SWP for each measurement time. High SWP values indicate high water stress of citrus. Stem water potential measurements for the main irrigation period for two AGADAPT plots (01.09.08 and 01.20.01) were compared with two traditional plots (01.09.07 and 01.20.03). The AGADAPT irrigation method did not result in water stress compared to the measured SWP from traditional irrigation plots. Therefore, the SWP measurements were consistent with the soil moisture measurements. After the harvest season, the citrus production for one AGADAPT irrigation plot and two traditional irrigation plot were collected for comparison. The production of two traditional plots (01.09.07 and 01.20.03) were 3.36 Kg/m² and 1.71 Kg/m². The production of the AGADAPT plot (01.20.01) was 2.84 Kg/m². The AGADAPT plot shows a production which is in between the two plots irrigated traditionally. More experiments with more sites would be needed for statistically sound conclusions. However, it can be stated that there is no indication that less irrigation water as applied for the AGADAPT plots, resulted in less production.