The Modelling Working Group Progresses Toolbox Development at Fourth Meeting

The fourth meeting of the WATDEV Project Modelling Working Group was held on 9 April 2025 at Wageningen University Campus, in the Gaia Building (Wageningen, The Netherlands). The meeting was organized by the International Soil Reference and Information Centre (ISRIC) and attended in person by representatives of the Finnish Environment Institute (Syke) and CIHEAM Bari. The discussions focused on key updates to the integrated model applications, refinement of integration methodologies, and planning of the next steps in toolbox development.

The agenda was structured to facilitate both information exchange and technical refinement. After an initial welcome and agenda-setting session by ISRIC, updates on the integrated model application for Ethiopia were presented by Dr. Janne Juntunen from Syke, Mulugeta Melese from The Water and Land Resource Centre (WLRC), and Dr. Joao Carvalho Nunes from Soil Physics and Land Management Group at Wageningen University & Research (SLM-WUR). This was followed by a similar session dedicated to Egypt, co-presented by Samar Gomaa from Heliopolis University.

In the afternoon, the group focused on fine-tuning the upcoming presentations for the Annual Partnership Meeting, particularly those related to model integration and post-processing components. These sessions were led by Janne Juntunen (SYKE), and by Luuk Fleskens (SLM-WUR), Alessandra Scardigno (CIHEAM Bari), and Aymen Sawassi (CIHEAM Bari), respectively. The latter part of the meeting included a strategic discussion, led by Claudio Bogliotti (CIHEAM Bari) and the group on the planning of the WATDEV modelling toolbox, including socio-economic post-processing. The working day concluded with parallel sessions where participants collaborated on finalizing their presentations for the upcoming partnership event and advanced work on the toolbox.

The meeting provided a critical opportunity for the core modelling partners to consolidate technical progress and align future priorities. The engagement and collaborative approach of all participants were instrumental in shaping a concrete action plan.