Over the last few years, several Convolutional Neural Networks for object detection have been pro... more Over the last few years, several Convolutional Neural Networks for object detection have been proposed, characterised by different accuracy and speed. In viticulture, yield estimation and prediction is used for efficient crop management, taking advantage of precision viticulture techniques. Convolutional Neural Networks for object detection represent an alternative methodology for grape yield estimation, which usually relies on manual harvesting of sample plants. In this paper, six versions of the You Only Look Once (YOLO) object detection algorithm (YOLOv3, YOLOv3-tiny, YOLOv4, YOLOv4-tiny, YOLOv5x, and YOLOv5s) were evaluated for real-time bunch detection and counting in grapes. White grape varieties were chosen for this study, as the identification of white berries on a leaf background is trickier than red berries. YOLO models were trained using a heterogeneous dataset populated by images retrieved from open datasets and acquired on the field in several illumination conditions, b...
СРАВНИТЕЛЬНАЯ СОРТООЦЕНКА МЕЖСЕКЦИОННЫХ ГИБРИДОВ ПИОНОВ ИЗ ГЕНЕТИЧЕСКОЙ КОЛЛЕКЦИИ ФГБНУ ВСТИСП Ре... more СРАВНИТЕЛЬНАЯ СОРТООЦЕНКА МЕЖСЕКЦИОННЫХ ГИБРИДОВ ПИОНОВ ИЗ ГЕНЕТИЧЕСКОЙ КОЛЛЕКЦИИ ФГБНУ ВСТИСП Резюме. В статье представлены результаты трёхлетнего изучения интродуцированных сортов межсекционных гибридов пионов. Установлены фенологические фазы развития пионов в соответствии с температурным режимом региона. На основании комплексной оценки декоративных и хозяйственно-биологических признаков установлено, что изучаемые сорта приспособлены для выращивания в условиях средней полосы России; также выделен исходный материал для селекции на заданные признаки. Ключевые слова: пион, межсекционные гибриды, сорта, интродукция, озеленение, селекция. Summary. The article presents the results of a three-year study of introduced varieties of peony intersectional hybrids. Phenological phases of their development were established in accordance with the temperature regime in the region. On the basis of a comprehensive evaluation of ornamental and economic-biological characters, it has been established that the varieties under study are adapted for cultivation in conditions of Central Russia; the source material for breeding for the given characteristics was also selected.
Agriculture strongly relies on irrigation. While irrigated land accounts for roughly 20% of the g... more Agriculture strongly relies on irrigation. While irrigated land accounts for roughly 20% of the global cultivated area, it contributes to about 40% of crop production. In the last few decades, the growing demand for agricultural commodities has translated into an increasing pressure on the global freshwater resources, often leading to their unsustainable use. Here we investigate the sustainability of irrigation, balancing farmers' profit generation objectives and the needs of ecological systems. We ask the question "sustainability of what?" to stress how the sustainability of irrigation is often evaluated with respect the opposing needs of humans and nature. While from the farmers' perspective irrigation is sustainable when it provides uninterrupted access to water resources at a price not exceeding the marginal revenue they generate (clearly without accounting for environmental externalities), from the standpoint of water resources, irrigation is sustainable if it does not deplete freshwater stocks or environmental flows. We invoke the notions of "weak" and "strong" sustainability to develop a novel framework for the evaluation of tradeoffs between human needs and the conservation of natural capital. Through the analysis of criteria of performance, we relate water deficit and irrigation overuse to the reliability and resilience of irrigation. This approach is applied to the case of Australia, a major agricultural country affected by water scarcity. The application of the framework to the case of Australia shows how this approach can be used to highlight areas in which irrigation contributes to a weakly sustainable use of water resources with impacts on environmental flows and groundwater stocks. Solutions, such as increasing efficiencies or reducing water applications through the adoption of deficit irrigation, can enhance water sustainability in some water scarce locations.
This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the ad... more This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the addition of a cover page and metadata, and formatting for readability, but it is not yet the definitive version of record. This version will undergo additional copyediting, typesetting and review before it is published in its final form, but we are providing this version to give early visibility of the article. Please note that, during the production process, errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.
• VIVA WATER indicator helps identifying optimal water management measures in vineyard stage. • W... more • VIVA WATER indicator helps identifying optimal water management measures in vineyard stage. • Water-focused LCA supports a better interpretation in the cellar and bottling phases. • Wine production sustainability can benefit from the synergic application of different WF methods.
