Vine-growing zoning of the municipal territories of Ronda and Arriate (Malaga, Spain), « Sierras de Málaga » registered appellation of origin mark

The aim of this communication is the study of the Ronda and Arriate municipal territories environment in order to define and to establish the main physical factors in relation to vine-growing land use. The vine-growing zoning proposed is based on geopedological and climatic features. The methodology comprises the raster to vector convertion of the lythologic units of Ronda ad Arriate based on the Geology Maps from the IGME (1990), and the adaptation of the geomorphologic information of the Environment Council (Junta de Andalucía) and that from the elevation, orientation and slope maps of Ronda y Arriate. Diverse field surveys made it possible the lithologic, geomorphologic and pedological examination, and to cartography the different Units enclosed in the territory; as well as the sampling, the analysis and description of the characteristic environments and an attempt of the diverse environments cartographic delimitation with the aid of an intense satellite images photointerpretation. Climatic parameters and the most relevant bioclimatic indexes were determined by using dates from weather stations placed in the study area and nearby; these parameters and indexes were spatially distributed afterwards. The use of the ESRI program ArcView (GIS), version 3.2, made it possible the handling of the basic georeferenced cartography to superpose the different layers and the territory zoning according to the vine-growing land use in areas which were defined by the association of previously established values.

The zones A, B and C, with different ranges of altitude (<650 m over sea level, 650-850 m and > 850 m, respectively), comprise typical geomorphologic units, with characteristic soil Groups in different lithologic and climatic environments. The cartography elaborated (scale map 1:50000) made it possible to give very useful information to the different zones generated by the territory zoning; to study in depth the characteristic of the soil Groups which appear in different geomorphologic and climatic sectors on different lithologic materials; and to evaluate the existing vine-growing plots at present. Three ranks of soils are proposed, each one enclosing three main soil Groups, according to the vine-growing diminishing aptitude: SV1 (LV, CL and FL(B)); SV2 (RG, VR(C) and FL(A)) and SV3 (VR(B), VR(A) and LP). (A) indicates in < 650 m altitude zones; (B) in 650-850 m altitude zones and (C) in > 850 m altitude.