Moustafa et al. (2026) Internet of Things-enabled smart irrigation systems for precision water management: A systematic review

Identification

• Journal: Agricultural Water Management
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-07-06
• Authors: Ossama M. M. Abdelwahab, Giovanni Francesco Ricci, Francesco Gentile
• DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2026.110615

Research Groups

• University of Bari Aldo Moro, Department of Soil, Plant and Food Sciences, Via Amendola 165/A, Bari 70126, Italy
• Scopus database contributors

Short Summary

This systematic review examines the current state of IoT-based smart irrigation systems, focusing on technologies that integrate real-time sensing, data-driven decision support, and precision irrigation scheduling to reduce water consumption without compromising crop yields. The reviewed studies demonstrate an exponential growth in smart irrigation research, with 71% published between 2021 and 2024.

Objective

• Research question or principal hypothesis: How can IoT-enabled smart irrigation systems effectively optimize agricultural water management while maintaining economic viability and accessibility across diverse farming contexts?

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Global representation with notable geographic concentrations in India, Italy, Morocco, United States, South Asia (India, Pakistan), Mediterranean Region (Italy, Morocco, Tunisia), North America (USA), Southeast Asia (Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines).
• Temporal Scale: 2018–2025

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Penman-Monteith evapotranspiration model, FAO−56, Hargreaves equations, soil–plant–atmosphere continuum models.
• Data sources: Satellite-derived vegetation indices (NDVI, LAI), remote sensing technologies, wireless sensor networks (WSN), IoT-based systems.

Main Results

• Key findings:
  • Water savings of approximately 9–50% relative to conventional irrigation.
  • Maintained or improved yields in most cases (5–25%).
  • Three outcome categories distinguished:
    1. Water saving with yield increase.
    2. Water saving with yield maintenance.
    3. Water saving with yield reduction.

Contributions

• Original value of the article: This review synthesizes smart irrigation across its system architecture and components, monitoring strategies used to improve reliability, decision-support logic governing control, and quantitative water-use and yield outcomes achieved.

Funding

• Not specified in the provided text.

Citation

@article{Moustafa2026Internet,
  author = {Moustafa, Ahmed and Abdelwahab, Ossama M. M. and Ricci, Giovanni Francesco and Gentile, Francesco},
  title = {Internet of Things-enabled smart irrigation systems for precision water management: A systematic review},
  journal = {Agricultural Water Management},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.1016/j.agwat.2026.110615},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2026.110615}
}