Alpine agriculture, and especially perennial crops such as grapes, are bearing the pressure of globalization in terms of unfavorable topographical and socio-economic conditions, and the effects of climate change. The project’s aim is to develop a regional land suitability model for viticulture in South Tyrol and Carinthia. In order to support and promote a sustainable planning of vineyards, the data on climate change collected during the last 20 years and their effects on wine-growing will be considered. The project will be developed as follows:

• Evaluation of historical wine grape harvest data of several South Tyrolian and Carinthian wine producers in order to define a relation between their development and the climatic context over the past years.

• Over the entire project vineyard areas, 40 vineyards will be selected, their climatic parameters will be measured and the grapes development will be exactly described.  

• Last, an evaluation / assessment model will be developed, in which historical harvest data as well as climatic measurements will feed into.  The model will be publicly accessible and regularly updated. This project will be carried out by an interdisciplinary team with complementary strengths and expertise from South Tyrol and Carinthia.