ApaRahova

White Paper link

GitHub link

The team:

• Cătălin Dajiu: Project Coordinator – Power Engineering & Computer Technologies @ Politehnica University of Bucharest (UPB)

• Andrei Mărgelatu: Data Scientist (6+ Yrs) | AI Specialist (Data Scientist Engineer)& Quantum Computing | 4x Startup Founder | DevOps & AI Engineer Certificated

• Eduard Manolescu: Topographic Surveyor & Photogrammetrist | Advanced Specialist in QGIS & GIS Vectorization

• Daniel Diaconu: 6th-Year Architecture Student | President of BEST Iași | SpaceTech Enthusiast & Human Habitats Mentor (ESA Moon Champ Challenge 2020 - 2023) | ROSDC Mentor 2024

• Cristian Martânov: Entrepreneur | Sales & Marketing Strategy Consultant

Our project adress Challenge no 1. Securing equitable and efficient access to water 

Access to safe, clean, and reliable water in agriculture affected by climate change, uneven distribution, and inefficient management which are putting increasing pressure on communities, economies and ecosystems.

Our developed product leverage European space data, information, and signals from Copernicus, Galileo, EGNOS to improve the management and efficiency of water use, promote conservation and ensure equitable access for farmers in agriculture.

The Need for an Integrated Approach Water, Food, and Energy are deeply interconnected, continuously influencing each other. In the current context of ecosystem degradation and climate change, our capacity to sustainably utilize water, energy, and land is profoundly affected.

Actual situation of the lack of water in agriculture

According to  press release no. 248 since 30 sept. 2025 published by National Institute of Statistics, Global Inefficiencies and Environmental Impact Agriculture is responsible for approximately 70% of global freshwater consumption. Concurrently, the production and distribution of food consume about 30% of the world's electricity. Traditional agricultural practices lead to massive water losses through infiltration and evaporation, often causing crop fertilizers to pollute groundwater and rivers. Furthermore, intensive food production negatively impacts land integrity, water runoff, and the recharge capacity of groundwater.

Local Vulnerabilities in Romania, this issue is severely amplified by the degradation of irrigation systems; in 2016, 75% of the irrigation infrastructure was non-functional. Precisely because of this critical situation (75% of the system destroyed), the National Program for the Rehabilitation of Major Irrigation Infrastructure was approved in 2016 through Law 269/2015 and Government Decision 793/2016, with the aim of rehabilitating approximately 2 million hectares.

This critical situation makes farmers highly vulnerable to drought periods and rapidly depletes natural water resources. Farmers largely rely on traditional and inefficient irrigation methods, such as fixed irrigation schedules that are not adapted to current environmental conditions. Because they lack updated and accurate information, they frequently use much more water than necessary.

Our Solution

The app developed by ApaRahova is designed for farmers who need to use water resources as efficiently as possible to ensure a good harvest.The app can be customized based on soil type, climate, and crop type.

The procedure involves mapping surface water resources from irrigation canals, reservoirs (Fig. 1), and groundwater sources (Fig. 2), monitoring patterns and how they change over time based on weather conditions. By correlating this data with vegetation and crop types, we can provide farmers with forecasts and action plans so that they do not deplete water reserves faster than they can be replenished.

Our system maps and identifies problem areas within the infrastructure such as where water is lost or where water supply channels are degraded enabling concrete and efficient interventions and investments for both authorities and farmers.

We have integrated IoT sensors to increase data accuracy. We will list which sensors will be used, at what distance they will be installed, and what data they will provide.

In the future, we aim to expand our capabilities through the ESA Celeste ecosystem to monitor land and infrastructure stability (InSAR), as well as to detect bodies of water even through clouds capability is vital for identifying types of crops and calculating vegetation indices (such as NDVI) needed for irrigation schedules.

Platform Overview: Integrated Water Resource Management System

Core Mission

This platform delivers end-to-end intelligence for water resource management by fusing satellite Earth observation, IoT sensor networks, GNSS precision positioning, and AI-driven decision-making. It serves two primary stakeholders  hydroelectric operators and agricultural users  optimizing water allocation, predicting resource availability, and enabling smart, autonomous irrigation while ensuring regulatory compliance.

