Traditional Climatic Knowledge: Orchardists' perceptions of and adaptation to climate change in the Campania region (Southern Italy)

Author(s):  
D. Reedy ◽  
V. Savo ◽  
W. McClatchey
2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (11) ◽  
pp. 3019-3035 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Uzielli ◽  
Guido Rianna ◽  
Fabio Ciervo ◽  
Paola Mercogliano ◽  
Unni K. Eidsvig

Abstract. In recent years, flow-like landslides have extensively affected pyroclastic covers in the Campania region in southern Italy, causing human suffering and conspicuous economic damages. Due to the high criticality of the area, a proper assessment of future variations in event occurrences due to expected climate changes is crucial. The study assesses the temporal variation in flow-like landslide hazard for a section of the A3 “Salerno–Napoli” motorway, which runs across the toe of the Monte Albino relief in the Nocera Inferiore municipality. Hazard is estimated spatially depending on (1) the likelihood of rainfall-induced event occurrence within the study area and (2) the probability that the any specific location in the study area will be affected during the runout. The probability of occurrence of an event is calculated through the application of Bayesian theory. Temporal variations due to climate change are estimated up to the year 2100 through an ensemble of high-resolution climate projections, accounting for current uncertainties in the characterization of variations in rainfall patterns. Reach probability, or defining the probability that a given spatial location is affected by flow-like landslides, is calculated spatially based on a distributed empirical model. The outputs of the study predict substantial increases in occurrence probability over time for two different scenarios of future socioeconomic growth and atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiara Cirillo ◽  
Antonello Bonfante ◽  
Giovanna Battipaglia ◽  
Angelita Gambuti ◽  
Sheridan Lois Woo ◽  
...  

<p>Climate change is one of the main challenges for future agriculture since it can severely affect plant growth and development. The Mediterranean area is one of the most vulnerable regions where climatic models have forecasted a significant increase in frequency and severity of drought events. Ongoing climate change is aggravating some critical issues in the production of the autochthonous grape variety Greco, widely cultivated in the Campania Region (southern Italy) and used alone or blend in many quality label wines.</p><p>Nowadays, there is a high risk for the economic sustainability of Greco cultivation due to the following main issues: reduced vine productivity, low selling price of grapes, and territory fragmentation. Such criticisms induce the abandonment of small/medium-sized farms due to either crop conversion or consolidation into larger farms.</p><p>The Greco variety may represent a study model to introduce innovative and integrated management of cultivation techniques, such as pruning and soil management, with the aim to resolve similar problems affecting other autochthonous regional cultivars. They include issues, such as low fertility, that cause an unbalanced ratio among sugars, acids, and affect grape metabolites important for the oxidative stability and sensory quality of wine.</p><p>The GREASE project, funded by Campania Region within the Rural Development Programme 2014-2020, falls within the framework of sustainable management of vineyards (from economic, environmental and social viewpoints) with an insight to climate change. The general objective to improve the potential production of Greco concerns the management of major cultivation practices in viticulture by the realization of a cultivar-specific model for vine canopy and soil management. Optimization of parameters is important in order to achieve a good vegetative and reproductive balance that enhances grape and wine quality, improves farm profitability and environmental sustainability. This project is conducted in a vineyard of Vitis vinifera L. subsp. vinifera ‘Greco’ located in southern Italy (Feudi di San Gregorio farm).</p><p>The projects has 3 main inter-disciplinary actions: A1) to determine the effect of diverse vine pruning systems on plant resource use, through the reconstruction of vine eco-physiological history (dendro-anatomical and -isotopic analyses); A2-A3) to analyse the effect of soil management and of vine training systems on the continuum soil-plant-atmosphere system. Specific activities include: pedoclimatic, vegetative and reproductive, physiological and hydraulic characterization; microvinification and characterization of grapes and wine produced in the different trials; evaluation of resources use efficiency, pests, footprint family markers; model development.</p><p>The impact of the project on other wineries of the Campania Region will be significant due to an increased understanding of how cultivation systems influence the efficient use of available resources in the Greco vineyard. Such knowledge would be useful to design simple modifications to the presently used agronomical practices, to achieve production and economic gains without long-term structural investments. This know-how will also favour other downstream technologies and biotechnologies of viticulture and enology production, as well as the associated companies (e.g., producers of fertilizers, seeds for green manure) to realize products and services better adapted to the development of cultivar-specific viticultural and enological production systems.</p>


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Brook ◽  
Antonello Bonfante ◽  
Nicola Damiano ◽  
Chiara Cirillo ◽  
Giovanna Battipaglia ◽  
...  

