The power of water: Dr. Serban Danielescu’s new tools help farmers optimize water usage for crops

It is no mystery that water is essential to life on planet Earth. In fact, water covers over 70% of the Earth's surface, with all living organisms depending on it. Yet, less than 3% of that water is fresh water suitable for drinking and growing food. Farmers heavily rely on water to grow their crops to feed the world.

What if there were ways to better understand and use water for agricultural purposes? Dr. Serban Danielescu in Fredericton, New Brunswick (NB), has created tools that help producers make informed decisions about water usage on their farms.

The study of water

Diligent protection of water resources is needed to ensure the sustainability of various ecosystems within the agricultural sector and beyond. This is where hydrology comes into play!

Hydrology is the study of water on Earth and how it interacts with the environment like in oceans, lakes, rivers, wetlands, and beneath the ground.

Water and farming go hand in hand as water is crucial to growing all crops. Farmers look closely at precipitation and soil moisture to help them determine the best water management strategies needed for their farms such as irrigation and drainage.

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s hydrologists, who are scientists studying water, often collaborate with farmers to provide them with expertise, advice, and tools to better understand their agricultural water needs helping producers to make informed decisions about water management.

Getting ideas flowing

Through his joint appointment with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) and Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), Dr. Serban Danielescu of the Fredericton Research and Development Centre in New Brunswick is helping both departments advance the research with regard to water, aligned with Canada’s Roadmap to Open Science. He uses his expertise to solve challenges related to water to better protect hydrological and ecological environments.

Dr. Danielescu identified a gap where there were no easily accessible science-based tools to evaluate hydrological processes on farmland and connected ecosystems. Up until that point, farmers had limited means for evaluating the water deficit of their crops, the water supply requirements for irrigation, or the impacts of irrigation on water stored beneath the ground.

In 2017, Dr. Danielescu founded a partnership between AAFC, ECCC, the University of New Brunswick, and the Canadian Rivers Institute to create a set of hydrological tools that farmers, researchers, and ecological consultants could use to better understand the movement of water in their area. These tools needed to be free of charge and use simple approaches, while being based on scientific evidence and being fully available online. Thus, the creation of the Hydrology Tool Set began.

Scientific collaborations were key to developing and launching these valuable tools to industry as each tool required its own set of data testing. Further input was provided by researchers Dr. Sheng Li of the Fredericton Research and Development Centre and by Dr. Judith Nyiraneza and Dr. Yefang Jiang from the Harrington Research Farm and the Charlottetown Research and Development Centre on Prince Edward Island.

The Hydrology Tool Set: A worldwide asset

Having practical tools at the disposal of agricultural and environmental communities has many meaningful benefits and encourages ease of access to science for students, researchers, and the public. Understanding the diverse components of the water cycle also allows farmers, environmental scientists and representatives from watershed associations and government organizations to make informed decisions about water usage and management within their respective communities.

In fact, Dr. Danielescu’s Hydrology Tool Set suite can be used for a variety of environmental research purposes, such as determining the impact of agricultural practices, urbanization, and climate change on agri-ecosystems, wetlands, and water courses all around the world. These tools and models can be applied practically in a scientific context, but also for educational purposes. Step-by-step instructions are provided for each tool and accompanied by Dr. Danielescu’s contact information.

Through close collaboration with project partners, the first tool was launched in 2018, and the five remaining tools were developed over the following three years and completed in 2022. All six hydrological tools are now available online for users worldwide.

Crystal clear predictions and improved agricultural practices

The Hydrology Tool Set provides agricultural producers the ability to interpret water, rain, snow, and soil moisture amounts requirements for their fields to grow crops and sustainably maintain farmland.

Thanks to these flexible online applications with a user-friendly interface, local data (for example, weather parameters, soil properties) can be inputted to evaluate run-off risk, estimate crop water stress, as well as predict the need for future interventions such as irrigation and drainage. Water resource professionals and decision-makers can now use these tools to develop improved agricultural practices that can reduce negative environmental outcomes such as impacts on groundwater storage and potential water contamination.

"By incorporating the Hydrology Tool Set into their water management strategy, producers and stakeholders can identify long term trends to better understand future water usage which can reduce their overall water cost, be more environmentally sustainable, and ultimately allow them to adapt to climate change and weather-related challenges such as droughts and floods."

To date, the tools have been accessed by a wide range of users belonging to government, academia, non-government organizations, environmental consulting as well as farmers and stakeholders from agriculture organizations. Notably, as of October 2023, the website where the tools are hosted has recorded almost 19,000 datasets uploaded by users and 44,000 analyses conducted by people from all around the world, including New Zealand, Brazil, Ethiopia, Mongolia, and Iceland.

Next steps for the tool suite

Optimized water management practices are essential in maintaining sustainable farmlands and crops. By having the necessary tools made available, science-based investigations can be conducted to help producers make informed decisions about their farm water usage, leading to operating cost efficiencies and more environmentally sound agricultural practices.

As the Hydrology Tool Set continues to be adopted for various purposes, Dr. Serban Danielescu will carry on to engage with users to obtain feedback aimed at maintaining and improving each tool.

Dr. Danielescu is optimistic that through user uptake and continued partnership with ECCC, the University of New Brunswick, and the Canadian Rivers Institute, there may be the possibility of developing new tools to solve other modern challenges related to water.

Key discoveries/benefits

• The Hydrology Tool Set, fully launched in 2022, includes six open-science and user-friendly tools that can be used to evaluate hydrological processes on farmland and connected ecosystems. For more information on Dr. Serban Danielescu’s research and on how to access the Hydrology Tool Set please visit Science.gc.ca profiles - Serban Danielescu.
• The online tools evaluate current water conditions, estimate crop water stress, and predict future water requirements such as irrigation and drainage. The tools can be used to determine the water runoff from farms to promote adoption of improved agricultural practices to mitigate adverse environmental outcomes.
• The tools have recorded almost 19,000 datasets uploaded by users and 44,000 analyses conducted by people from all around the world.

Photo gallery

Related information

• Science.gc.ca profiles – Dr. Serban Danielescu’s profile
• Roadmap for Open Science