Grape-growing zoning in Albania using viticultural climatic indices

KULLAJ, Endrit1 , ZOTAJ, Albana2, AKALLI, Adriatik3

1

Agricultural University of Tirana, Faculty of Agriculture & Enviroment, Department of Horticulture, Address: Koder-Kamez, Tirana, Albania www.ubt.edu.al

Poster presented at the 23rd International Scientific - Experts Congress on Agriculture and Food Industry, Izmir, Turkey 27 - 29 September 2012 www.agricongress.ege.tr

Dep. Horticulture, Faculty of Agriculture and Environment, Agricultural University of Tirana, Kodr-Kamz, 1010, Tirana, Albania Tel: +355684096186 Email: ekullaj@ubt.edu.al 2 NTPA, National Territorial Planning Agency 3 Agricultural University of Tirana, National Genebank

Introduction

Grape growing and wine production with present knowledge and experience are largely weather and climate driven. In general, the climate in all the territory of Albania is characterised by a cold and wet winter and a hot and dry summer. In all the country, starting from the coastal lowlands 0 - 100 m up to 900 1000 m, fulfil the optimal average temperatures for growth and development of vegetation (25 32C), within the optimum limits of photosynthesis. The old official zoning in Albania is based on the definition of the safety limit for expansion of viticulture, at 14C in the coldest winter months (January - February) and at 3C during spring time (April May (late frosts damaging the vegetation). The new official zoning refers to the EU viticultural classification in which Albania is part of Climatic Zone C, with sub-zones characterised based on the viticultural vocation and wine-naming for each zone. Coastal and low-hilly western area of Albania I and II viticultural zone based on the old zoning; European viticultural zone C III B. Hilly premountainous areas, away from the sea influence viticultural areas II and III; European viticultural zone C III A Mountainous areas viticultural zones III and IV; Europian viticultural zone C II However, the current official zones (I IV) correspond with the classes of climate and do not take too much in consideration the high hypsometric variation within these zones. Thus, within the same viticultural zone, there are patches of a different viticultural climate, making the recommendations not accurate. In this study, we followed the goviticulture concept in order to identify such changes within each viticultural zone.

1A

1B

Fig. 1.Maps showing the geographical distribution of classes of viticultural climate based on Heliothermal Index (1A) and Cool Night Index (1B).

Discussions and Conclusions

Material and Methods

Heliothermal Index (HI), Drought Index (DI) and Cool Night Index (CI) define a Multicriteria Climatic Classification System (Goviticulture MCC System) for grape growing regions worldwide (Tonnieto and Carbonneau, 2004).The methodology of this study was based on (HI) and (CI) combined with GIS mapping. Heliothernal index (HI) is calculated according to Eq.(1)

where T is daily average and Tx daily maximum temperature, Tb base temperature (10C) and d is coefficient of the length of the day. Cool night index (CI) equals mean minimum air temperature (Tmin) in the month of ripening (September). A series of climatic data was collected using different sources (meteorological bulletins, various publications, etc.) from 137 stations. Each station was coded using the first two letters of the district plus the first three letters of the location, making it easier for the Albanian reader to understand the proper location of the station by just looking at the code in the map. Spatial data was aggregated/disaggregated to match the demarcating registration boundaries by assigning of a boundary to the quantifiable variable (HI and CI).

The use of the two viticultural climatic indices, the Heliothermal Index (HI) and the Cool Night Index (CI) combined with GIS mapping for viticultural zoning in Albania enables the grouping of measuring stations entirely based on climatic indices, without being influenced by the geographic division of the territory. This is an advantage compared to the existing official zoning (which doesnt consider the high hypsometric changes of the Albanian relief as well as the many mesoclimates of a region. This methodology enables to show the high variability found even within the small Albanian territory. This study has to be completed by calculating the dryness index for a better viticultural zoning. Moreover, there is a need to verify the entire range of local and foreign cultivars as well as their climatic requirement and allocate them to each climatic zone. Another interesting aspect would be to study the climatic changes in the future and their effect on the viticultural zoning.

Results

The output of this study are two maps showing classes of viticultural climates (Figure 1A and 1B) re-grouping the viticultural regions on a better climatic basis rather than geographical basis which is not always pertinent due to the high hypsometric variations of the territory. This enables a better zoning of both local and foreign cultivars, especially for the new introductions.
2A 2B

Fig. 2. Geographical distribution of classes of viticultural climate based on Heliothermal Index (2A) and Cool Night Index (2B) with an overlayer of the classes of climate in Albania on which official zoning is based. Note that within the same climate there is a variability of viticultural climates.