On 16 April 2026, the EMPOWERMed Tunisia team held a coordination meeting with colleagues from ISITCom Sousse, strengthening collaboration between ISITCom and the Regional Research Centre on Horticulture and Organic Agriculture (CRRHAB).
The meeting aligned agricultural, hydrological and digital expertise around a practical objective: developing tools that can support more efficient and climate-resilient irrigation management in Tunisian olive production.
đź’§ About EMPOWERMed
EMPOWERMed is a PRIMA-funded project developing integrated water-accounting and decision-support approaches for Mediterranean regions affected by water scarcity. Its work combines field observations, modelling, remote sensing, digital technologies, socio-economic research and stakeholder participation.
🤝 Defining the collaboration framework
Participants presented the project’s objectives, clarified shared responsibilities and identified the technical, data and logistical requirements for the next stage of work. They also agreed communication and monitoring mechanisms to support regular coordination.
đź«’ Decision support for olive-tree water requirements
A central outcome was an agreement to jointly develop a decision-support application for monitoring and estimating olive-tree water requirements. The partners discussed the application’s functional specifications, expected outputs and future users. Proposed outputs include indicators that can inform irrigation scheduling.
The application is expected to integrate several data types:
- climate observations and datasets;
- soil characteristics;
- crop parameters;
- remote-sensing products;
- in-situ observations; and
- reanalysis datasets.
The technical discussion also considered the spatial and temporal resolution required for reliable modelling, together with the amount and quality of data needed for calibration and validation.
🔠What’s next?
CRRHAB and ISITCom will continue through regular technical meetings and the staged co-development of the proposed application. The next work should translate user needs into a testable system while documenting data provenance, model assumptions, calibration procedures and uncertainty.
Source and further reading: original EMPOWERMed Tunisia update on LinkedIn.