Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - VISCA (Vineyards´ Integrated Smart Climate Application)

Teaser

With a view to making South European wine industry resilient to climate change by minimizing costs and risks through an improvement of the production management (quality and quantity of final product), VISCA will deploy a climate service tool to provide wine producers with...

Summary

With a view to making South European wine industry resilient to climate change by minimizing costs and risks through an improvement of the production management (quality and quantity of final product), VISCA will deploy a climate service tool to provide wine producers with well-founded information. This will be achieved by integration of climatic and phenological data into a DSS tool - co-designed with the 3 wine companies - capable of supplying well-founded decisions for an appropriate crop planning (i.e. prunning, ripening, harvesting, fertilization, pest-control, etc.). There will be real demonstration with end-users on three demo-sites belonging to wine stakeholders from Spain, Italy and Portugal: Codorniu, Mastroberardino and Symington.

Work performed

\"Seasonal Forecast predictions quality assessment: The results obtained show that there is some degree of skill in the three demo-sites that can provide value beyond the customary use of climatology. This is an important result for two reasons: the first one is because the end-users will have access to the bias adjusted seasonal predictions of temperature and precipitation together with their associated skill directly from the VISCA platform. This will allow the users to include this seasonal information in their decision-making processes, benefiting from the added value these predictions offer compared to the common approach using climatology. The second reason is because these seasonal forecasts will be used to feed the phenological models to provide seasonal phenological information that might be used by the end-users to better control the management of the grapevines.
Operational weather forecast extreme events system: Within this task, two kinds of products are delivered: short-term weather forecasts and mid-term weather forecast. While having two-days-in-advance weather forecast information is useful for near future in-field activities, having weather forecast information with ten days in advance could be useful to wine producers to minimize risks related to coming extreme events. For instance, if a heat wave is forecasted in 6 days, wine producers could act in advance irrigating the field more than usual before the event.
Regarding the short-term forecast, a deterministic approach is used (See Figure 1). Regarding medium-term forecast, probabilistic forecast computed by using GEFS data has been used (Figure 2)
Phenological Models: Models are fully developed and a first calibration based on available phenological data have been performed. A second calibration will be carried out including new phenology records provided by the companies. After a meeting in ISMB the working procedure to retrieve and post the data into the VDI has been defined. As soon as the platform is fully operative and the weather and parcel inputs are available, the models will be able to send forecasts to the VDI.
Irrigation requirement models: Irrigation model already developed. The VSIM model, first proposed to provide irrigation forecasts has been substituted by an IRTA’s version that will be tested during the duration of the project. After a meeting in ISMB the working procedure to retrieve and post the data into the VDI has been defined. As soon as the platform is fully operative and the weather and parcel inputs are available, the models will be able to send forecasts to the VDI
Decadal Climatic Data: All data collected, checked and pre-processed. Bioclimatic predictors must be chosen by end users according to their preferences.
Technical requirement and architectural design: The definition of the software architecture of the climate service is complete (see figure 3 below), which is the main activity of this task.
Data integration and processing: A full review of the initial data of the vineyard and of the irrigation shapefiles has been performed in order to harmonize the data formats and define how to cope with experimental parcels. This required a review on the backend APIs (Application Programming Interface) and also on the responsive web app mock-ups. Figure 4
Pilot Plots Implementation: The parcels have been selected at the different companies. In Codorniu and Symington, different management and irrigation techniques will be implemented, aimed to minimize the impact of climate change in vines. In Mastroberardino, different trimming levels will be applied. (see Figure 5 and Figure 6). The information of all the 3 demo-sies will be shown and updated in D4.2 \"\"Report on Calibration Process\"\", due in M14
Calibration and validation of the models: The protocols needed to properly calibrate the phenological and irrigation models were developed. A detailed version of the material and methods implemented to perform the calibration and validation p\"

Final results

EXPECTED IMPACTS: (1) Promote a more resource-efficient, greener and more competitive economy, (2) Use data resulting from or made available through different initiatives of the European Commission, (3) Rapid deployment and market uptake of Climate Services, (4) Added-value for the decision-making process addressed by the project, (5) increasing the provision of climate services with added value to the end-users, (6) Fostering market uptake of climate services, (7) Concrete solutions to overcome barriers hampering deployment of Climate Services, (9) Increase growth potential for farmers and for producers and (10) Minimize the negative economic impact in the region, therefore avoiding local population emigration.
PROGRESS BEYOND STATE OF THE ART: VISCA will set the grounds to a revolutionary approach by using phenological models, irrigation models and climate models, to provide information to move the lifecycle of the harvest along the year and adapt to the medium/short-term climate conditions forecasted. This will allow accommodating the harvest dates to the suitable time of the year foreseen, thus achieving a sustainable system that has an increase on productivity and on the income of the farmer.
EXPECTED RESULTS UNTIL THE END OF THE PROYECT: (1) Development of a tool that supplies climate-informed decisions to the wine industry, (2) Demonstration of the strategic adaptation decisions supplied by this tool in 3 areas where wine business is most sensitive to climate change (Spain, Italy and Portugal), (3) Definition of an action plan to tackle barriers and opportunities derived from the full deployment of VISCA on the 3 demo areas and (4) Evaluation of the replicability potential in other relevant sectors (forestry, food security, etc.) at international level.

Website & more info

More info: http://www.visca.eu.