Over the past five decades mean annual temperature in Banat region increased for approximately 1.2 °C. At the same time, summer season (June, July, August) became warmer by around 1.8 °C, with more frequent and more intense extreme events, such as droughts, heat waves and heavy precipitation that may be followed by floods and hail. This change has already influenced vineyards across Banat, shifting the Winkler index from the second to the third zone, causing changes in the viticultural practice. Although the analysis of future climate change is done, both in Serbia and Romania, on a national and local level, there is no study covering this bordering region as a whole. Border regions are recognized as places with higher climate change impacts, where cross-border cooperation and exchange of good practice and knowledge may enlarge the capacity of both countries to combat the change and implement adaptation measures. Future climate change impact assessment is done using an ensemble of high-resolution regional climate models from the CORDEX project. High resolution of the projections enables to investigate the diversity across this relatively small region, while the use of multi-model ensemble provides the information on projections uncertainty. Two green house gasses scenarios were selected from the Fifth Assessment Report scenarios of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, namely RCP8.5 as a “business as usual” and RCP4.5 as a “midline” scenario. Following these two emission pathways, temperature and precipitation are examined within three 20-years long time slices, representing near future, mid-century and end of the century. Viticultural bioclimatic indices that are commonly used to describe climate of wine-growing regions are also analyzed, alongside with a frequency change for certain weather events that may have a negative impact on the grape production and/or wine quality. The results of this study may be used to tailor adaptation measures particularly for vineyards in Banat region involving both short and long-term planning and ensuring their implementation through cross-border cooperation which will be important steps towards the sustainable viticultural development in the region.

Banat, viticulture, climate change, bioclimatic indices

environmental engineering

Presentation: oral