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Climate directly influences the suitability of wine grape production. Modified patterns of temperature and precipitation due to climate change will likely affect this relevant socio-economic sector across Europe. In this study, prospects on the future of bioclimatic indices linked to viticultural zoning are derived from observed and projected daily meteorological data. Specifically, daily series of precipitation and 2-m maximum and minimum temperatures from the E-OBS data-set have been used as the regional observed baseline. Regarding projections, a suite of regional climate models (RCMs) from the European CORDEX project have been used to create projections of these variables under the RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 future emission scenarios. A quantile-quantile adjustment is applied to the simulated regional scenarios to properly project the RCM data at local scale. Our results suggest that wine grape growing will be negatively affected in southern Europe. We expect a reduction in table quality vines and wine grape production in this region due to a future increase in the cumulative thermal stress and dryness during the growing season. Furthermore, the projected precipitation decrease, and higher rates of evapotranspiration due to a warmer climate will likely increase water requirements. On the other hand, high-quality areas for viticulture will significantly extend northward in western and central Europe. The suitability zoning for the mid-century derived from this study could contribute to better design new strategies and management practices that would benefit the European winemaking sector.

Since climate is a key determinant in the production and quality of grapes, the viticultural potential of a region is greatly affected by climate changes, particularly by an increase in temperature. Oltenia is one of the traditional Romanian winegrowing regions that is presently undergoing a progressive warming trend. The implication is that the region may require adaptation measures in the near future to keep its grape production and quality potential at current levels. The analysis is based on monthly values of temperature (mean, maximum, and minimum), precipitation amount, and sunshine duration from 10 meteorological stations located within the study area. The data cover the period 1961–2021. The changes in the main climatic parameters and in specific bioclimatic indices are analysed for the entire period and on two distinct sub-periods (1961–1990 and 1991–2021). The obtained results reveal an increase of the heliothermal resources in the region and a certain stability of the precipitation amounts over the last three decades. Thus, both Winkler and Huglin indices emphasize a northward shift of the area corresponding to quality red wines (about 60 km), which means also a shift in the quality white wines in areas considered without great potential so far. Trends detected in the climatic parameters and bioclimatic indices emphasize potential problems for viticulture in Oltenia, mainly in its southern and southwestern part, where climate suitability for quality wines is under pressure on the background of increasing temperature and reduced precipitation amounts during the growing season.

Climate change, through changes in temperature, precipitation, and frequency of extreme events, has influenced agricultural production and food security over the past several decades. In order to assess climate and weather-related risks to fruit and grape production in Serbia, changes in bioclimatic indices and frequency of the occurrence of unfavourable weather events are spatially analysed for the past two decades (1998–2017) and the standard climatological period 1961–1990. Between the two periods, the Winkler and Huglin indices changed into a warmer category in most of the viticultural regions of Serbia. The average change shift was about 200 m towards higher elevations. Regarding the frequency of spring frost, high summer temperatures and water deficit, the most vulnerable regions in terms of fruit and grape production are found alongside large rivers (Danube, Sava, Great and South Morava), as well as in the northern part of the country. Regions below 300 m are under increased risk of high summer temperatures, as the number and duration of occurrences increased significantly over the studied periods. The high-resolution spatial analysis presented here gives an assessment of the climate change influence on the fruit and grapes production. The presented approach may be used in regional impact assessments and national planning of adaptation measures, and it may help increase resilience of agricultural production to climate change.

Intensification of extreme temperatures combined with other socioeconomic factors may exacerbate human thermal risk. The disastrous impacts of extreme weather during the last two decades demonstrated the increased vulnerability of populations even in developed countries from Europe, which are expected to efficiently manage adverse weather. The study aims to assess trends in the exposure of European populations to extreme weather using updated historical climatic data in large European cities of different local climates and a set of climatic and bioclimatic indices. Colder cities experience higher warming rates in winter (exceeding 1 °C/decade since the mid-1970s) and warmer cities in summer. Hot extremes have almost tripled in most cities during the last two or three decades with simultaneous advancing of hot weather, while northernmost cities have experienced an unprecedented increase in the heat waves frequency only during the last decade. Bioclimatic indices suggested a robust tendency towards less cold-related stress (mainly in cold cities) and more heat-related stress in all cities. A doubling or tripling in the frequency of heat-related ‘great discomfort’ was found in southern cities, while in the cities of northern Europe, heat-related ‘discomfort’ conditions are becoming increasingly more frequent and have nearly quadrupled during the last decade.

Developing adaptation strategies in Vitis vinifera, a crop sensitive to climate change, is crucial for resilience of traditional viticultural systems, especially in climate-vulnerable areas like the Mediterranean basin. A progressive warming is demonstrated to alter the geographical distribution of grapevine, reducing land capability for typical grapes and vine productions in most Southern European districts traditionally specialized in tree crops. Grapevine growth and reproduction under climate change require a continuous monitoring to adapt agronomic practices and strategies to global change. The present study illustrates an empirical approach grounded on a set of bio-physical indicators assessing the genotype-related response to climate variation. This approach was tested in Umbria, central Italy, to verify the response of some major international and local grapevine varieties to climate variation during a relatively long time interval (1995–2015). Long-term data for ripening time and berry quality collected in the study area were correlated to representative bioclimatic indices including Winkler, Huglin, and Cool night indicators. Results of this study highlighted the increase of air temperature (reflecting the inherent growth in thermal availability for maturation) and the alteration of precipitation patterns toward more intense precipitation. Climate variability exerted distinctive impacts on grapevine phenology depending on the related genotype. Empirical findings underline the usefulness of a permanent field monitoring of the relationship between selected climate variables and grape ripening with the aim to develop adaptive viticultural practices at farm’s scale.

