Using collective intelligence to enhance agricultural plant cultivation through the use of virtual water calculations

The shortage and restriction of drinking water and even water consumption in many water-scarce countries of the globe, including Iran, has become an essential and vital issue. This is one of the key reasons that people and communities maximize the development of crops. The best management of crop production, taking into account the requirement for water in the agricultural sector, is one of the acceptable options in nations like Iran, which is also active in the field of agriculture. On the basis of this, it is vital to look at various analytical, planning, and decision-making techniques. Additionally, taking into account and calculating virtual water can significantly improve the cultivation pattern and decrease the amount of water currently consumed; as a result, optimizing the cultivation pattern using virtual water calculations can be highly beneficial. Coherent management and accurate decision-making in a variety of areas will result from the usage and implementation of spatial information systems, and taking into account virtual water will enhance navigation patterns and decrease water consumption. In order to achieve the best allocation of the cultivation pattern and as a result, the correct use of water in the agricultural lands of Ben-Rood district in the operations of Varzaneh city, located in the southeast of Isfahan province, was achieved in the current research by using the decision-making system that was created with the capabilities of GIS and artificial intelligence, along with the virtual water calculations of some agricultural plants. Using the collective intelligence algorithm of the ant community (ACO) in conjunction with the spatial information system, it was possible to achieve this goal after examining the optimization methods in decision-making using environmental parameters. This was done by taking into account the virtual water of cultivation and the growth of plants in the irrigation networks of the agricultural lands of the mentioned sector. Finally, the findings of this study demonstrate that the amount of water consumed may be decreased to 37% of the initial amount after optimizing the allocation of land for the cultivation of specific crops in that area, based on the virtual water of the crops.