• Energy Research

This research was focused on investigating: 1.the existence of clear trends in the following long-time data series related to Monferrato region (NW Italy), a very important vine-growing hilly area: oClimate data (Tmax, Tmin, Huglin Index, Rain) oAgronomic data (grape harvest time: begin and end) 2.the relationship between climate variables and harvest dates, to assess the responses of grapevine under a global warming scenario. Significant trend was found for temperature variables (positive) and for harvest dates (negative), indicating anticipation of harvest onset from 11.6 to 34.22 days in the 58-years study period. The influence of increasing temperature and Huglin index in anticipating the harvest period was also highly significant for all the considered varieties and vineyards. Just the total precipitation did not show significant trend.

Mediterranean Region is a hotspot for biodiversity and also a well-known centre for the entry and dispersion of new virulent plant and animal pests which may become responsible for significant yield and quality losses. This problem will be tackled by advanced and precise spraying actions. High precision spraying actions represent a societal challenge, as they mitigate the negative impact in human and animal health and in environment of the conventional techniques. The goal is to comply with the motto "the right amount on the right time and place". Increasing precision by localizing applications will reduce losses on pesticides, fertilizers and water usage, human and animal exposure and environmental residues. Innovate and automate this spraying action in Mediterranean countries is challenging due to low farmers income, farms size, lack of water availability, lack of manoeuvring space (in old crops), difficulties of communications and harsh atmospheric conditions. To cope with these challenging issues, a consortium with complementary precision farming actors was formed for PlantCareBot project, bringing together agricultural associations representatives, robotics and agricultural machinery RTD institutions, agrofood RTD institutions, and SME's. PlantCareBots solution will be a safe and autonomous high precision spraying tool, integrated into a modular unmanned tractor. It will focus on Permanent woody crops (Olive Groves, Fruit Trees, Vineyards) considering the Mediterranean crops constrains and opportunities. PlantCareBot will bring the TRL of the technologies involved from 3 to 5. This increment is driven by three main RTD topics: robotics; novel plant treatments; sprayer tools with Variable Rate Technology. PlantCareBot will contribute to advanced and sustainable agriculture in Mediterranean Countries and create new business opportunities. PlantCareBot increases the Mediterranean farming system efficiency and income that will generate better and more employment.

Climate change is impacting Mediterranean viticulture with reduced water availability, rising temperatures, and extreme weather events, affecting grape quality and yields. Despite challenges, preserving viticulture is vital for the region's heritage and sustainable development. Adaptation strategies must be systemic, considering long-term climate trends, resource availability, and broader agricultural and economic factors. Collective action and foresight are essential for a comprehensive and effective adaptation plan to ensure the resilience of Mediterranean winegrowing. The TELLURIS project aims to develop local to regional adaptation plans in eight Mediterranean regions of five of the biggest wine producing European countries, focusing on transformative systemic adaptations and nature-based solutions to combat climate change impacts on viticulture. The process of crafting the adaptation strategy will be guided by multi-stakeholder participation and informed by evidence from remote sensing, in-situ observations, and soil analyses collected from nine extensive demonstration sites, where some of the selected nature-based and smart farming climate adaptation methods will be tested. In conjunction with these pathways, TELLURIS will establish a network of viticulture regions within the scope of the Mission Adaptation to Climate Change. This network will leverage the disseminated findings from the project to craft their unique adaptation strategies and introduce transformative changes to the European wine sector. The future roadmap for this transformation will be guided by an upscaling methodology that will be developed during the project to generate suitability maps for regions with similar adaptation potential as the TELLURIS regions. It will also be supported by the establishment of climate adaptation support tools and services built upon the tested solutions, complete with clearly defined business models.

The main common challenge is to address climate change effects and make more sustainable, safe and attractive the men presence in the mountains. The project aims to increase the visitors in the Alps by improving the refuges with new smart and sustainable solutions and with an awareness activity aimed at tourists. In this way Alpine refuges will survive, also economically, offering more safety tools to hikers. The innovation will be the integrated system of renewable energy (sun-hydrogen) and the use of ICT tools in high altitude, using existing technologies not yet used there. Main outputs: best practices from pilot actions and strategies addressing mountain issues; a data base from scientific and social surveys; some green and smart Alpine refuges; training and awareness activities; tools for policy planning. Main target groups: mountain users, huts owners, residents of the Alpine valleys, policy makers. The project aims to build a network of huts for enable their green growth, making them as hubs for boost of Alpine heritage. Tasks: water, energy, waste, ICT, safety, scientific surveys and awareness. For each item: state of the art, innovative solutions and pilot actions; guidelines and policy actions. The added value of transnational approach consists in activities in all over the Alps and in the need of specific skills and a direct knowledge of places. The project will require an overall budget of 2,4 million Euros.

