Vineyard Suitability in Napa CountyVishal Arya & Kate Kaplan

Section 102; LD ARCH C188

• Client A, Sam Houston Wilson

• PhD Candidate; University of California, Berkeley

• Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and

Management

• Dissertation on North Coast wine grape vineyards and

the influence of biodiversity on biological pest control.

• Client B, Prospective Viticulturalists

a. Interpolate the existing data on nymph populations in

current Napa wine grape vineyards in order to estimate

pest populations in surrounding areas.

b. Locate surrounding areas which would be most suitable to

implement a new Napa wine grape vineyard.

CLIENTS

GOALS

METHODS & DATA ANALYSIS

(a) Nymph population data collected from S. Houston Wilson, University of

California, Berkeley

(b) River data collected from HydroSHEDS Data, USGS

(c) NAIP data collected from the Farm Service Agency, USDA

(d) All other data collected from the Napa County Government, GIS Catalogue

RESULTS

SPATIAL CONSTRAINTS

SOURCES

MOST SUITABLE VINEYARD LOCATION

0 0.9 1.80.45 Miles

0 0.9 1.80.45 Miles

+ =

Methods I: Suitability Analysis

(a) Solar Radiation

Methods II: TIN and Ortho

(b) TIN

(c) Ortho ImageTIN of Napa

County

SUITABILITY ANALYSIS

Due to the extensive data involved in displaying the entire

Napa county region, we were unable to create a Delaunay

Triangulation (TIN) for the entire county. Instead, we decided to clip

the eastern and western contour data sets into smaller sections and

then create 1 kilometer buffers around the clipped data sets.

Finally, we created a TIN from the smaller contour groups and used

the sum of the parts to determine the most suitable location for a

new vineyard.

Based on our suitability analysis and Delaunay Triangulations, we were

able to determine that best places to implement a new vineyard in Napa

County are all located in the area directly east of Napa Valley.

This general zone had the highest density of sites with a suitability score

of +5, the highest score given in our suitability analysis.

Out of ten sites that we deemed most suitable for a new vineyard, we

have chosen site 8 as the optimal location.

We chose site 8 based on the location’s shallow slope and accessibility to

high solar radiation. We also implemented the ortho image of Napa

County to ensure that the site had not been cultivated or altered in the

years following the data collection in 2009.

After overlapping the suitability analysis and the spline of the nymph

populations, we have discovered that the existing vineyards are not

located within close proximity to the most suitable locations and

subsequently can not predict the nymph populations using the collected

data.

Site 1 Site 3Site 2 Site 4 Site 5

Site 6 Site 8Site 7 Site 10Site 9

Vineyard Name Nymph Population Vineyard Name Nymph Population

1 Atwood 0.1 11 Landslide 1.1

2 Beckstoffer 0.3 12 LMR 0.2

3 Cain 1.2 13 Lytton 0.8

4 CMEA 0.1 14 NVR 0.8

5 Continuum 0 15 SMV 0.2

6 FarNiente 0.2 16 SMV 0.2

7 Fosters-Grace 1 17 Tokalon 0.1

8 HOC 1.9 18 Wappo 1.3

9 JPVBanca 4.8 19 Whitton 0.8

10 JPVRiver 1.1

0 0.9 1.80.45 Miles

Estimated Nymph Populations