Drought Observatory of Alt Penedès: 6 years of water dynamics in rain-fed vineyards in Alt Penedès (Catalonia, Spain) for modelling recommendations to winegrowers

Abstract

The Mediterranean region stands out as a “hot spot” due to projections of substantial increases in temperature and decreases in rainfall, which would lead to marked decreases in water availability throughout the Mediterranean region.

According to MedECC (2020), temperatures would increase by the end of the century below 2 degrees in the case of RCP 2.6 and more than 5 degrees in the case of the most dramatic scenario (RCP 8.5).

However, precipitation would be reduced between 4 and 22% depending on the scenario at the end of the 21st century. In previous research we projected water needs and phenology under different scenarios of climate change (Funes et al 2024). Whether the water balance is well modelled for irrigated vineyards, much less attention has been put on the study of water dynamics in rainfed vineyards.

The Drought Observatory of Alt Penedès emerged from the winegrower stakeholders of project LIFE CLINOMICS. Its aim was to produce a weekly newsletter helping the small growers with low capacities to decide when they should intervene in management to help the plant, without any irrigation.

5 automatic stations currently operational in the Alt Penedès region, belonging to the Network of Automatic Meteorological Stations (XEMA of the Meteorological Service of Catalonia) located in the municipalities of Font Rubi, St Martí, Sarroca, La Granada, Mediona and Sant Sadurní d’Anoia. is within commercial vineyards, where we installed TEROS10 soil moisture sensors at 3 depths (15, 30, 45 cm) or 20, 24 and 45 cem) depending on the soil, connected to a ZL6 Meter datalogger providing cloud data very hour. Another location with their own weather station at the Escola de Espiells was also monitored.

The meteorological and soil data will be emptied on a weekly basis and the calculations of the water needs of each plot will be automatically carried out according to the FAO-56 procedure.

Monitoring started in December 2019 just one month before the Gloria storm hit in and filled the soil profiles with water. 2020 was a year with lot of downy mildew intensity and severity, exacerbated by Covid-19 pandemics. After that 2021 to 2023 were three years of records of high temperatures, heat waves and extremely low rainfall. 2024 was a year closer to normal and 2025 has been a wet but hot year.

All along these years, every week a newsletter has been sent to a few numbers of collaborators to better define the dissemination model and the contents, that include, weather forecast at short and medium terms. Calculations on the water balance for each station and a drought qualification based on the SPI and SMDI maps of the soil moisture anomaly representing the drought index SMDI, based on a disaggregated SMPA, the anomalies are calculated based on the climatology of the period and provided by the company isardSAT S-L. Some general observations on vegetation and soil management are also given.

The results show how the soil profile can fill in quite easily and after longs period of drought the sensors stop making clear measurements due to the lack of water. Different soils behave in different ways, allowing us to make a deeper study on the rainfed vineyard water dynamics depending on the agronomic management. In the near future there’s still open what is the best way to extend this pilot net and make it more useful for the end users.

References

MedECC: Mrabet, R., Savé, R., Toreti, A., Caiola, N., Chentouf, M., Llasat, M. C., Mohamed, A. A. A., Santeramo, F. G., Sanz-Cobena, A., & Tsikliras, A. (2020). Food. In: Climate and Environmental Change in the Mediterranean Basin–Current Situation and Risks for the Future. First Mediterranean Assessment Report [Cramer W, Guiot J, Marini K (eds.)] Union for the Mediterranean, Plan Bleu, UNEP/MAP, Marseille, France, p. 237-264.

Funes Mesa, I., Sánchez-Costa, E., Aranda, X., Altava-Ortiz, V., Barrera-Escoda, A., Prohom, M., … de Herralde, F. (2024). Modelling future climate change impacts on grapevine water requirements and growing cycle in three wine PDOs of NE Spain. OENO One, 58(4). https://doi.org/10.20870/oeno-one.2024.58.4.7789

Acknowledgments

This project has been partially funded by the Consell Comarcal de l’Alt Penedès through the project LIFE CLINOMICS (Life15 CCA/ES/000102) and by the Project 101069781 — LIFE21-IPC-ES- LIFE eCOadapt50.