Using indicators to assess the environmental impacts of wine growing activity: The INDIGO (R) method
2015
Thiollet-Scholtus, Marie | Bockstaller, Christian
Environmental assessment methods are needed by agronomists working on the enhancement of cropping systems to meet the demand for more sustainable farming practices. A growing number of operational methods based on a set of indicators have been designed, more for arable crops and livestock than for perennial crops like viticulture. Among them, the INDIGO(R) method, originally developed for arable crops, offers a compromise between feasibility and predictive quality. Here we present a modified and expanded version of INDIGO(R) for viticulture. The development of new indicators specific to viticulture and the adaptation of existing ones followed a five step approach: (i) preliminary definition of the objectives and identification of the end-users, (ii) construction of the indicator, (iii) selection of a reference value, (iv) sensitivity analysis and (v) validation. Stakeholders from professional institutions and winegrower organizations were closely associated with step (i) to define the framework and step (ii) to supply technical databases. We designed INDIGO(R) indicators with all available scientific and expert knowledge which was aggregated into expert systems associating fuzzy subsets or, when possible, quantitative equations. Four indicators; pesticides, nitrogen, energy and soil organic matter, were directly adapted from the initial INDIGO(R) method, whereas soil cover and frost protection management were new indicators. Potentialities of their use are highlighted by examples of implementation on different scales and for various purposes.
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