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New water-saving technologies installed in the FAO rooftop garden

09.11.2023

Multispectral cameras and humidity sensors have been installed in the vegetable garden growing on the rooftop of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)’ Headquarters to monitor and optimize the plants’ water regimes, crucial for water saving and overall plant health.

The FAO rooftop garden is a prototype agro-ecological laboratory managed by the Mountain Partnership Secretariat. The modular garden is equipped with an automated system called “Ecomotica” that processes local data obtained through ground sensors and from external service, such as water detection, multispectral images, rain gauge, weather and, eventually, nutrients and pathogens.

The newly-installed humidity sensors placed in the modules contain steel electrodes that measure the value of soil moisture and activate/deactivate the irrigation by detecting when the percentage of water in the soil reaches a pre-set value. Meanwhile, multispectral cameras measure the light spectrum reflected by the leaves of the plants (“reflectance”). A database of the reflectance curves typical of each species investigated on the rooftop garden will provide information on the irrigation regimes that best optimize the lushness of each species.

The goal is to generate an intelligent automation system in which the plants, through their reflectance spectra, communicate how much water and nutrients they need to keep thriving, if they are under stress, and how to respond based on changes in their status.

The rooftop garden was inaugurated by FAO Director-General QU Dongyu on 17 November 2021, and is sponsored by NaturaSì, Ecobubble and Sapienza University’s Botanical Gardens of Rome, in collaboration with Slow Food International, with the indispensable support of FAO Infrastructure Services (CSLI). It is the first of its kind installed on the rooftop of a United Nations building to be supported by Artificial Intelligence.

The “Ecomotica” system has been developed by Ecobubble, an Italian urban garden design company. “Thanks to this collaboration with the Mountain Partnership, we have the opportunity to apply our research on the use of Artificial Intelligence to urban agriculture, for its potential to alleviate food shortages where agricultural land is limited and to reduce pressure on the environment,” said Nicola Nescatelli, co-founder of Ecobubble.

“Our partnerships with Italian private sector companies and major groups, which are all members of the Mountain Partnership, strengthen our capacity to promote innovative and sustainable technology, as well as agrobiodiversity, agroecology, sustainable food systems and family farming,” said Giorgio Grussu, Project Coordinator at the Mountain Partnership Secretariat, FAO.

A diverse range of plant species – including crops at risk of extinction, neglected species, Slow Food presidia and mountain varieties – are cultivated in the garden without the use of pesticides.

All produce from the garden is donated to Casetta Rossa, a charity in Rome that distributes food and essential goods to over 300 families in need.

Learn more about the FAO rooftop garden

News written by FAO

Photo: ©FAO/Giorgio Grussu