MACSUR Project – The case study of vineyards. Eco-physiological and biophysical modeling applied to the growth and productivity of vineyards in northwestern Italy.

Viticulture is one of the economically most important agricultural sectors in Italy. Recent research allows eco-physiological and biophysical models to develop tools able to provide support to crop management, in terms of optimizing production performance and limiting environmental impacts. In fact, the ability to check on a daily basis the vegetative and productive phases of vines is certainly a fundamental tool for driving vineyard organization and management, and for linking the trends of growth and productivity with the quality of the final product (the wine). Some researches have taken place in the vineyards of northwestern Italy since a few years, with the aim of modeling the eco-physiological behavior of the vines, exploiting all available historical field data related to the vegetative and productive behavior of the vines, as well as laboratory qualitative data. At the same time, our team has been evaluating two different modeling approaches: a biophysical one, using the land surface scheme UTOPIA (University of TOrino land Process Interaction in Atmosphere), and an eco-physiological one. The present case-study is part of a wider working program involving several integrated teams from Italy, Spain and Germany. The objectives are: i) to improve the use of the models used by the different groups; ii) to compare the results obtained by different modeling tools; iii) to create a common database of field measurements; iv) to study the relationships between vegetative-productive behaviors and quality of productions.