Soil loss poses a threat to hilly and mountainous areas, particularly where local economies stron... more Soil loss poses a threat to hilly and mountainous areas, particularly where local economies strongly depend on agricultural production. Among agricultural landscapes, vineyards are responsible for the highest erosion rates, particularly in steep-slope landscapes. The impact of vineyard mechanisation on soil loss is only marginally explored in published literature. This study provides an estimation of the annual soil loss rate by application of the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) in 24 terraced vineyards located in north-eastern Italy. Field observations showed that 13 vineyards consisted of fully mechanised fields, 5 vineyards had no form of mechanisation, while in 6 vineyards a mixture of practices was found. Soil erodibility (K factor) was derived for these practices (based on soil characteristics and varying degrees of compaction), while slope length and steepness (LS factors) were calculated from a 1-m LiDAR-based DTM, and remaining factors were based on datasets by...
The world population is increasing, and the human diet is becoming of considerable concern for hu... more The world population is increasing, and the human diet is becoming of considerable concern for human welfare. Furthermore, natural resources are overexploited, and governments need policies for the proper management of the environment. Sustainable agriculture can provide some solutions, as it minimizes inputs, wastes or pollution. The aim of the present study is to provide a combined analysis of different footprint approaches to allow comparison of different agricultural and livestock products regarding the efficiency of resource exploitation. Water consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and energy indexes are included in this study as footprint indicators. The study takes advantage of indexes collected from an extensive bibliography focused on different fresh agricultural products; the target is the definition of a timetable of footprints for agricultural products. Starting from a top-down perspective, an analysis of the environmental footprint for different products is an approach to understanding which products can be more sustainable for the human diet. For this reason, this study distinguishes different clusters in different sub-clusters of vegetable products and animal products. The comparison of the footprint indicators of water consumption regarding yield, greenhouse gas emissions equivalent, and energy provide a ranking of sustainability for a given product. Ultimately, this work seeks to propose an original pattern of food sustainability, allowing an adequate quantitative comparison of agriculture products for a more conscious human diet.
Increasing global food demand and economic growth result in increasing competition over scarce fr... more Increasing global food demand and economic growth result in increasing competition over scarce freshwater resources, worsened by climate change and pollution. The agricultural sector has the largest share in the water footprint of humanity. While most studies focus on estimating water footprints (WFs) of crops through modeling, there are only few experimental field studies. The current work aims to understand the effect of supposedly better agricultural practices, particularly precision agriculture (variable rate application of fertilizers and pesticides) and conservation agriculture (minimum, strip, or no-tillage), on water deterioration and water pollution. We analyzed the results from an experimental field study in the northeast of Italy, in which four different crops are grown across three years of crops rotation. We compared minimum, strip, and no-tillage systems undergoing variable to uniform rate application. Grey WFs are assessed based on a field dataset using yield maps dat...
Over the last few years, several Convolutional Neural Networks for object detection have been pro... more Over the last few years, several Convolutional Neural Networks for object detection have been proposed, characterised by different accuracy and speed. In viticulture, yield estimation and prediction is used for efficient crop management, taking advantage of precision viticulture techniques. Convolutional Neural Networks for object detection represent an alternative methodology for grape yield estimation, which usually relies on manual harvesting of sample plants. In this paper, six versions of the You Only Look Once (YOLO) object detection algorithm (YOLOv3, YOLOv3-tiny, YOLOv4, YOLOv4-tiny, YOLOv5x, and YOLOv5s) were evaluated for real-time bunch detection and counting in grapes. White grape varieties were chosen for this study, as the identification of white berries on a leaf background is trickier than red berries. YOLO models were trained using a heterogeneous dataset populated by images retrieved from open datasets and acquired on the field in several illumination conditions, b...
СРАВНИТЕЛЬНАЯ СОРТООЦЕНКА МЕЖСЕКЦИОННЫХ ГИБРИДОВ ПИОНОВ ИЗ ГЕНЕТИЧЕСКОЙ КОЛЛЕКЦИИ ФГБНУ ВСТИСП Ре... more СРАВНИТЕЛЬНАЯ СОРТООЦЕНКА МЕЖСЕКЦИОННЫХ ГИБРИДОВ ПИОНОВ ИЗ ГЕНЕТИЧЕСКОЙ КОЛЛЕКЦИИ ФГБНУ ВСТИСП Резюме. В статье представлены результаты трёхлетнего изучения интродуцированных сортов межсекционных гибридов пионов. Установлены фенологические фазы развития пионов в соответствии с температурным режимом региона. На основании комплексной оценки декоративных и хозяйственно-биологических признаков установлено, что изучаемые сорта приспособлены для выращивания в условиях средней полосы России; также выделен исходный материал для селекции на заданные признаки. Ключевые слова: пион, межсекционные гибриды, сорта, интродукция, озеленение, селекция. Summary. The article presents the results of a three-year study of introduced varieties of peony intersectional hybrids. Phenological phases of their development were established in accordance with the temperature regime in the region. On the basis of a comprehensive evaluation of ornamental and economic-biological characters, it has been established that the varieties under study are adapted for cultivation in conditions of Central Russia; the source material for breeding for the given characteristics was also selected.
