Development of an observatory to monitor the impact of climate change on vineyards in Portugal

Higher temperatures, heatwaves, strong winds, heavy rainfall, and drought affect the vineyard’s production. In this sense, adapting to climate change is one of the biggest challenges of the wine-making sector, in both temporal and spatial terms. Lino Oliveira, researcher at INESC TEC, stated that “the adaptation strategies and policies ought to deal with potential impact in the short and long-term, and that it is crucial to decide on the specific adaptations based on each location”.

The new INFRAVINI platform aims to minimise production costs and risks through better management and monitoring of vineyards. This infrastructure collects and provides important geospatial data on climate change, including weather and agronomy indicators, thus enabling the processing and normalisation of provisional local and weather data. This solution also includes an observatory to monitor the impact of meteorological variability, through the integration of sensor networks in the Douro region, the area selected for the SDI pilot

The INFRAVINI is a co-promoted Research and Technological Development project funded by the Portugal 2020.