Sustainable Water Management and Irrigation Systems: Tackling Climate Change

Globally, different regions are facing severe water shortages. Population growth, changing consumer behavior and climate change seriously affect freshwater availability. Much of the water used for conventional irrigation infiltrates or evaporates and is therefore unusable. Thus, innovative irrigation systems must be developed to exploit largely unused, non-conventional water resources. Additionally, low-cost solutions should be used, with natural and regionally available materials (Low Technology, Low Energy, Low Budget, Easy to Use).

The present edited volume aims at: (i) making available holistic approaches to sustainable water and natural resources management systems; (ii) presenting evaluation results of new micro-irrigation technologies, tested in different international contexts; (iii) contributing to effectively combating the negative impacts of climate change on water availability, agriculture and food security; and (iv) providing implications for policymakers, entrepreneurs and researchers interested in water management issues and sustainable development goals (SDGs).

João Carlos Correia Leitão is an Associate Professor with habilitation in Technological Change and Entrepreneurship, and the Director of the UBIExecutive, Business School at the University of Beira Interior (UBI), Portugal. He further is a research fellow at the NECE Research Center for Business Sciences at UBI, and an Associate Researcher at the Instituto de Ciências Sociais (ICS), University of Lisbon, Portugal. Leitão is an invited scholar at the Università Degli Studi di Bergamo, Italy. He is a prolific author and a series editor of the Springer book series Studies in Entrepreneurship, Structural Change, and Industrial Dynamics. Leitão is also an editorial board member of several international journals. 

Wael Khairy is a senior academician and researcher engineer. Has a blend of academic, managerial, strategic, technical, communication and operational experiences developed over a career spanning about 30 years. Conducted extensive academic and research work, focused experience on water science, such as surface water hydrology, river engineering, water resources planning, management, and development, and watershed management uses numerical modeling, earth observation, and statistical hydrology. Contributed positively and constructively to community development and environmental sustainability. Published various technical papers and chapter books in prestigious and renowned journal the areas of integrated watershed modeling, drainage water reuse, wastewater treatment technologies, monitoring and evaluation, water quality assessment, pollution control, climate change, and environmental management.

Dina Pereira is the Executive Director of UBImedical, Incubator of University of Beira Interior (UBI), Portugal, and Researcher at CEGIST – Centro de Estudos de Gestão | CEGIST – Centre for Management Studies, Instituto Superior Técnico – Universidade de Lisboa, in the fields of innovation and entrepreneurship. She is COO and Co-Founder of NeuroSoV, a startup that developed a drug candidate to slow down the progression of Parkinson Disease and is further working on other innovative therapies for neurodegenerative diseases and dementias.  

Jelena Zascerinska is a scientific assistant and experienced project manager at Hochschule Wismar, Germany. Also, Dr. Zascerinska is a leading researcher at Centre for Education and Innovation Research, Latvia. She is an expert of EU programmes (Horizon 2020, Horizon Europe, COST, EUREKA, Eurostars, etc.) and National Research Agencies (Latvia, Poland, Slovakia). She has authored and co-authored about 300 scientific publications. She is active in peer reviewing in several research journals. Dr. Zascerinska is Latvia Top 100 Scientists and Latvia Top 3 Scientists in Education.

Pedro Dinis Gaspar is an Associate Professor with habilitation in Mechanical Engineering, leads the Department of Electromechanical Engineering at the University of Beira Interior, Portugal. He is a researcher at Centre for Mechanics and Aerospace Science and Technologies (CMAST), coordinator of Laboratory of Innovation and Technologies for Sustainability (LITecS) and collaborates with the collaborative laboratory Food4Sustainability. His work focuses on energy efficiency, sustainability, and automation/robotics in agriculture, contributing to numerous international and national R&D projects. He has authored over 180 publications in books, book chapters, international journals, and conference proceedings and co-authored six patents. He has edited several international journals and books.