ISHS Acta Horticulturae 590: IX International Workshop on Fire Blight
FIRE BLIGHT IN EMILIA-ROMAGNA (ITALY): SEARCHING POSSIBLE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN EPIDEMIC SPREAD, CLIMATE AND TERRITORY USING THE REGIONAL GEOGRAPHIC DATABASE AND GIS TECHNOLOGY |
| Authors: | G. Benedettini, R. Bugiani, A. Calzolari, F. Finelli, P. Govoni, M. Gherardi, G.L. Mazzoli |
| Keywords: | Erwinia amylovora, fire blight, geophytopatology, GIS, GPS. |
| Abstract:
Fire blight is the most dangerous disease on pear. Since its first occurrence in Emilia-Romagna in 1994, the epidemic has spread continuously throughout the pear growing area of the region. Enormous efforts were made by the regional Plant Protection Service to monitor the infected orchards throughout the years and information was routinely stored in the regional database and geo-referenced using an ESRI ArcView application named FitoGis. The present paper aims to find the possible relationships between the fire blight infections recorded in Emilia-Romagna over the years 1996-2000, climate, and the territory. Information provided by the database was analysed with ESRI ArcView Gis technology in order to find relationships with climatic parameters (temperature, rainfall and hail events), hydrographic basin, pedology, and land use. Historic climatic parameters were elaborated with the Cougarblight forecasting model currently used in Emilia-Romagna to provide information at the regional scale about the risk of flower blight infections. Results of the elaboration will then be used to build up a fire blight risk map in order to improve both the disease survey activity over the regional territory and the information about the risk of infection provided by the forecasting model. | |
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