How can semi-arid agrosystems adapt to expected changes in climate and anthropogenic forcing?

Due to growths in water scarcities and population needs, agrosystems in semi-arid region have to increase their agronomic performances in terms of water use efficiencies and yields, where both can be regarded at the scale of regional watersheds that include several compartments (shallow and deep aquifers, crop mosaics, hydro-agricultural constructions) in relation with distribution of blue and green water. Decision support systems for the benefit of stakeholders have to be strengthened by relying on biophysically based modeling platform that encompass the aforementioned compartments and the related water flows. This requires first parameterizing and calibrating the modeling platform components, where the use of remote sensing if of prime interest for constraining models in a spatially distributed manner, and then setting up realistic scenarios from the calibrated modeling platforms. In this context, special efforts have to be made over relief areas, where hilly structures allow water harvesting for irrigation purposes, and therefore the maintaining of agricultural populations along with their economical activities.