Aim: The aim of the study was to explicitly develop a methodology of delineation of natural Protected Designation of Origins (PDO) terroir regions for Austria, where PDO viticulture regions reflect natural conditions only in a formal manner.Methods and results: There is increasing competition in the wine market from globalized trends, where the European Union (EU) and non-EU wine producers have adopted different market strategies to promote their wines and gain larger market share. The EU has therefore established protective agricultural product categories such as PDO and Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) based on the terroir concept which contrasts with USA strategies. Here, we first collected and derived as many as possible relevant physical geographical data for a total of 66,673 officially registered vineyard areas in Burgenland (Austria). Next, we applied factor analysis to these data with the aim to shrink their size and reduce their dimensionality. For each vineyard plot was derived a factor score which was used for performing k-means clustering. The best count of clusters, k-parameter, was estimated using five internal validity indices. Five homogenous management zones were created as a result of clustering. Correctness and accuracy of the clustering was evaluated by multidimensional discriminant analysis. The final zones were compared to current Districtus Austriae Controllatus (DAC) of Burgenland.Conclusion: It was found by the comparison of DAC regions of Burgenland and our drafted zones that some of the DAC regions do not respect natural terroir zones, while these regions were created as PDO regions which should respect their natural terroir.Significance and impact of the study: The presented methodology can be applied all over Austria and, with some modifications caused by different input data, to each EU member country where it is necessary to revise PDO regions’ borders.

The main goal of this paper is the application of qualitative and quantitative free available data for geographical delineation based on reconnaissance research in vineyard landscape. The results of delineation are useful in agricultural management or environmental planning. Our delineation may serve as the basic information on site conditions of vineyards near Pezinok (Slovakia), with historical use from the beginning of 13th century. We have studied the actual land cover and classified physiotopes of the study area into a set of relatively homogenous and coherent landscape units. The landscape units defined in this work consist of homogenous physiotopes in terms of their structural and functional characteristics, which have been shaped by natural factors (land-forms, soil type and subtype, geological base, elevation, slope, aspect, solar radiation and normal different vegetation index (NDVI)). The characteristics were used to define 23 landscape units in qualitative delineation (based on both qualitative and quantitative data). Only quantitative characteristics – elevation, aspect, slope, solar radiation and NDVI, were used in a K-means cluster analysis to define the 17 landscape units. The number of landscape units was computed by WB-index, and standardisation of data was computed by factor analysis. The whole classification process was statistically significant. The strength of the grouping procedure was tested by using Discriminant Analysis, which found that 92.70% of objects in qualitative and 98.50% of objects in quantitative delineation were correctly classified.