2017/01/01 by Anne Biarnès, Biarnès, Anne, Patrick Andrieux +17
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · #0 #Agriculture and Rural Development Research #Enherbement #Entretien du sol #Etats de surface du sol #Grape yield #Grass cover #Horticultural and Viticultural Research #Pollution de l’eau #Rendement en raisin #Ruissellement #Soil erosion and sediment transport #Soil surface states #Soil treatment #Surface runoff #Water pollution
paper · pdf · doi:10.15454/1.5137823967929834e12
openalex publication_date 2017/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Limiting surface and groundwater contamination by herbicides is a major challenge in Mediterranean vineyards given the intense chemical weeding practices and high intensities of surface runoff flows. This paper presents a modelling approach for estimating the impact on both water contamination and grape yields of several soil treatment strategies chosen by a group of experts so as to restrict the use of herbicides. The modelling approach consists in a chain of models simulating, for different climatic scenarios, the order of agricultural operations, the change in soil surface conditions, surface runoff flows, grape yield gaps caused by water and nitrogen stresses. The results obtained on the case study of the Rieutord Catchment in south France show that a drastic reduction of herbicide application is essential for keeping water contamination below an acceptable level, but that some flexibility in the application of the strategies following the local soils and climatic is desirable to secure the grape yields. However in any case, it is suggested that only the complete ban of chemical weeding practices may in the end guaranty the good status at surface waters.