PUBLIC PARTICIPATORY GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS (PPGIS) AS TOOL FOR IMPROVING WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT IN AGRICULTURE

The SIRIUS (Sustainable Irrigation Water Management and River – basin Governance: implementing User - driven Services) project, funded by EC FP7, is developing new services for water managers and food producers, including maps detailing irrigation water requirements in different areas, crop water consumption estimates, and a range of additional information products in support of sustainable irrigation water use and management under conditions of water scarcity and drought. To build an archive of local knowledge that leads to understand the local community fabric and facilitates the project objectives there are developed in SIRIUS two main participatory tools: the PPGIS community and the stakeholder workshops. The paper reports the activities carried out during the implementation of the PPGIS in the Italian pilot areas, showing how this new kind of participatory tools can contribute, along with the technology, to reach the goal of the efficient water management in agriculture.