Marcella Biddoccu (1,2), Francesca Opsi (1), Stefano Ferraris (2), Laura Turconi (3), Eugenio Cavallo (1), 2014, Effects of soil management on runoff, soil erosion and landslides occurrence in vineyards, 15th Biennial Conference Euromediterranean Network of Experimental and Representative Basins (ERB), Coimbra (Portugal), 9-13 Settembre,
URL: http://www.cnr.it/prodotto/i/294324

Erosion and landslides are have been identified as two of the major threats that affect European soils. In Italy vineyards cultivated on hill and mountain slopes are frequently affected by intense soil erosion processes and landslides, especially during extreme rainfall events. The management practices adopted in vine cultivation are strictly related with hydrological processes and land conservation in vine-growing areas. The disturbance of the soil profile and land leveling works during the vineyard plantation, the orientation of the vine-rows along the slope, tillage and maintenance of bare soil in the inter-rows affect strongly water infiltration and runoff formation and expose the soil to degradation processes, such as soil erosion, decrease of carbon content and compaction. Furthermore intense runoff and gully erosion processes in vineyards are often related to the occurrence of soil-slips and mud flows, as documented by historical data on landslides collected by IRPI. The first soil erosion measurements in vineyards from Piedmont were carried out for about 2 years by IMAMOTER and IRPI at beginning of '80s, in the Alto Monferrato vine production area. Long-term data have then been collected by IMAMOTER from field-scale vineyard plots within the Tenuta Cannona Vine and Wine Experimental Centre of Regione Piemonte, which is also located in Alto Monferrato. Since 2000, rainfall, runoff and soil erosion monitoring has been carried out under natural rainfall conditions on three parallel field plots (75 m long and 16,5 m wide, slope gradient about 15%) that are conducted with different inter-rows soil management techniques (conventional tillage, reduced tillage, controlled grass cover), with vines aligned along the slope. Experimental plots are part of a 16-hectars experimental vineyard, managed in according to conventional farming for wine production. The primary intent of the program was to evaluate the effects of agricultural management practices and tractor traffic on the hydrologic, soil erosion and land degradation processes in vineyards. The dataset include measurements for more than 200 runoff events and over 70 soil loss events; moreover, periodic measurements for soil physical and hydrological characteristics are included for the three plots. The analysis of data collected over more than a decade in the Cannona Experimental Site showed that the use of permanent grass cover in the inter-rows reduces runoff and especially soil losses at yearly and seasonal scale. The worst soil management was the reduced tillage , which produced the highest water and soil losses. The use of permanent grass cover in the inter-rows improved water infiltration and reduced runoff and especially soil losses, even if it was not very effective in the first three years of installation. The best performance of grass cover reducing runoff and soil erosion was shown during summer storms, while it was less effective during autumn, which is the season where extraordinary meteorological events have stroked Piedmont during last decades. The soil and water conservation in the vine-growing systems will be more and more relevant, taking in account climate changes that predict increase in rainfall intensity and erosivity. The monitoring activities at the Cannona Experimental Site are currently carried out and implemented in order to improve the understanding of the soil management effects on soil hydrology, erosion and landslides triggering in sloping vineyards. The results obtained from the Cannona long-term monitoring program could be useful in a multidisciplinary approach to investigate interactions among land use/ soil management and natural processes at different scales, raising up from hillslope to small basin scale and to address the adoption of adequate water and soil conservation practices.

Data from https://intranet.cnr.it/people/