Water scarcity is a major and growing threat to the food system in the UK and internationally. AquaPlan has developed an interactive web application to help farmers, businesses, and governments improve agricultural water management and climate adaptation, while also helping to educate students and the public about issues of water security and food sustainability. The initiative received a Making a Difference Award for its outstanding contribution to environmental sustainability and a low carbon future. 

The AquaPlan app, launched in August 2023, allows users to interactively define a farming system, view and evaluate graphs of crop yields and water requirements for their specified location. Users can also assess the impacts of future climate change scenarios on crop production risks and irrigation water demands.  

Timothy Foster, AquaPlan’s PI and Project Lead, said: “AquaPlan is already gaining a lot of traction in the food and drink sector. We have been working with SLR Consulting and their UK agribusiness clients to use AquaPlan to identify how climate change will change exposure of farms to drought and water scarcity, and what adaptation measures can be taken to mitigate these risks. Going forward, we are also developing use cases of AquaPlan to support agricultural water stewardship and investments globally, supported by computational funding from Oracle.”  

When asked about winning a Making a Difference Award, Timothy said: “Winning a Making a Difference award is a great honour for all of us involved in AquaPlan, and is recognition of many years of work from a large number of people and partners. Receiving this award is a great motivator for us to now push on with putting AquaPlan into action to help secure a more resilient and sustainable food system.”

The Making a Difference Awards recognise the outstanding achievements of our staff, students, alumni and external partners, and celebrate how they are making a difference. Entry to our 2025 awards will open on 16 November 2024. More information about the Awards can be found here.  

For more information:  

• Read AquaPlan’s blog post