<p>Sustainable grapevine cultivation and the stable production of high-quality wine is endangered by climate change in many areas of the Mediterranean region. Climate change is expected to induce rising temperatures, changes in precipitation frequency and increasing occurrence of extreme events such as severe and prolonged drought with direct effects on berry production and composition, and consequently wine quality. In this context, the monitoring and dynamic assessment of vine status with an early detection of health decline signs are needed to evaluate and adopt mitigation actions oriented to precision and sustainable agriculture (e.g., irrigation).</p><p>Several indicators are reported in literature to evaluate plant health status (e.g., Ref. MAES reports), based on remote sensing, UAV techniques or in situ data collection. With remote sensing technologies, standardized information, over large areas, at low costs and with high temporal coverage, can be acquired, allowing assessment of plant indicators trends in a practical, repetitive and comparative way. However, data processing techniques do not fully reflect the overall physiological status and healthiness of plant systems. On the other hand, in situ morpho-physiological analyses at the single plant level are time-consuming and restricted to a low number of individuals compared to remote sensing or UAV techniques, not always covering the whole variability of the vineyards.</p><p>This study aimed to apply an integrated multidisciplinary conceptual approach for vine health assessment, based on a systematic process for a multi-source, multi-scale and multi-temporal synergic interpretation of data with different techniques in order to cover the gaps of the single disciplines. This approach was recently developed and successfully tested on an Aglianico vineyard in Southern Italy and its applicability needs to be tested on other terroirs.</p><p>Therefore, in this study, the multidisciplinary approach was calibrated and applied in a hilly environment in southern Italy (La Guardiense farm, Guardia Sanframondi, Benevento, Campania region) on Vitis vinifera L. subsp. vinifera ‘Falanghina’ in order to assess the ability of the system to evaluate the plant status during the various phenological phases. The plant status results obtained from four sites were compared with data collected from different techniques including the monitoring of plant growth and ecophysiology as well as the reconstruction of past eco-physiological behavior through the analysis of tree rings in the stemwood.</p><p>The overall results confirmed the applicability of such an approach to achieve a comprehensive assessment of the vine health status considering the continuum soil-plant-atmosphere, thus furnishing information on possible plant responses to expected environmental changes as valuable inputs to manage cultivation factors in various terroirs.</p>


Mousaion ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Elia ◽  
Stephen Mutula ◽  
Christine Stilwell

This study was part of broader PhD research which investigated how access to, and use of, information enhances adaptation to climate change and variability in the agricultural sector in semi-arid Central Tanzania. The research was carried out in two villages using Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovations theory and model to assess the dissemination of this information and its use by farmers in their adaptation of their farming practices to climate change and variability. This predominantly qualitative study employed a post-positivist paradigm. Some elements of a quantitative approach were also deployed in the data collection and analysis. The principal data collection methods were interviews and focus group discussions. The study population comprised farmers, agricultural extension officers and the Climate Change Adaptation in Africa project manager. Qualitative data were subjected to content analysis whereas quantitative data were analysed to generate mostly descriptive statistics using SPSS.  Key findings of the study show that farmers perceive a problem in the dissemination and use of climate information for agricultural development. They found access to agricultural inputs to be expensive, unreliable and untimely. To mitigate the adverse effects of climate change and variability on farming effectively, the study recommends the repackaging of current and accurate information on climate change and variability, farmer education and training, and collaboration between researchers, meteorology experts, and extension officers and farmers. Moreover, a clear policy framework for disseminating information related to climate change and variability is required.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dibakar Mahanta ◽  
Jaideep Kumar Bisht ◽  
Lakshmi Kant ◽  
Arunava Pattanayak

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