Assessing and mapping vineyard water status using a ground mobile thermal imaging platform

• Published in: Irrigation science 2021-07, Vol.39 (4), p.457-468
• Main Authors: Gutiérrez, Salvador, Fernández-Novales, Juan, Diago, María-Paz, Iñiguez, Rubén, Tardaguila, Javier
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agriculture; All terrain vehicles; Aquatic Pollution; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Climate Change; Coefficients; Conductance; Datasets; Decompression chambers; Environment; Grapevines; Heat detection; Imaging techniques; Immunoglobulins; Life Sciences; Mapping; Original Paper; Plant cover; Pressure chambers; Resistance; Stomata; Stomatal conductance; Sustainable Development; Thermal imaging; Vineyards; Viticulture; Waste Water Technology; Water Industry/Water Technologies; Water Management; Water Pollution Control; Water potential; Water stress; Wineries & vineyards
• ISSN: 0342-7188; 1432-1319
• DOI: 10.1007/s00271-021-00735-1

Water status directly affects yield and crop quality in grapevines. Precision viticulture demands the application of new available technologies and methodologies for accurate irrigation management in vineyards. The objective of this work was the development of an on-the-go thermal imaging application for the assessment and mapping of vineyard water status, building a dataset from a commercial Tempranillo ( Vitis vinifera L.) vineyard over two consecutive seasons and validating it in another commercial vineyard from a different winegrowing region. Thermal imaging was performed with a thermal camera mounted in an all-terrain vehicle, moving at 5 km/h and operating at a distance from the canopy of 1.20 m. Stem water potential (Ψ stem ) was used for validation as the grapevine water status reference method, using a Scholander pressure chamber. Crop Water Stress Index (CWSI) and Stomatal Conductance Index ( I g ) from a 4-day dataset were computed and correlated with Ψ stem , delivering significant ( p