In December 2024, Gautamee Baviskar, a PhD student at the University of Twente, began a significant academic collaboration by visiting Manchester University to work with the TRANSCEND project team. This collaboration is part of her active role in the WE-ACT project, where she focuses on improving crop growth model simulations, water demand and water footprints models.
During her visit, Gautamee worked in the lab led by Dr. Timothy Foster, known for developing the AquaCrop-OS model. AquaCrop-OS is a free, open-source platform based on the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) original AquaCrop model. Programmed in Matlab and Octave, it was designed to tackle the challenges of crop water productivity in regions where water scarcity is a major issue.
Released for the first time in August 2016 by Dr. Foster and his team at the University of Manchester, AquaCrop-OS simulates the yield response to water for various crops under different environmental conditions. It adds several new features to the original FAO model, such as support for multiple operating systems, the capability to run parallel simulations to reduce the time of computationally demanding tasks, and straightforward integration with other models through the Open Modelling Interface. These enhancements make AquaCrop-OS an essential tool for researchers and practitioners looking to efficiently manage water in agriculture with minimal data requirements.
Gautamee’s collaboration with the Manchester team showcases the value of international academic partnerships in broadening research capabilities and improving the results of further water availability and allocation models. By combining their knowledge and skills, they are enhancing agricultural modeling and water management strategies. The knowledge and techniques developed through this partnership are expected to greatly benefit both the WE-ACT and TRANSCEND projects, leading to the adoption of more sustainable agricultural methods worldwide.
