Over the past 15 years, the Chilean Central Valley has been grappling with the most severe
megadrought of the century. This crisis has led to a significant decrease in winter precipitation and a persistent negative water balance. The summer months, marked by high temperatures (daily maxima exceeding 30 °C) and recurrent extreme heatwaves, have exacerbated plant water stress, posing a serious threat to irrigated fruit production. In response to this urgent situation, our research has been dedicated mainly to the development of monitoring tools to assess plant water status, to enhance water productivity and evaluate plant resilience.

This presentation examines the use of remote and proximal sensing technologies to diagnose plant water status, integrating data analysis approaches ranging from traditional methods to advanced artificial intelligence techniques. Some results are presented for vineyards, olive orchards, and sweet cherry orchards located in the Chilean Central Valley. Additionally, these methodologies are being explored for the conservation of native plant species, to understand their resilience mechanisms under changing environmental conditions. Also, we included our collaborative research in forest fires. Agricultural and Forests systems face numerous field problems, while Engineers and Mathematicians possess a wealth of tools, but often struggle to apply them to these real-world challenges. Our solution? We have assembled interdisciplinary research teams, pooling our diverse skills and knowledge, to propose solutions for future field applications. We aim to adapt agricultural practices to an increasingly complex production scenario.

The results presented here reflect the collaborative efforts of the School of Agronomy, the PhD programs of Applied Mathematical Modeling and the PhD program in Engineering at the Universidad Catolica del Maule – Chile, and our partners at the Universidad de Talca (Chile), Universidad de Chile (Chile), the Universidad Austral (Chile), and the University of Melbourne (Australia).