VINEYARDS & INNOVATION: THE FOODIE PROJECT ON PRECISION VITICULTURE BEGINS IN TERRAS GAUDA VINEYARDS IN SPAIN. THERE ARE 8 PARTICIPATING COUNTRIES AND THE DATA COLLECTED IN THE VINEYARDS BY EUROPEAN SATELLITES WILL CREATE AN INFORMATION BASE

I + D + I is an acronym in Spain that means "Investigación - Desarrollo - Innovación"; i.e., "research - development - innovation". It identifies all noteworthy scientific research, such as the international project on precision viticulture "FOODIE", of which Spain is the leader, along with businesses and research groups related to the world of wine from Germany, Austria, Italy, Poland, Czech Republic, Turkey and Latvia.
The goal is to collect and sort all the information coming from the different projects and space observing systems, such as the Copernicus environmental monitoring program managed by the European Space Agency, Galileo (Global Navigation Satellite System of the European Union), GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility), INSPIRE (Infrastructure for Spatial information in the European Community), Geoss (Global Earth Observation system of Systems), and put them in the system with data collected by a sensor network in different vineyards in Europe. In the case of Spain it will be Terras Gauda, in Galicia (leader of a group of three wineries that together with Bodegas Pittacum and Quinta Sardonia, both in Castilla Leon has 160 hectares of vineyards for more than 1.5 million bottles produced each year, www.terrasgauda.com).
The project will focus on various parcels of land and the topography, orientation, altitude, slope, weather conditions and different soils. The main goal is to have the technology companies involved in the project develop a software capable of interpreting and maximizing the value of the data received, which is a fundamental step towards optimizing the performance of each planted vineyard.
The data or partial data that will be obtained in real time on vigor, the vegetative index of the different strains, and consequently their nutritional status, climatic conditions by area, etc. Using this information and developing specific software, the technical team in the cellar will be able to make quicker decisions on phytosanitary treatments, on the contribution of nutrients, on performance estimates and on the order to be followed during harvesting according to the different plots and varieties.
The information provided by the software will allow Bodegas Terras Gauda to extract the full quality potential of each parcel previously differentiated or more parcels with similar characteristics, resulting in better management and performance and reduced environmental impact.