Climate Adaptation Through Irrigation in Brandenburg

Prof. Niels Schütze met with Brandenburg’s Minister of Agriculture and the Environment, Hanka Mittelstädt, on October 21 in Werder (Havel), where she was learning about water-saving irrigation in fruit growing as part of her “Water Tour.” Drawing on his many years of expertise in efficient irrigation, Schütze provided scientific guidance for the renovation of the Glindow industrial water treatment plant—a project funded by the state with 1.7 million euros—which has been supplying the surrounding orchards with water from Lake Glindow for irrigation and frost protection since 1938. To minimize water consumption, the accompanying study from Dresden primarily recommends drip irrigation, which operates less frequently but but for longer periods, and moistens the entire root zone; for frost protection, it recommends irrigation in a targeted manner for particularly vulnerable “cold islands” and, for larger areas, decentralized storage basins to absorb peak demand during frosty nights. Background information is provided in a report by rbb Brandenburg aktuell.