The fourth in-person working meeting of all Germ of Life project partners provided a very positive opportunity to advance the development of the processes and technologies that support their innovations, with the goal of improving drought risk management and mitigation in Euro-Mediterranean countries.
The meeting was hosted in Italy by Lamoro Development Agency, a Germ of Life partner, represented by Sonia Abluton, with the excellent collaboration of the Management Body of the Protected Areas of the Piedmontese Po, and took place in the meeting room of Cascina Le Vallere, in Moncalieri, in the metropolitan area of Turin.
The working sessions were led by Prof. Athanassious Argiriou, Project Leader, and Panagiota Saranti, Project Manager, both from the University of Patras (Greece).
In the development of the Global Technical Architecture, the algorithms are configured for these drought indicators:
SPEI (Standardised Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index) identified as the Minimum Viable Product to quantify the contribution of both precipitation deficits and high temperatures to drought severity events.
CWSI (Crop Water Stress Index).
NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index).
Thanks to the collaboration of all the partners, Germ of Life has developed the basis component for the correct implementation of the 3 platforms that compose our global platform to mitigate the effect of drought.
The next planned steps are to complete:
== Drought Risk Monitoring and Prediction service (Software): The deliverable of this task covers the pipeline for data processing and calculation of drought indicators (source code) to be implemented in the proposed platform (dashboard), along with the exploratory machine learning models to forecast the selected drought indicators and soil moisture (source code).
== Vulnerability Assesment Tool. Open-Source software easily scalable and transferable depending on stakeholders needs, coupled with advanced security policies and norms and prior to be deployed it will undergo a penetration and vulnerability assesment test.
== Innovation Procurement Platform. Open-Source software easily scalable and transferable depending on stakeholders needs, it includes a db of technologies and nature-based solutions scouted along the Project.
The meeting also discussed the development of WP2, titled Test Activities and Evaluation of Solutions, led by CMCC. The WP2 objective is to set-up, run and measure in real life conditions the uptake of Germ of Life solution in 4 pilot test areas in Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain, including a plan for maintenance after the project conclusion.
Project members have commented on points such as:
- To resent the common methodology of the Test protocol and technical details of the pilot sites to ensure a smooth implementation of the in-situ monitoring environment.
- To prepare the PTAs for the deployment of drought monitoring and mitigation solutions.
- To establish a shared methodology and test protocol.
- To ensure that procurement, installation, and data handling procedures are harmonized across pilot sites.
- To define the technical setup for each site, ensuring comparability and replicability of results.
- To establish a maintenance and sustainability plan post-project.
Each pilot site monitors drought-related variables through in-situ equipment, according to local needs and climatic/agricultural context. With this sensors:
– Air temperature and humidity
– Wind speed and direction
– Precipitation
– Photosynthetic Active Radiation (PAR)
– Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)
– Ground temperature and relative humidity at three depths (25 cm, 45 cm, 60 cm).
The pilot stipulated in Italy has been launched. The weather station has been installed in the phenological garden “Carlo Allioni”, within Le Vallere Park. Measurement station for collecting data from weather, environmental, water, and soil sensors. Technical specifications of this pilot:
● Thermo-hygrometric sensor.
● Tipping-bucket rain gauge for automatic rainfall measurement.
● TDR sensor for measuring soil moisture, electrical conductivity, dielectric permittivity, and temperature.
● PAR sensor for measuring photosynthetically active radiation.
● Analog NDVI sensor for measuring both reflected and direct light.
The fourth pilot is scheduled to take place in Andalusia. It will be located at the Forest Fire Defense Center (CEDEFO) in Alcalá de los Gazules (Cádiz), and is scheduled to begin at the end of October.
As additional actions planned for the coming months, we want to organize a workshop with stakeholders interested in the platform, at least in the countries where the pilots will be conducted.
In addition, it will begin to be implemented in January 2026, led by Lamoro Development Agency, the amplificacion and transferability strategy for drought risk management in MED countries and support stakeholders in the uptake of Germ of Life drought risk management proactive solutions. This joint action plans will include:
– the adoption of the tested solutions in risk prediction.
– the vulnerability assessment KPIs.
– the methods to gather drought data using the monitoring stations.
– the comprehensive solutions (nature-based solutions and technologies) available in the innovation procurement platform.