Pillar 1: Detection  Knowing What's There

Surface Water Body Detection

The system identifies and monitors all surface water assets  dam reservoirs, aqueduct pipelines, and underground storage tanks  using multispectral satellite imagery and radar data. Continuous change detection flags anomalies such as unexpected level drops or structural leakage zones, enabling proactive maintenance before losses escalate. (Estimated effort: 4 hours)

Groundwater Mapping Piezometers installed at key locations collect local hydrostatic data, which is then cross-correlated with Sentinel-1 SAR imagery using the InSAR (Interferometric SAR) technique inside GIS software. Ground-based sensors validate surface deformations detected from orbit, enabling the platform to map the water table and model aquifer dynamics across large areas  well beyond the reach of fixed measurement points.

Vegetation & Soil Monitoring via Sentinel-2 The Sentinel-2 MSI sensor is used to compute NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index), providing high-resolution, field-level assessments of vegetation vigor and biomass. This multispectral analysis enables precise monitoring of crop health and photosynthetic activity, serving as a primary indicator of soil productivity, irrigation effectiveness, and agricultural quality across diverse landscape types.

EGNOS & Galileo 

Precision IoT Positioning Every in-situ IoT sensor in the network benefits from centimeter-level positioning and precise time-stamping delivered by Galileo and EGNOS. This ensures high-fidelity ground-truth data  a critical foundation for accurate satellite calibration, reliable georeferencing of sensor readings, and the integration of field measurements into complex hydrological models across heterogeneous terrain.

Pillar 2: Identification  Understanding What It Means

Once detection data is collected, the platform moves to diagnosis. It analyzes spatial and temporal patterns to pinpoint exact field-level conditions: water stress in specific plots, soil nutrient deficiencies, early indicators of pest pressure, and the precise irrigation requirements of each agricultural zone. The system also identifies the plantation types present across monitored areas, linking each crop category to its associated water demand curve. (Estimated effort: 2 hours for plantation typing and water requirement mapping)

Soil health remains the primary long-term asset under management. All identification outputs are anchored to a continuous soil quality index, ensuring that short-term operational decisions never compromise the productive capacity of the land.

Pillar 3: AI-Driven Decision Making  Acting on Intelligence

Reservoir Volume Forecasting 

The AI engine ingests historical hydrological data, real-time sensor readings, and meteorological forecasts to predict water volumes across all reservoir types  dams, pipelines, and underground tanks. These forecasts give operators a reliable planning horizon for both energy production and agricultural supply.

Total Consumption Estimation & Optimal Allocation 

The system continuously estimates total water demand across both domains  hydroelectric generation and agricultural irrigation. Using this combined picture, an optimization function distributes available water between the two sectors, balancing energy output targets against crop water requirements, minimizing waste, and preventing supply conflicts.

Smart Irrigation  Precision at Field Level 

The platform automatically computes irrigation recipes for each agricultural plot, synthesizing weather forecast data, crop-specific water requirements, soil type profiles, and real-time satellite-derived soil moisture indices. Valve and pump actuation is driven by live IoT sensor data, enabling precise, automated irrigation events with measurable water savings. Water extraction and distribution are further enhanced by ultra-precise Galileo positioning, ensuring delivery accuracy down to sub-field scale.

LAW: Regulatory Compliance & Environmental Safety 

All operations run within a compliance layer directly integrated with Romanian agricultural, water management, and environmental legislation. The system issues real-time alerts when water extraction approaches legal limits and activates an early-warning protocol if potential pollutants are detected in source water  before that water ever reaches crops.

Sustainability and Viable Business Case

To ensure rapid adoption and lower the financial barrier to entry for farmers, our go-to-market strategy includes a unique value proposition: integrating non-refundable European funding opportunities directly into our platform's package. 

This ensures that our end-users have the financial support needed to adopt space-driven agricultural technologies.

Monetization Strategy: 

Our monetization model is built to sustain a long-term Water-Energy-Food Nexus ecosystem. We target two main revenue streams:

1. Agriculture: A tiered SaaS subscription for farmers, providing them with precision irrigation recipes, crop analytics, and groundwater conservation plans based on Copernicus, Galileo and EGNOS data.
2. SME & NGOs: Premium enterprise packages for operators and private organizations, offering predictive dam management, optimal water-sharing functions, and infrastructure loss detection.
3. Stakeholder Engagement and Targeted Marketing Sustainability could generate systemic bottlenecks.  Furthermore, our targeted marketing and advertising campaigns will focus specifically on addressing the immediate climate vulnerabilities and operational inefficiencies of these core stakeholder groups.