Meteorological human discomfort indices or bioclimatic indices are important metrics to gauge potential risks to human health under varying environmental thermal exposures. Derived using sub-daily meteorological variables from a quality-controlled reanalysis data product (Global Land Data Assimilation System—GLDAS), a new high-resolution global dataset referred to as “HDI_0p25_1970_2018” is presented in this study. The dataset includes the following daily indices at 0.25° × 0.25° gridded resolution: (i) Apparent Temperature indoors (ATind); (ii) two variants of Apparent Temperature outdoors in shade (ATot); (iii) Heat Index (HI); (iv) Humidex (HDEX); (v) Wet Bulb Temperature (WBT); (vi) two variants of Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT); (vii) Thom Discomfort Index (DI); and (viii) Windchill Temperature (WCT). Spanning 49 years over the period 1970–2018, HDI_0p25_1970_2018 fills gaps in existing climate indices datasets by being the only high-resolution historical global-gridded daily time-series of multiple human discomfort indices based on different meteorological parameters, thus offering applications in wide-ranging climate zones and thermal-comfort environments.

The combination of the parameters of temperature, humidity, and wind conditions of surface air, solar radiation fluxes, human metabolism under various modes of physical exertion and clothing properties characterize the thermal comfort. Under conditions of global warming, the climate characteristics that affect the quality of life, health, and well-being of people, in particular, the length of thermal comfort periods, are changing. Bioclimatic indices that determine the thermal comfort conditions depend not only on temperature changes, but also on humidity and wind speed trends. When comparing the results of the calculations of the thermal comfort period length with the use of air temperature observations and major bioclimatic indices, the authors have revealed a significant difference in the effect of changes in average wind speed on the length of the thermal comfort period in different regions of European Russia.

Viticulture represents an important economic activity for Greek agriculture. Winegrapes are cultivated in many areas covering the whole Greek territory, due to the favorable soil and climatic conditions. Given the dependence of viticulture on climate, the vitivinicultural sector is expected to be affected by possible climatic changes. The present study is set out to investigate the impacts of climatic change in Greek viticulture, using nine bioclimatic indices for the period 1981–2100. For this purpose, reanalysis data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) and data from the regional climatic model Regional Climate Model Version 3 (RegCM3) are used. It was found that the examined regional climate model estimates satisfactorily these bioclimatic indices. The results of the study show that the increasing trend of temperature and drought will affect all wine-producing regions in Greece. In vineyards in mountainous regions, the impact is positive, while in islands and coastal regions, it is negative. Overall, it should be highlighted that for the first time that Greece is classified into common climatic characteristic categories, according to the international Geoviticulture Multicriteria Climatic Classification System (MCC system). According to the proposed classification, Greek viticulture regions are estimated to have similar climatic characteristics with the warmer wine-producing regions of the world up to the end of twenty-first century. Wine growers and winemakers should take the findings of the study under consideration in order to take measures for Greek wine sector adaptation and the continuation of high-quality wine production.

This study presents a spatiotemporal analysis of bioclimatic comfort conditions for Iran using mean daily meteorological data from 1995 to 2014, analyzed through Physiological Equivalent Temperature (PET) index and Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) indices, and bioclimatic clustering. The results of this study demonstrate that due to the climate variability across Iran during the year, there is at any point in time a location with climatic condition suitable for tourism. Mean values demonstrate maxima in bioclimatic comfort indices for the country in late winter and spring and minima for summer. Seven statistically significant clusters in bioclimatic indices were identified. Comparing these with clustering performed on PET and UTCI, the maximum overlaps between the two indices. In the following, the outputs of this research showed that most appropriate bioclimatic clustering for Iran includes seven clusters. These clustering locations according to climatic suitability for tourism provide a valuable contribution to tourism management in the country, particularly through marketing destinations to maximize tourist flow.

Bioclimatic indices are very important tools to evaluate the thermal stress of the human body. The aims of this study were to analyze the general bioclimatic conditions in ten big cities in Romania and to find out if there has been any change in five bioclimatic indices over a 56-year period: 1961–2016. The indices considered were: equivalent temperature, effective temperature, cooling power, universal thermal climate index and temperature-humidity index. They were calculated based on the daily meteorological data of air temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed recorded in 10 weather stations in Romania: Bucharest-Băneasa, Botoșani, Cluj-Napoca, Constanța, Craiova, Galați, Iași, Oradea, Sibiu and Timișoara. The features investigated for trend detection consisted of the frequency and length of the occurrence period for each class and for each index. The test used for trend detection was Mann-Kendall and the magnitude of the trend (the slope) was calculated by employing Sen’s slope method. The main results are based on frequency analysis. Three indices showed comfort class as dominant whereas the other two indicated cold stress conditions as dominant in the area. There was a shift from the cold stress conditions to the warm and hot ones for all the indices. The most stressful conditions for hot extremes did not indicate significant change. The climate in the big cities of Romania became milder during the cold season and hotter during the warm period of the year. The analysis of the length of each thermal class indicated mainly longer occurrence periods during the year for comfortable or warm stress classes.