Which risk assessment of water quality in pdo vineyards in Burgundy (France)?

To meet the demand of assessment tool of water managers we adapted to the vine production the INDIGO® method to developed initially for arable farming at the field scale. This article aims to assess the quality of water in Burgundy areas where viticulture is pointed out to downgrade quality of surface water and groundwater. Knowing production practices at field scale allow locating where changes of production practices could upgrade surface water and groundwater quality.

INDIGO® I-phy indicator of sustainability were built based on different aggregation methods of winegrowers practices and field characteristics with a mark between 0 (risk maximum) and 10 (no risk) and 7 is the acceptable limit for environment. Water modules of I-Phy were tested in three PDO vineyards in Burgundy, in two climate conditions (2011 and 2012). Calculations have been done for I-phy indicator and groundwater (ESO) and surface water (ESU) modules on 32 fields, equally distributed in very high quality and regular quality PDO areas and in integrated or organic/biodynamic systems.

The results lead us to assess water pollution risk in different vineyard conditions. Global risk for environment is low: a very few fields under 7: 6 in 2011 and 7 in 2012 which one field under 3. Most of the global risky fields are in PDO-Rully area.

ESO risk is higher than ESU risk for almost all the fields in the 3 PDO areas. There are 4 reasons explaining the results: (i) active ingredients in used pesticides, even for organic. Active ingredient are classed R50/53. (ii) rate of the active ingredient. (iii) vine growing period of application. (iv) at least, the slope of the fields, the length of the rows, the proximity of a river and the rate of clay in the soil are also important risk factors for ESO risk. Winegrowers in Burgundy are aware of ESO risk and already manage to reduce rate of pesticides and chose the right moment to treat the vine according to the field characteristics.