The Implementation of The Hungarian GIS Register of Vineyards

The Hungarian National Vineyard GIS

Regarding EU and professional inland requirements in 2001 the Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) designed the elaboration of a Geographic Information System (GIS) supported Vineyard Register (VINGIS) to the Institute of Cartography Geodesy and Remote Sensing (FÖMI), Remote Sensing Centre.

The goals of the VINGIS system are the followings: serving the fulfillment of the CAP, utilizing the subsidies of the sector for establishing an integrated nation-wide professional register, facilitating the discernment and decision-making of agricultural governance and wine-viticulture sectorial institutions and leaders, creating possibility for the quality improvement of the obligatory statistical reports, firming the Vineyard Communities in completion of their statutory tasks. They are instrumental in improving the quality production and market competitiveness, they assure the protection of the designated origin and take action against adulteration of wine. The GIS approach allows an objective analysis of the utilization degree of the actual wine producing capacity, promotes the design to realize favourable modifications and supports also the tasks of legal regularization and control.

VINGIS is the GIS background which supports vineyard registration and serves as a basis to check and supervise subsidy allocation for vineyard uprooting, planting and restructuring, and allocating the subsidy paid on vineyard-basis.

Since 2005 for each restructuring claim and since 2006 for each grubbing up claim individual maps were printed using the VINGIS database system. These individual maps were bolstered up with ortophoto. Besides the cartographic information other technical data supporting the control were added to these documents. The experiences of the controllers unambiguously justified that without these individual VINGIS maps the accuracy of the on spot checks, and the identification of the target area could not be satisfactory in every case.

The http://www.vingis.hu address is available since 18^th May 2006.

Since 25^th of May 2006 the operation of the VINGIS web server provides opportunity for the authorities – receiving, considering and controlling of subsidy claims – pre-filtering of incoming claims and checking of specific key information.

The Map of Potential Production Sites for Vineyards

The analogue maps of potential production sites for vineyards which were developed and maintained by the Viticultural and Enological Research Institute (SZBKI) show the production site suitability for vineyards (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1.
An example of potential production sites map for Vineyards on Ortophoto background

 The basic goal and role of the descriptive data of mapping production site suitability for vineyards is to appoint the best areas for vine production, and within those areas, to differentiate the quality to promote the marketable and competitive wine production. There is a qualification methodology in the background of this process which dates back to several decades and it was developed by SZBKI.

The descriptive data of mapping production site suitability for vineyards includes: Agrometeorology (frequency of winter, spring and fall frost damage), Soil (Soil type, Soil forming rock, pH and lime content, physical soil type, water management features, Humus level, thickness of topsoil, area homogenity concerning the soil type), Water management (watermanagement of the area based on site observation), degree of erosion, exposure of the land, (slope degree and aspect, elevation above sea level on hill and mountainside, emergence from the environment on the plain and flat areas, relief, area surface on hill and mountainside, relief, area surface on plain and flat areas, environment proximity of woods, degree of built-in areas), area utilization, road conditions.

The digitizing of these maps and integration into the VINGIS system, is very useful for the administrators of the vineyard communities, because they were using the paper versions of these maps in their daily work to draw the certificate of new plantation; moreover, it is also a requirement, because according to the law, subsidies can be only provided for vineyards that are planted on areas suitable for vine production.

On this map, the areas with the same value of production site are contoured by polygons and assigned a number. By digitizing of these polygons a map layer is created, which shows the area with optimal features for the plantation within the administrative boundaries of a settlement. These maps can be connected to the tables of the detailed features.

Updating The Map of Potential Production Sites for Vineyards with the help of the VINGIS

These maps were created by onsite observation but at that time the available maps and technology did not provide enough accuracy to demonstrate the research and the know-how. By now updating of these maps became easier and more efficient with the help of the GIS technology. The analysis of digital toponimic, cadastral and vineyard maps together with their data allows the follow-up of products from the vineyard to the final utilization. It is a new approach to update the production site evaluation.

Predominant elements of the potential production value, exposition and frost-sensibility may be defined more exactly by using DTM model. In a GIS system also exploitation degree and structure varieties of the first and second-class sites may be checked.

The VINGIS also serves to support the system of protection of vines with designated origin (Fig. 2.). The regulations of the MARD concerning the different vine-growing regions permits to give the label of designated origin to a vine on the base of its derivation (community, topographic name where the vineyard is) and the variety, or on the value of winegrowing potential of the production site. The VINGIS gives opportunity to analyze and study the different areas based on their features and find out the common properties that makes an area unique and eligible to be a protected origin.

Fig. 2.
Vineyards with protected origin in Andornaktálya (Eger wine-growing region). Superior: Wine growing sites with more than 300 points; Wine: Bull’s blood of Eger superior: Kékfrankos, Kadarka, Portugeiser (Kékoportó) Blauburger, Kék medoc, Zweigelt, Cabernet franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot noir in accordance with Regulation of FVM No. 130/2003 (XII.31.)