Upscaling the Integrated Terroir Zoning Through Digital Soil Mapping Disaggregation: A Case Study in the Designation of Origin Campo de Borja

Abstract

The terroir zoning method aims to identify and characterise environmental factors influencing vineyard development, such as soil, climate, or lithology. More detailed cartography and characterisation enables a more comprehensive agro-system management, which is crucial in a context of growing demand for detailed cartographic information on precision viticulture. The integration of new methodologies using digital data and statistical techniques, such as those from the Digital Soil Mapping framework, may improve the baseline information on factors resulting in more detailed homogeneous terroir units. In this work, the Soil Resource Information of an existing zoning in the DO Campo de Borja (NE Spain) is upgraded using a new soil map derived from a novel technique of disaggregation of multi-component units that reveals potentially homogeneous areas by the unsupervised classification algorithm CLARA. Quantitative metrics of vine quality and occupation on the terroir units are then derived for the reference and the new maps. Change analysis using a confusion matrix derived from the intersection of the old and new maps shows a five-fold increase in the number of mapping units, enhancing their delineations and the detection of areas of higher potential within the mapping units of the original map. Overall, the enhancements to the integrated terroir zoning provide an approach for scaling up zoning maps to meet the demands for detailed cartography.