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This work was carried out by a consortium of agencies and research institutes, in order to obtain indications on water demand and adaptation of irrigation management of important Italian crops in the coming decades, in the light of climatic scenarios provided by the Agroscenari project. The main results obtained regard integration and improvement of the Criteria crop water balance model and its use to evaluate future irrigation needs of crops like permanent meadows, maize, wheat, tomato, kiwifruit and citrus crops in diverse northern and southern Italy environments. We also developed and implemented an example of "climate service" for early crop classification and seasonal summer irrigation need forecasting in Emilia-Romagna.

Agroscenari is a multiannual research project, funded and coordinated at the national level, supporting Italian agriculture adaptation to climate change and developing decision-making tools for public administrations and stakeholders. The project was active in six representative areas: Po Valley, Oristano, Benevento, Destra Sele, Faenza and two small basins in the Marche region. Climate change scenarios were created for every area to assess impacts on the main cropping systems and to identify adaptation options. In the last year of the project (2014) a policy brief (PB) for each test area was prepared in order to promote the transfer of scientific results. In addition to summarizing expected climate change, methods and results, PBs contain a SWOT analysis relating strengths and weaknesses internal to the agricultural production systems with the opportunities and threats from climate change, and suggesting adaptation measures for the Italian Rural Development Programme 2014-2020.