Drought Analytics is a start-up project that is largely based on the hydrological models and preliminary scientific work and findings that were developed in the ADAPTER (https://www.adapter-projekt.de/), DG-RR (https://www.biooekonomierevier.de/Innovationslabor_DG_RR), WaterAgri (https://wateragri.eu/) and ATLAS (https://www.atlas-h2020.eu/) projects at the Institute of Bio- and Geosciences - Agrosphere (IBG-3). The young research team is now working on transforming the prototypes developed in the scientific projects into market-ready and customer-oriented products. With their practice-oriented development strategy, they want to make a concrete contribution to making agriculture more resilient to climate extremes such as drought.
We make agriculture resilient to climate extremes
The increasingly changing climatic conditions are leading to a shift in the distribution of precipitation in Germany and throughout Europe. In the summer months, periods of drought are becoming more frequent and more intense, while agricultural land is increasingly drowning in mud in the winter months.
Drought Analytics, with its unique real-time hydrological models and multi-day and seasonal forecasts, offers the opportunity to prepare for such an uncertain and risky future and to make the right decisions in good time. Based on current weather forecasts, we simulate the water cycle for the whole of Germany with high spatial resolution and over different time periods: scalable as required for the whole of Germany, individual federal states, regions or water catchment areas, up to individual agricultural fields, from the land surface to deep underground and up to seven months into the future.
Products
Germany forecast
Making risks calculable. We calculate both the current and future water balance for the whole of Germany and estimate the regional probability of a drought.
Site-specific forecast
Conserving resources while increasing yields. Our timely predictions of water availability, combined with soil moisture sensors, enable optimal irrigation management for individual agricultural fields.
Follow the latest news about Drought Analytics here:
- Kick-off at the ZebrAC - Accelerator-Program for Greentech start-ups from NRW
- Drought Analytics im "Schaufenster Bioökonomie" auf der Hannover Messe
- Drought Analytics at the Circular Valley Convention in Düsseldorf
Gründerteam
David Mengen
Geoinformatik
- Institute of Bio- and Geosciences (IBG)
- Agrosphere (IBG-3)
Room 3011
- Institute of Bio- and Geosciences (IBG)
- Agrosphere (IBG-3)
Room 154
Felix Nieberding
Postdoctoral researcher at "Terrestrial observation platforms" working group (Heye Bogena)
- Institute of Bio- and Geosciences (IBG)
- Agrosphere (IBG-3)
Room 154
Funding
The project has been funded by the European Union and the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Protection and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia since October 2024 as part of the EFRE Start-Up Transfer.NRW funding program. More information at www.efre.nrw
