Agricultural practices in Bosnia and Hercegovina demand different improvements, including smart management of land and water resources. A new H2020 project started in 2021 in this regard. The objective of this publication is to spread knowledge about SMARTWATER project by describing different achievements in two years of implementation (2021-2022), to invite target groups to participate in the action and to promote smart agricultural practices. Presented results indicate that the implementation is at a satisfactory level. Project consortium will continue with efforts, including twinning, networking, research, dissemination and increasing competency and fund rising skills.

The Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) erosion map was made in 1985, however, over a period of 35 years, there has been a substantial change in the values of most erosion factors, resulting in the change of the erosion intensity. Changes relate to demographics, urbanization and land use as well as climate. The increase in temperature and the occurrence of extremes caused significant environmental and economic consequences (May 2014 floods). This situation is more pronounced in the northern part of the country, especially in the lower parts of the larger basins. Risk assessment procedures using modern software and hardware solutions can help decision-makers to recognize sites where forest should not be cut down, certain crops should not be grown or soil conversation measures are necessary. Therefore, the aim of this research is to estimate the intensity of erosion processes in one such watershed in BiH the Brka watershed, taking into consideration current conditions and using modern hardware and software solutions. To calculate erosion intensity the Gavrilovic method supported with GIS techniques was used. The soil protection (x), soil erodibility (y) and type and extent of erosion (φ) coefficients were calculated using digital maps: CORINE 2018 (grid size 100 m x 100 m) land cover, soil map of BiH and open-source satellite images. The slope was calculated from the BiH digital elevation model (25 m x 25 m). The Brka watershed area (184.09 km 2 ) was divided into four basins: Maočka Rijeka (51.56 km 2 ), Rahička Rijeka (24.26 km 2 ), Zovičica (75.30 km 2 ) and direct basin of Brka (32.94 km 2 ). The highest average erosion intensity was determined for Zovičica basin, where Z=0.56. The calculated mean annual production of sediment per basin varies from 5,746 for Rahička Rijeka to 57,089 m 3 year -1 for Zovičica, with total Brka river watershed sediment yield of 120,754 m 3 year -1 .

The analysis of meteorological data from the period 1961–2014 show the rise in the mean annual temperature in the entire territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The changes are more pronounced in the central – hilly part of the country. The increase in annual air temperature ranges from 0.4 to 1.0°C per decade, whereas temperature increases during vegetation period were up to 1.2°C per decade. Additionally, increases in air temperature over the last fourteen years are even more pronounced. Changed distribution of precipitation, significant variations and the increasing soil moisture deficit during vegetation period (April – September) are also evident in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The increase in air temperature combined with changes in the distribution of precipitation has resulted in a change of evapotranspiration and annual water balance. The main objective of this study was to determine and compare the severity of changes in mean annual water balance components between different regions in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Monthly weather data from 26 weather stations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, for the time period of 50 years (1967 – 2016) were used to determine and analyze impact of climate change on the following water balance components: temperature, precipitation, reference evapotranspiration, actual evapotranspiration, total runoff, soil moisture deficit and amount of snow. The results indicate that climate change has a substantial effect on the all water balance components. Air temperature (0.21 - 0.7 o C per decade), reference evapotranspiration (0.61 - 42.81 mm per decade) and soil moisture deficit (1.35 - 27.71 mm per decade) show an increasing trend over the entire territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina with the strongest increase in the north-west part of the country.

Abstract There are three major challenges for climatic data availability for Reference Evapotranspiration (ET0) calculations in Bosnia and Herzegovina: limited data availability, discontinuity of data records, and low station density. The main objective of this study was to apply reliable methods to calculate and spatially distribute ET0, while considering the impact of the elevation. A 20 m spatial resolution map was created for mean ET0 values at monthly, vegetation period (April–September) and annual temporal resolution at municipality (143 municipalities), regional (4 regions) and national spatial resolutions. 108 weather stations for the period 1961–2016 (56 years) were utilized for spatial interpolation of ET0 using kriging with external drift method. The required elevation for ET0 estimation at each grid node was extracted from the digital elevation model of Bosnia and Herzegovina. ET0 was calculated using FAO-56 Penman-Monteith, and in cases where only minimum and maximum temperature data were available the Hargreaves-Samani equation adjusted with locally appropriate empirical radiation coefficient was used. A gradual decrease of mean ET0 values from the southern to central and northern to central part of the country is notable. For the all seasons (monthly, vegetation and annually), the southern region has greater ET0 than the other three regions (north, west and central-east), which are similar. The long-term mean annual ET0 for Bosnia and Herzegovina is 716 mm, approximately 78% (559 mm) of which occurs during in the vegetation period.