Agriculture strongly relies on irrigation. While irrigated land accounts for roughly 20% of the g... more Agriculture strongly relies on irrigation. While irrigated land accounts for roughly 20% of the global cultivated area, it contributes to about 40% of crop production. In the last few decades, the growing demand for agricultural commodities has translated into an increasing pressure on the global freshwater resources, often leading to their unsustainable use. Here we investigate the sustainability of irrigation, balancing farmers' profit generation objectives and the needs of ecological systems. We ask the question "sustainability of what?" to stress how the sustainability of irrigation is often evaluated with respect the opposing needs of humans and nature. While from the farmers' perspective irrigation is sustainable when it provides uninterrupted access to water resources at a price not exceeding the marginal revenue they generate (clearly without accounting for environmental externalities), from the standpoint of water resources, irrigation is sustainable if it does not deplete freshwater stocks or environmental flows. We invoke the notions of "weak" and "strong" sustainability to develop a novel framework for the evaluation of tradeoffs between human needs and the conservation of natural capital. Through the analysis of criteria of performance, we relate water deficit and irrigation overuse to the reliability and resilience of irrigation. This approach is applied to the case of Australia, a major agricultural country affected by water scarcity. The application of the framework to the case of Australia shows how this approach can be used to highlight areas in which irrigation contributes to a weakly sustainable use of water resources with impacts on environmental flows and groundwater stocks. Solutions, such as increasing efficiencies or reducing water applications through the adoption of deficit irrigation, can enhance water sustainability in some water scarce locations.
This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the ad... more This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the addition of a cover page and metadata, and formatting for readability, but it is not yet the definitive version of record. This version will undergo additional copyediting, typesetting and review before it is published in its final form, but we are providing this version to give early visibility of the article. Please note that, during the production process, errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.
• VIVA WATER indicator helps identifying optimal water management measures in vineyard stage. • W... more • VIVA WATER indicator helps identifying optimal water management measures in vineyard stage. • Water-focused LCA supports a better interpretation in the cellar and bottling phases. • Wine production sustainability can benefit from the synergic application of different WF methods.
Soil loss poses a threat to hilly and mountainous areas, particularly where local economies stron... more Soil loss poses a threat to hilly and mountainous areas, particularly where local economies strongly depend on agricultural production. Among agricultural landscapes, vineyards are responsible for the highest erosion rates, particularly in steep-slope landscapes. The impact of vineyard mechanisation on soil loss is only marginally explored in published literature. This study provides an estimation of the annual soil loss rate by application of the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) in 24 terraced vineyards located in north-eastern Italy. Field observations showed that 13 vineyards consisted of fully mechanised fields, 5 vineyards had no form of mechanisation, while in 6 vineyards a mixture of practices was found. Soil erodibility (K factor) was derived for these practices (based on soil characteristics and varying degrees of compaction), while slope length and steepness (LS factors) were calculated from a 1-m LiDAR-based DTM, and remaining factors were based on datasets by...
The world population is increasing, and the human diet is becoming of considerable concern for hu... more The world population is increasing, and the human diet is becoming of considerable concern for human welfare. Furthermore, natural resources are overexploited, and governments need policies for the proper management of the environment. Sustainable agriculture can provide some solutions, as it minimizes inputs, wastes or pollution. The aim of the present study is to provide a combined analysis of different footprint approaches to allow comparison of different agricultural and livestock products regarding the efficiency of resource exploitation. Water consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and energy indexes are included in this study as footprint indicators. The study takes advantage of indexes collected from an extensive bibliography focused on different fresh agricultural products; the target is the definition of a timetable of footprints for agricultural products. Starting from a top-down perspective, an analysis of the environmental footprint for different products is an approach to understanding which products can be more sustainable for the human diet. For this reason, this study distinguishes different clusters in different sub-clusters of vegetable products and animal products. The comparison of the footprint indicators of water consumption regarding yield, greenhouse gas emissions equivalent, and energy provide a ranking of sustainability for a given product. Ultimately, this work seeks to propose an original pattern of food sustainability, allowing an adequate quantitative comparison of agriculture products for a more conscious human diet.
Increasing global food demand and economic growth result in increasing competition over scarce fr... more Increasing global food demand and economic growth result in increasing competition over scarce freshwater resources, worsened by climate change and pollution. The agricultural sector has the largest share in the water footprint of humanity. While most studies focus on estimating water footprints (WFs) of crops through modeling, there are only few experimental field studies. The current work aims to understand the effect of supposedly better agricultural practices, particularly precision agriculture (variable rate application of fertilizers and pesticides) and conservation agriculture (minimum, strip, or no-tillage), on water deterioration and water pollution. We analyzed the results from an experimental field study in the northeast of Italy, in which four different crops are grown across three years of crops rotation. We compared minimum, strip, and no-tillage systems undergoing variable to uniform rate application. Grey WFs are assessed based on a field dataset using yield maps dat...
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