Land suitability map for mountain viticulture: a case study in Aosta Valley (NW Italy)

Abstract

Mountain vineyards are a valuable resource for high quality wine production and landscape conservation.A suitability map (1: 50.000) for mountain vineyard cultivation was created in GIS environment for a study area located in Aosta Valley (NW Italy).We considered the following environmental variables that are known to influence wine production: slope, aspect, altitude, soil, obtaining a suitability map that allowed to identify the areas that can be considered to carry out a sustainable mountain viticulture.