Lexa Aqua

Idea💡 

HYDROSAFE is an early-warning system for farmers, cooperatives, and irrigation organizations that pump water from rivers, canals, or ANIF-connected surface-water systems.

Many farmers do not use wells. They irrigate from rivers such as the Danube, Mureș, Olt, Siret, or from irrigation canals connected to these rivers. The problem is that this water may carry pollution, high sediment loads, algal blooms, or contamination coming from upstream. Farmers often find out too late, after the water has already reached their crops.

HYDROSAFE helps them make a safer irrigation decision before turning on the pump.

The system monitors river sectors, classifies water-quality risk as OK, MEDIUM, or HIGH, and generates a simple alert for farmers in affected or downstream areas. The alert tells them whether it is safe to pump, or whether they should wait 24, 48, or 72 hours.

Our prototype demonstrates the full workflow: monitored pump points, river sectors, risk levels, active alerts, and farmer-facing messages. The current demo uses simulated pump-point and risk data to show the product logic and user experience. The next step is to replace this simulated layer with live Copernicus Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-3 data ingestion, calibrated with local water observations.

HYDROSAFE does not replace laboratories or environmental authorities. It adds an early-warning layer where many farmers currently have no warning at all.

EU space technologies🛰️

HYDROSAFE uses Copernicus Earth observation data to monitor surface water used for irrigation.

We plan to use Sentinel-3 OLCI for large river monitoring, especially for indicators such as chlorophyll-a, suspended sediment, and other optical signals linked to water-quality changes. Sentinel-3 is useful for large rivers such as the Danube because of its frequent revisit time.

We also plan to use Sentinel-2 MSI for higher-resolution monitoring of smaller or more specific river sectors, canals, and pump-point areas. Sentinel-2 can support water indices and visual detection of changes in water appearance.

The production version would combine satellite indicators, weather context, and pump-point geolocation to classify each monitored sector as OK, MEDIUM, or HIGH risk.

Galileo/GNSS can support accurate geolocation of farmers’ pump points, so alerts are sent only to users affected by a specific river sector.

The value of EU space technology is that it makes the system scalable and affordable: Copernicus data is public, free, and available across Europe. This means HYDROSAFE can start in Romania and later expand to other countries in the Danube basin and Central/Eastern Europe.

EU Space for Water💧

Our solution primarily addresses the “Tracking and preventing water pollution” challenge by using Copernicus satellite data to detect water anomalies that may indicate contamination, and alert farmers before they irrigate. At the same time, it contributes to “Securing efficient access to water” by helping farmers avoid unsafe water sources and make better irrigation decisions, ensuring both crop safety and compliance with EU standards.

Roadmap

Month 1: Pilot with one cooperative or water-user organization in Brăila or Ialomița.

Month 3: Validate the workflow with BIO certification or agricultural audit partners.

Month 6: Expand to 5 cooperatives and around 200 active farmers.

Month 12: Prepare a cross-border Danube pilot with Bulgaria or Hungary.

Team (Badea Maria, Brandiburu Andreea, Macrisoiu David)

We are a team of Romanian students with skills in engineering, product strategy, design, and research. We built HYDROSAFE during the CASSINI Hackathon to show how Copernicus data can support safer irrigation decisions for farmers using surface water.