An integration of bioclimatic, soil, and topographic indicators for viticulture suitability using multi-criteria evaluation: a case study in the Western slopes of Jabal Al Arab—Syria

Abstract

In the 21st century, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have become one of the leading technologies in different sectors for development and planning, particularly in modern agricultural management. Moreover, recent advances in GIS tools and methods have helped decision-makers as well as farmers to find optimal sites for production of different crops. The cultivation of vineyards and grapes is one of the most important agricultural activities in the Al-Sweidaa governorate-Syria, which has been suffering from a decrease in annual productivity in conjunction with an increase in the annual demand for grapes and wine products, particularly in recent decades. Therefore, the aim of this research was to establish a new method for analysing the optimum regions for economic viticulture production in the Western Slopes of Jabal Al Arab in the Al-Sweidaa governorate by using Multi Criteria Evaluation (MCE). To this end, a field survey was conducted and a soil sample was collected for physical and chemically analysis, and a 1984-2014 MRm.30-meter resolution dataset of climatic variables for the Al-Sweidaa governorate was set up as well. The results show that suitable areas are concentrated in the higher part of the study area (the eastern part) where climate and soil are favourable, and did not show any relevant limitations. Conversely, the lower part of the study area (the western) has unfavourable climate and soil chemical and physical fertility; therefore grape production is only possible if irrigation is applied and the fertility properties of the soil are improved, particularly the percentage of organic matter and the soil texture.

Modeling Land Suitability for Vitis vinifera in Michigan Using Advanced Geospatial Data and Methods

“…Some studies have used more objective methods for generating schemes for weighting variables. For example, analytical hierarchy process and pairwise comparison [26,27] have been used in this regard. Other studies [14,15] have opted to use expert knowledge specific to their study areas to generate weights for their model variables.…”

“…Both methods are useful because, much as objective methods are recommended, terroir is delicately influenced by both the physical characteristics and cultural practices of a place, thereby making indigenous and expert knowledge necessary in understanding viticulture. Weighted sum has commonly been used to combine the weighted variables to generate final suitability maps (step iii above) [14,15,26,27]. The present study integrates expert knowledge specific to MI viticulture and climatology with information from Nowlin [15], Jones [28] and Jones, Snead and Nelson [14] among others to select, reclassify and weight variables used in the LSE models.…”

Assessment of soil micronutrient level for vineyard production in southern Syria

“…As each soil profile consists of different horizons, and each one has a different value of micronutrient (Cu, Fe, Mn, Zn, B), we applied the weighting factor (Table 2) proposed by Sys et al (1991) to assign each profile to a representative value for each micronutrient. This method was previously applied in the southern Syria by Mohammed et al (2020c) and Alsafadi et al (2019).…”

“…Grape cultivation is prevalent in many governorates of Syria, including Damascus, As-Suwayda, Deraa, Quneitra, Homs, Hama, Idlib and Aleppo, where it is considered an important economic crop (Al-Youssef et al 2017, Al-Nasseer et al 2006Alsafadi et al 2019). The cultivated area is about 47,000 ha with an estimated annual production of 213,000 tons in 2016, which is equivalent to 0.34% of total global production (FAO 2018;Al-Nasseer et al 2010, MAAR 2016.…”

Potential Fertilization Capacity of Two Grapevine Varieties: Effects on Agricultural Production in Designation of Origin Areas in the Northwestern Iberian Peninsula

“…Nevertheless, crop yield not only depends on climatology. The terroir characteristics, crop management practices (e.g., pruning, tillage, planting system, or irrigation), and the cultivated grapevine variety [5][6][7] are important factors to considered both independently and as a whole [8]. The genetic characteristics of the different grapevine varieties determine their resistance to frost and cryptogamic disease, such as powdery mildew, grey mold, or downy mildew, which can cause serious economic losses [9,10].…”