All-in-One Smart Cube for Sustainable Agriculture in the Mediterranean Region (SmaCuMed)

Agriculture is one of the economic sectors mostly affected by water scarcity and water salinization in the Mediterranean region. In order to provide an innovative and robust solution for groundwater desalination, an all-in-one smart cube for sustainable irrigation was developed within the EU-PRIMA research project SmaCuMed. The goal of the project is to reduce the gap between water balances and optimize agricultural produce by aiming at long-term strategies to prevent and control soil/water salinization. Membrane capacitive deionization (MCDI) and low-pressure reverse osmosis (LPRO) were tested and compared for the treatment of saline groundwater (TDS: 1–10 g/L) in laboratory scale and will be implemented at pilot scale in Morocco. The smart cube is equipped with foldable solar PV panels (7.4 kWp) to allow the autonomous operation in remote areas. An IoT-based soil and water management system is used for precision irrigation and crop intensification. Different scenarios were calculated for the desalination and the irrigation processes.