European Journal of Sustainable Agroecosystems

Background: Climate change affects agriculture in many developing regions due to its negative impact on agricultural productivity. Water efficiency is an indispensable component of water management practices to ensure food security. The methodology of SPAC modeling proved to be a useful tool to simulate complex hydrological and physiological processes for irrigation scheduling. 
Purpose: The aim of the article is to define the current state of SPAC modeling for precision water management and analyze the efficiency of well-known crop models together with their performance with the sensor networks.
Creation of literature sources: The literature search was executed through Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed, and Google Scholar by including peer-reviewed articles, government reports, and publications from international organizations published from 2015 to 2025.
Findings: The summary of findings shows that models like AquaCrop, DSSAT, and APSIM, when used with current weather predictions and sensor data gained through Internet of Things (IoT), improve the precision regarding open-loop irrigation processes and closed-loop irrigation practices. Additionally, regulated deficit irrigation based on SPAC models helps in saving about 30–40% of water without any sacrifice regarding the yields of crops. However, the accuracy of these models is based on local calibration of soil hydraulic properties and canopy properties.
Research shortfalls: There are gaps that exist when it comes to implementing models at regional scales in terms of their ability to address spatial discrepancies in soil moisture and moreover bring about short-term climate events into long-term growth experiments. 
To add to that, there is a great need for user-friendly and easily used graphical user interfaces for smallholder farmers. 
In the last instance, it is worth mentioning that interconnected models of soil, plants, and atmosphere will play a vital role in protecting agricultural production from climate change. 
The advent of such model systems would necessitate the integration of various disciplines, cozy adaptation of the technology into the agricultural system, and supportive policies at local scales.