Oliveira, Margarida

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Repositório Cientifico do Instituto Politécnico de Santarém

Climate change and water scarcity haveprompted concerns for the wine-growingregions of the Mediterranean, due to thestrong impact that they have on vineyard productivityand wine quality. In Portugal, the predicted lessprecipitation, higher soil and air temperature, andthe greater frequency and duration of extremeclimatic events, may require the moving of vines tohigher elevations, or a northward shift of grapevinevarieties. Nowadays, these climatic events arealready limiting wine production in southern vineregions, particularly in Alentejo, which led to theexpansion of the irrigated grapevine that nowrepresents around 20% of the cultivated area.What is the water footprint?The water footprint (WFP) is an indicator of thefresh water resources needed to produce a unitof a product. WFP identifies the volumes ofconsumed or polluted water; blue WFP refers tosurface and groundwater resources, green WFPto effective precipitation and grey WFP topollution, expressed as the volume of freshwaterneeded to assimilate the load of pollutants and tore-establish natural concentrations.Who are the partners of theWineWATERFootprint project?The WineWATERFootprint is a consortium projectcomprising Portuguese stakeholders, fourresearch institutes and one technological centrewho share tasks and responsibilities, including:n Instituto Politécnico de Santarém;n Instituto Politécnico de Beja;n Instituto Politécnico de Bragança;n Instituto Nacional de Investigação Agrária eVeterinária (INIAV), Dois Portos; and n Centro Operativo e de Tecnologia de Regadio(COTR), Beja.  This research team has multidisciplinary skills,including experts in viticulture and precisionagriculture, oenology, hydrology, plant physiology,environmental engineering, business managementand multimedia.The WineWATERFootprint project pretends to evaluate cross-cutting broad-spectrumtechnologies to: WineWATERFOOTPRINT:sustainable use of  water along the wine chainTogether, researchers and winemakers are seeking solutions for sustainable water management in wine-growing regions of the Mediterranean SciTech Europa Quarterly 27250PROFILEwww.scitecheuropa.euFig. 1 Wine WATERFootprint activitiesWATERSciTech Europa Quarterly 27 251www.scitecheuropa.euPROFILEn Reduce water demand;n Assess the uniformity of water distribution andapplication efficiency in vineyards; and n Determine water use during wine production. The assessment of water footprint sustainabilitywill allow the consortium to identify hotspotsand define strategies to reduce water footprintby 10%.Management tools in the wineryTechnically, in some industries, WFP can bereduced to zero by closing the cycle. Leanmethods are a powerful means to improve waterefficiency and reduce water footprint. Kaizenevents, standard work, visual controls, 5S andtotal productive maintenance, represent some ofthe practices that industries could integrate withlater initiatives for reducing costs, saving time andimproving water usage.Precision viticulture strategiesWith regard to agriculture, WFP can beoptimised by increasing water productivity in asmarter way, using precision viticulturestrategies. Remote sense techniques allow us toestimate spatial patterns in crop biomass,vegetative vigour and yield, using vegetationindices. These indices can be correlated with thestructural or physiological characteristics of thevine and with the grapevine water status. The reduction of grey WFP can be achieved by differentiated fertilisation and pesticideapplications, and the reduction of blue WFP bydefining differentiate vineyard irrigation zones.Knowledge transferA wine WFP calculator will be accessible to winegrowers and winemakers and will provideinformation on the contribution of each practiceand operation to the green, blue and grey WFP.The WFP model has a web-based user-friendlyinterface for the integration of data collection andpractices, in order to estimate the WFP andcompare it with standards or results fromprevious years. Margarida OliveiraPrincipal InvestigatorESA, IPSantaremLEAF, ISA, ULisboa+351 243 307 300margarida.oliveira@esa.ipsantarem.pthttps://ipsantarem.wixsite.com/winewaterfootprintWATER

WineWATERFOOTPRINT: sustainable use of water along the wine chain

https://repositorio.ipsantarem.pt/bitstream/10400.15/2579/1/SciTech_FINAL.pdf

WineWATERFOOTPRINT: sustainable use of water along the wine chain

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Repositório Cientifico do Instituto Politécnico de Santarém