Common buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum Moench) is an annual plant from Polygonaceae family which is well known as pseudocereal with high nutritional value. The yield and quality of the buckwheat`s kernel depend on weather conditions, mainly due to variations in the air temperatures and precipitation during the growing period. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of some metrological parameters on yields and chemical compositions in the kernel of buckwheat. Field experiments were conducted during three years (2011, 2012 and 2013) in the village Donje Selo, near Ilijaš. In this study grain yield, protein content, sludge, fats, mineral matter, cellulose and total phenols were determined. Experimental results suggested that the weather conditions in different years of the research have a significant impact on the yield and the chemical composition of the kernel. The yield of buckwheat varied from the year to year and ranged from 0.98 to 1.29 tons per hectare.

Abstract In Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), the number of weather stations (WS) that are monitoring all climatic parameters required for FAO-56 Penman-Monteith (FAO-PM) equation is limited. In fact, it is of great need and importance to achieve the possibility of calculating reference evapotranspiration (ET0) for every WS in BiH (around 150), regardless of the number of climate parameters which they collect. Solving this problem is possible by using alternative equations that require less climatological data for reliable estimation of daily and monthly ET0. The main objective of this study was to validate and determine, compared to the FAO-PM method, a suitable and reliable alternative ET0 equations that are requiring less input data and have a simple calculation procedure, with a special focus on Thornthwaite and Turc as methods previously often used in BiH. To fulfill this objective, 12 alternative ET0 calculation methods and 21 locally adjusted versions of same equations were validated against FAO-PM ET0 method. Daily climatic data, recorded at sixteen WS, including mean maximum and minimum air temperature (°C), precipitation (mm), minimum and maximum relative humidity (%), wind speed (m s−1) and sunshine hours (h) for the period 1961–2015 (55 years) were collected and averaged over each month. Several types of statistical indicators: the determination coefficient (R2), mean bias error (MBE), the variance of the distribution of differences (sd2), the root mean square difference (RMSD) and the mean absolute error (MAE) were used to assess alternative ET0 equation performance. The results, confirmed by various statistical indicators, shows that the most suitable and reliable alternative equation for monthly ET0 calculation in BiH is the locally adjusted Trajkovic method. Adjusted Hargreaves-Samani method was the second best performing method. The two most frequently used ET0 calculation methods in BiH until now, Thornthwaite and Turc, were ranked low.

Drought in Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) is mostly analyzed using water deficit obtained from agro-hydrological balance; a ratio between precipitation or actual evapotranspiration (AET) to potential evapotranspiration (PET); and more recently using Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI). The main objective of this research is to use the relatively new multiscalar drought index, Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) to analyze severity, magnitude, and duration of drought periods in B&H. SPEI is based on precipitation and evapotranspiration data and it has the advantage of combing multiscalar character with the capacity to include the effects of variability in atmospheric water demand on draught assessment. Evapotranspiration is calculated with Penman-Monteith method, the standard international procedure for computing reference or potential evapotranspiration (ET0). In order to assess all four types of drought, SPEI is calculated for shorter (1, 3 and 6 months) and longer (12 and 24 months) time scales. Weather stations with long-term continuous climate data records were selected 13 stations across B&H in total, from which the climate data for 50-year period (1961 – 2010) were collected. A crucial advantage of SPEI over other drought indices previously used in B&H and its use of potential evapotranspiration and multiscalar characteristics, enabling identification of different drought types. By using Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) it was found that severity, magnitude and duration of drought periods in B&H vary depending on the location and time scale for which drought was calculated. Presence of more severe long lasting droughts in period after 1986 was found for all 13 analyzed locations across B&H.

The rural population in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BH), which constitutes more than half of the total population, experienced serious incidences of extreme weather events in the past two decades. This part of the population is vulnerable to climate change due to significant dependence on agriculture as a climate-sensitive livelihood option. However, the source of their vulnerability is due not only to the extent and magnitude of these extreme climate events, but also to the internal status within the vulnerable systems before the occurrence of such events. In order to explore the different dimensions of vulnerability, we used a set of 20 indicators to quantitatively assess the vulnerability of the rural population to climate change at the local level in BH. Two summarizing and two weighting methods were applied to assess vulnerability—Equal weights (EW) and principal component analysis (PCA). Based on the results obtained, we concluded that the current socio-economic conditions and the increased environmental pressure as a result of the present human-environment interactions are the main determinants of vulnerability in most vulnerable municipalities, rather than the degree to which these municipalities are exposed to significant climatic variations. Most vulnerable municipalities are located across the north, with a gradual decrease in vulnerability towards the central, north, and east of the country. Vulnerability increases again from here towards the south of the country. The number of municipalities classified as the highest and highly vulnerable increased when the second summarizing method and weighted indicators were used. However, the general geographic distribution of vulnerability did not change substantially compared to the first method. The approaches used in this study provide some valuable results at the local level, and are presented in a way that is practical for decision-making processes and may serve as a base for further research when designing effective adaptation and mitigation strategies, especially in the regions with similar climatic and socio-economic conditions.