AUGEIAS KICK-OFF MEETING
The kick-off meeting of the research program AUGEIAS (Intelligent IoT management platform for treated wastewater reuse for agricultural use) was hosted online on the 5th of October 2020.
The meeting was coordinated by Associate Professor Malamati Louta, who welcomed the partners from the Municipal Water Supply and Sewerage Company of Kozani (DEYAK) and Agrosense S.Α.
The project is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund of the European Union and Greek national funds through the Operational Program Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, under the call RESEARCH – CREATE – INNOVATE (project code: T2EDK-04211), with a total budget of 522.450€ and duration 30 months.
The object of the AUGEIAS project is the successful use of the treated wastewater from Kozani’s Wastewater Treatment Plant in a safe and efficient way, for Precision Agriculture. AUGEIAS utilizes Internet of Things (IoT) and Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) technologies for real time data collection, integrates the data with reliable open-source data and other data (e.g. meteorological or soil quality) and uses advanced machine learning and forecasting techniques to support decision making for optimized treated wastewater re-use.
The benefits of the AUGEIAS ecosystem are environmental and economic and social and is expected to:
- Promote the utilization of treated wastewater in a safe and efficient way,
- Save water resources through: a) reuse (direct or indirect) of treated wastewater for irrigation (Precision Agriculture), b) estimation of water requirements for crop irrigation and c) detection of leaks and immediate notification of managers and farmers,
- Reduce the use of fertilizers as the treated wastewater is rich in nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus, which are essential elements for plants to grow,
- Increase farmers’ profit through a) improved estimation of water requirements for crop irrigation, b) leak detection and c) usage of cheaper treated wastewater that is dynamically priced,
- Increase profits of the utility company by selling the unexploited treated wastewater for irrigation purposes, using a dynamic pricing scheme that depends on contained nutrients,
- Promote new innovative products in the market,
- Create new jobs and increase employment opportunities in high-tech positions.
