HydroLand

💎 Idea

The Problem: Agriculture accounts for 70% of global freshwater use, yet nearly 40% is wasted due to "blind" irrigation. Smallholder farmers lack the funds for expensive IoT ground sensors, leading to either crop-killing droughts or wasteful over-watering that depletes local aquifers.

The Solution: HydroLand is a mobile-first web application that turns satellite data into field-ready irrigation prescriptions. Farmers draw their parcels on a map; HydroLand fuses Copernicus satellite imagery, FAO-56 evapotranspiration modelling and ISRIC soil profiles to deliver per-parcel, per-day water doses in m³ — including a "Water Deficit" planner that optimally distributes a limited water supply across crops by growth phase and stress risk. No sensors. No subscriptions per hectare. Works offline-first on any smartphone.

🛰️ EU Space Technologies

• Copernicus Sentinel-2 (NDMI + NDVI): We pull 10-metre multispectral imagery via the Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem. From the SWIR and NIR bands we compute NDMI (Normalized Difference Moisture Index) — a direct proxy for canopy water content — and NDVI for crop vigour. These drive our "🟢 Green / 🟡 Yellow / 🔴 Red" irrigation status, refreshed on every cloud-free pass (~5 days).

• Copernicus ERA5 / Open-Meteo (ET₀): We compute reference evapotranspiration with the FAO Penman-Monteith equation (FAO-56) using temperature, humidity, wind and solar radiation. Combined with crop coefficients (Kc) per phenological phase, this gives us ETc — the actual daily water need per crop and growth stage.
• Galileo (GNSS positioning): High-accuracy multi-constellation GNSS (Galileo + GPS) powers the in-field parcel drawing, ensuring boundaries and area calculations are accurate to within metres — critical for converting mm-doses into the m³ a farmer pumps from a reservoir.
• ISRIC SoilGrids: We enrich every parcel with soil texture (sand/silt/clay %), field capacity, wilting point and available water capacity, so our model adapts NDMI lift after irrigation by soil type (sandy ×0.8, clay ×1.2, loess ×1.05).

🌊 EU Space for Water

Challenge: 1. Securing equitable and efficient access to water.Contribution: HydroLand ensures that water is used only where it is truly needed. By providing farmers with transparent, data-driven evidence of their soil's health, we prevent the over-extraction of shared groundwater. This creates a more equitable system where "upstream" efficiency ensures "downstream" water security for the whole community.

Challenge 2 (Pollution Prevention): We prevent agricultural runoff. By mapping soil saturation with Galileo and Copernicus, our system identifies "High-Risk Leaching Zones," advising farmers to halt chemical use during high-moisture periods to protect local water quality.

🤼 Team

• Nikola Grigorov (Team Lead / Full-Stack Developer): Junior Software Developer and B.Sc. student in Computer Engineering at TU Sofia. A 2-time hackathon veteran and former team leader, specializing in Next.js, React, and C#.

• Serhii Kolotik (Software Developer  / Game Designer): Software developer focused on game design, with experience in Python

• Magdalena Aleksieva (UX/UI Designer / Business Strategist): Passionate about user experience and data-driven decision-making, she integrates design thinking with market insights to build effective digital products.