Mediterranean Region is a hotspot for biodiversity and also a well-known centre for the entry and dispersion of new virulent plant and animal pests which may become responsible for significant yield and quality losses. Furthermore, conservation agriculture approach in Mediterranean environments has been moderate to date and this is particularly true for the smallholders, who are prevailing in the region. This problem will be tackled by advanced and precise spraying actions. High precision spraying actions represent a societal challenge, as they mitigate the negative impact in human and animal health and in environment of the conventional techniques. The goal is to comply with the motto "the right amount on the right time and place". Increasing precision by localizing applications will reduce losses on pesticides, fertilizers and water usage, human and animal exposure and environmental residues. Innovate and automate this spraying action in Mediterranean countries is challenging due to low farmers income, farms size, lack of water availability, lack of manoeuvring space (in old crops), difficulties of communications and harsh atmospheric conditions. To cope with these challenging issues, a consortium with complementary precision farming actors was formed for PlantCareBot project, bringing together agricultural associations representatives, robotics and agricultural machinery RTD institutions, agrofood RTD institutions, and SME's. PlantCareBots solution will be a safe and autonomous high precision spraying tool, integrated into a modular unmanned tractor. It will focus on Permanent crops (Olive Groves, Fruit Trees, Vineyards) considering the Mediterranean crops constrains and opportunities. PlantCareBot will bring the TRL of the technologies involved from 3 to 5. This increment is driven by three main RTD topics: robotics; novel plant treatments; sprayer tools with Variable Rate Technology. PlantCareBot will contribute to advanced and sustainable agriculture in Mediterranean Countries, carachterized by limited access to specific farming machinery and by several hydrogeologic issues, and create new business opportunities. PlantCareBot increases the Mediterranean farming system efficiency and income that will generate better and more employment. Besides, reduces and optimises the use of scarce natural resources (water, energy, nutrients) and potentially toxic substances (synthetic pesticides, mineral fertilizers, antibiotics) in agriculture; Improves the production of Mediterranean crop by applying the products in the right place, right quantity and right moment; Reduces the soil compaction and erosion.

<p>Historical weather data represent an extremely precious resource for agro-meteorology for studying evolutionary dynamics and for predictive purposes, to address agronomical and management choices, that have economic, social and environmental effect. The study of climatic variability and its consequences starts from the observation of variations over time and the identification of the causes, on the basis of historical series of meteorological observations. The availability of long-lasting, complete and accurate datasets is a fundamental requirement to predict and react to climate variability. Inter-annual climate changes deeply affect grapevine productive cycle determining direct impact on the onset and duration of phenological stages and, ultimately, on the grape harvest and yield. Indeed, climate variables, such as air temperature and precipitation, affect evapotranspiration rates, plant water requirements, and also the vine physiology. In this respect, the observed increase in the number of warm days poses a threat to grape quality as it creates a situation of imbalance at maturity, with respect to sugar content, acidity and phenolic and aromatic ripeness.</p><p>A study was conducted to investigate the relationships between climate variables and harvest onset dates to assess the responses of grapevine under a global warming scenario. The study was carried out in the “Monferrato” area, a rainfed hillslope vine-growing area of NW Italy. In particular, the onset dates of harvest of different local wine grape varieties grown in the Vezzolano Experimental Farm (CNR-IMAMOTER) and in surrounding vineyards (affiliated to the Terre dei Santi Cellars) were recorded from 1962 to 2019 and then related to historical series of climate data by means of regression analysis. The linear regression was performed based on the averages of maximum and minimum daily temperatures and sum of precipitation (1962–2019) calculated for growing and ripening season, together with a bioclimatic heat index for vineyards, the Huglin index. The climate data were obtained from two data series collected in the Experimental farm by a mechanical weather station (1962-2002) and a second series recorded (2002-2019) by an electro-mechanical station included in Piedmont Regional Agro-meteorological Network. Finally, a third long-term continuous series covering the period from 1962 to 2019, provided by Italian Meteorological Society was considered in the analysis.</p><p>The results of the study highlighted that inter-annual climate variability, with a general positive trend of temperature, significantly affects the ripening of grapes with a progressive anticipation of the harvest onset dates. In particular, all the considered variables excepted precipitation, resulted negatively correlated with the harvest onset date reaching a high level of significance (up to P< 0.001). Best results have been obtained for maximum temperature and Huglin index, especially by using the most complete dataset. The change ratios obtained using datasets including last 15 years were greater (in absolute terms) than results limited to the period 1962-2002, and also correlations have greater level of significance. The results indicated clearly the relationships between the temperature trend and the gradual anticipation of harvest and the importance of having long and continuous historical weather data series available.</p>

Under projected climate changes, runoff and soil erosion processes are likely to become more severe due to the intensification of extreme precipitation events. In consequence of the expected increase of rainfall intensity and erosivity, grass cover is acknowledged as the most effective soil management practice adopted to reduce soil loss by runoff. The aim of this study was to verify the effectiveness of grass cover (GC) in preventing runoff and soil erosion in sloping vineyards with respect to conventional tillage (CT) and to seasonal pattern. Rainfall, runoff and soil loss from experimental farm of Vezzolano (NW-Italy) were recorded in two different periods. Results confirmed the effectiveness of GC, especially when high erosive events occurred in summer, while soil protective effect considerably decreased in autumn, thus pointing out the need to improve appropriate agronomic strategies to achieve better water and soil protection throughout seasons.

Il progetto "Recupero e valorizzazione delle serie storiche di dati agro-meteorologici di Vezzolano" prevede, in primo luogo, il recupero, la digitalizzazione e la validazione della serie meteorologica rilevata presso l'Azienda Sperimentale di Vezzolano (presso Albugnano, AT), con lo scopo di renderla utilizzabile a fini di ricerca scientifica. La serie meteorologica di Vezzolano presenta una notevole durata, complessivamente oltre 50 anni, ed è rilevata in una zona del territorio piemontese con vocazione vitivinicola, ambito produttivo nel quale la conoscenza dell'evoluzione climatica risulta di particolare importanza. Saranno inoltre recuperati e valorizzati altri dati storici collegati all'ambito meteorologico, quali, le misure di deflusso ed erosione idrica rilevate nei vigneti aziendali. Il principale prodotto atteso dalla presente collaborazione è costituito dalla serie digitalizzata completa e validata dei dati meteorologici rilevati presso l'Azienda Sperimentale di Vezzolano.