• November 28, 2025

RRR 2025 Smart Paludiculture Workshop

Date of workshop: 23/09/2025

Total participants: 23 in person and 6 online

Authors: Niall Ó Brolcháin, Saeed Alsamhi, Al Waskow

The Smart Paludiculture workshop on 23rd September 2025 at the RRR conference in the University of Greifswald brought together 23 experts from across Europe to explore the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies into paludiculture. The workshop mainly focused on applying data-driven approaches to enhance farmer decision-making, optimize crop and water management, and demonstrate economic feasibility. The participants understood the efficiency and scalability of the Smart Paludiculture concept. This report summarizes the conversations, presents a group vision, and offers recommendations for additional Smart Paludiculture workshops.

Paludiculture represents the productive use of wet and rewetted peatlands and plays a vital role in improving climate mitigation, biodiversity conservation, and sustainable land use. This Smart Paludiculture workshop aimed to achieve a number of objectives. It aimed to clarify the concept of Smart Paludiculture, to identify applications of AI and automation, to understand Smart Paludiculture challenges and to assess the benefits and trustworthiness of AI.

The workshop featured a diverse and knowledgeable group, ensuring a wide range of perspectives from various different countries around Europe. Participants came from Germany (11), the Netherlands (4), Ireland (2), Lithuania (2) and the UK (3), with single representation from Belgium and Finland. They came from diverse professional backgrounds with the majority coming from academia and research (15), but supplemented by conservationists (3), policymakers (2), business professionals (2), and others.

The participants noted several potential applications for AI including monitoring water levels, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, soil conditions, and crop growth, all monitored using sensors, drones, and remote sensing technology. Models can be developed to forecast crop yields, determine the optimal harvest times, and assess the environmental and economic impacts. Finding sites for paludiculture and connecting farmers with producers and marketplaces are the goals of mapping. To cut expenses, automated water management systems and GPS-guided harvesting are being developed.

Participant Quote: "An entire suite of analytical techniques monitoring every input... using AI to analyze all the data to offer the best solutions for each particular environment."

There was broad agreement that farmer-centric and useful Smart Paludiculture instruments are essential. Developing user-friendly toolkits (such as dashboards and applications) aids farmers in choosing crops, managing water, and determining their eligibility for subsidies and proving the viability of the market, refining business plans, estimating possible revenue from carbon credits and other ecosystem services and establishing a uniform EU framework and harmonizing measures to track and quantify environmental benefits.

Participant Quote: "Support farmers in their decision making."

Participants were optimistic about the potential of Smart Paludiculture to accelerate adoption of this novel farming method. Analysis of large, complex datasets can inform quick decisions. Paludiculture becomes a financially appealing choice when procedures are optimized to maximize production and profitability. AI could help to monitor the environment to increase water security, biodiversity, and climate consequences (carbon storage). Finding best practices is also made possible by consolidating knowledge from many data sources.

The challenges related to data, accessibility, and accuracy that arise in Smart Paludiculture were discussed. In the views of participants these relate to ownership, data privacy, and the risk of "drowning in data" without discernible, valuable insights. Fears were expressed that farmers with less money would not be able to use technology because it is too costly or complex. It was suggested that there are risks that users may stop critical thinking, and that AI models may not be verified or accurate at a local, farm-specific scale. 

Participant Quote: "Drowning in data, losing sight of reality and all who live within peatlands."

According to participants, for AI to be trusted, it must be transparent and validated. Clear explanations of the techniques and algorithms employed, as well as open data sources, were stressed by the participants. Domain experts (ecologists, agronomists) must constantly monitor and validate AI outputs and compare them to actual conditions on the ground. In addition to generalized outputs, tools must offer precise, actionable advice at the local farm scale. Instead of replacing human decision-making, AI should be seen as a tool to enhance it.

Participant Quote: "Outputs must be specific and usable at local scales as well as national."

The workshop confirmed an apparent demand for Smart Paludiculture tools, provided they are designed with and for end-users, particularly farmers.

Participants certainly felt that their understanding and familiarity of the concept of Smart Paludiculture increased as a result of the workshop with 17 participants claiming to have a good or excellent understanding after the workshop as opposed to 10 at the start, while the number of participants who had a poor or bad understanding at the start reduced from 9 to 4.